History of Barcelona

Foundation and medieval growth

According to tradition, Barcelona was founded by either the Phoenicians or the Carthaginians, who had trading posts along the Catalonian coast. It is no longer thought, however, that the city owes its name to the family of the Carthaginian leader Hamilcar Barca. In Roman times the Colonia Faventia Julia Augusta Pia Barcino did not become a centre of any real importance until the 3rd century ce. During the three centuries of Visigothic occupation, the city was known as Barcinona. It became an important religious centre before the arrival of the Moors in 717 ce.

Barjelūnah, as the Moors called the city, was seen as a prime objective by the Carolingian Franks, who gained control of it in 801 and, under an appointed count, established the Ebro River on the edge of Catalonia as the southerly limit of their power. In 985 the city was sacked by the forces of al-Manṣūr, chief minister of the Umayyad caliphate of Córdoba. The counts of Barcelona consolidated their influence over Catalonia in the 10th and 11th centuries, and, after the union of Catalonia and Aragon in 1137, Barcelona grew into a major trading city.

Barcelona was weakened by outbreaks of plague in the 14th century and began to decline when Naples became the capital of the Catalan-Aragonese kingdom in 1442. The advent of the Habsburg monarchy, the rise of Turkish power in the Mediterranean, and the discovery of America all furthered this decline. Relations with the court in Madrid worsened in the 17th century. After 1705, when the Catalans permitted the archduke Charles III of Austria to establish his court in Barcelona, honouring his claim to the Spanish throne during the War of the Spanish Succession, Philip V of Spain besieged Barcelona. After the city fell in 1714, Philip dismantled all forms of local self-government. Ironically, this led to a period of prosperity spurred largely by the development of the cotton industry.

The modern city

Barcelona found itself occupied again, this time by Napoleon’s troops, from 1808 to 1813. The war with the French left the province ravaged, but the postwar period saw the start of industrialization. The growth of the textile industry was to have a twofold effect: It led to the development of a modern industrial sector and to the emergence of Catalonia as Spain’s wealthiest region. It also led to rapid population growth and the development of class conflict between the bourgeoisie and industrial workers. Anarchist movements flourished, and the period up to the Spanish Civil War was punctuated by unrest. Notable incidents include the uprising of 1835 in which a number of convents were burned; the riots in the mid-1850s over the introduction of automated machinery; and the Setmana Tràgica (Catalan: “Tragic Week”) in 1909, which led to more church burning.

On a positive note, the exhibition of 1888 attracted 400,000 visitors, and by 1900 nearly half of Spain’s imports came via Catalonia. The area’s economic strength led to the reemergence of calls for self-rule, culminating in a period of semiautonomy from 1913 to 1923. In 1931 a Catalan republic was declared in Barcelona. The following year the region attained a significant level of self-government, and it was the main centre of Republican strength when the Civil War broke out in 1936. Its fall in January 1939 led to the final surrender of the Republic.

Defeat brought the loss of many regional rights and privileges, and even the Catalan language was prohibited for a time. Only in 1977 was the Generalitat, an autonomous Catalan government, restored. Agreements with the Spanish national government, signed in 1979, outlined new areas for self-government and encouraged a wide range of developments in Barcelona.

Barcelona hosted the Olympic Games in 1992, which helped revitalize the city; the once run-down waterfront was renovated to include a promenade, marina, restaurants, beaches, and cultural attractions. A convention centre and auditorium were built in the east of the city to host Forum 2004, an international conference promoting economic development and cultural diversity.