The origins of political catalanism from the start of the Restauration to the crisis of the Centre Català

Abstract

This article will explore the beginnings of political Catalanism through the appearance, evolution and crisis of federal Catalanism. The movement’s main aim was to recover self-government and motivate the modernisation of Catalonia. The article covers the period from the first years of Restoration period, with the publication of Diari Català (the first modern political-literary newspaper written in Catalan), to the crisis of the first Catalanist political association, Centre Català. It was led by Valentí Almirall, who encouraged the first Catalanist public act, the Memorial de Greuges. But the idea of transforming Catalanism into a true political alternative failed when the Centre Català split in 1887. The federal Catalanist idea was too conservative for most Catalan republicans yet too radical for the regionalists and for the Catalanist conservatives. In short, the politicization of Catalanism after the 1898 crisis cannot be understood without understanding federal Catalanist activity and the split of Catalanists from the Centre Català.