History of Barcelona
[3][4] Later, in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, the area was settled by the Laietani, an Ιberian people,[5] at Barkeno on the Tàber hill (in the present-day Ciutat Vella, or "Old City") and at Laie (or Laiesken),[6] believed to have been located on Montjuïc.
The alleged military occupation is often cited as the foundation of the modern city of Barcelona, although the northern limit of the Punic territories up to that time had been the river Ebro, located over 150 km to the south.
The Roman Republic contested the Carthaginian control of the area, and eventually set out to conquer the whole of the Iberian Peninsula in the Cantabrian Wars, a conquest which was declared complete by Caesar Augustus in 19 BC.
The Roman geographer Pomponius Mela refers to Barcino as one of a number of small settlements near Tarraco, a town wealthy in maritime resources.
[27][28] At the time of Caesar Augustus, Barcino had the form of a castrum, with the usual central forum and perpendicular main streets: the Cardus Maximus (today Carrer de la Llibreteria) and the Decumanus Maximus (today Carrer del Bisbe) intersecting at the top (25 m) of the Tàber hill (Mons Taber), site of the Iberian Barkeno.
[35] The archeological remains from the period (sculptures, mosaics, and amphorae) indicate a relatively prosperous population, although the city lacked the major public buildings (theatre, amphitheatre, circus) found in more important Roman centres such as Tarraco.
The first Christian communities in the Tarraconense were founded during the 3rd century, and the diocese of Tarraco was already established by 259, when the bishop Saint Fructuosus (Fructuós) and the deacons Augurius and Eulogius were burned alive on the orders of the governor Aemilianus, under an edict issued by the emperor Valerian.
The persecution of the Christians under Diocletian at the start of the 4th century would lead to at least one martyr dying in the region of Barcino: Saint Cucuphas (Catalan: Sant Cugat).
Alaric's stepbrother and successor Ataulf led the Visigoths into southern Gaul, and after a defeat at the hands of the Roman forces at Narbona (modern Narbonne) in 414, moved across the Pyrenees into the Tarraconensis.
His reign was spent mostly in warfare; those he fought against included the general Flavius Paulus who, together with Randsind, duke of Tarragona, Hilderic, count of Nîmes, and Argebald, bishop of Narbonne, had incited all of Septimania and part of Tarraconensis to rebellion.
[65] The rebellion of Paulus was promptly quelled and punished, and Wamba regained possession of Barcelona, Gerona, and Narbonne, which were among the chief centres of disaffection.
Besides persecuting the partisans of Wamba, Erwig made new laws against the Jews, subjecting the converts to minute regulations assuring their religious faith.
Moorish forces arrived in the Iberian peninsula in 711, ostensibly to assist Achila II in the civil war which opposed him against Roderic.
[67][68] The Arabs saw in the civil war an opportunity to invade the Iberian peninsula,[69] and won the victory at the Battle of Guadalete, owing to the treachery of a part of the Visigothic army,[70] which had been persuaded to change sides by the partisans of Achila.
[71] The throne of Achila was usurped in 713 in favour of Ardo,[72] and from 716 to 718, the new governor of Al-Andalus, Al-Hurr ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Thaqafi,[73] suppressed Christian resistance in virtually all of Visigothic Hispania, and quickly expanded the territory under Moorish control as far as the Pyrenees.
[83] It was to be the most southerly gain of territory from the Moors as he was pushed back from Tortosa,[84] and the rivers Llobregat and Cardener marked the boundaries of the Carolingian possessions.
[85] The border regions were organised into the Spanish Marches (Marca Hispanica), administered by a number of counts appointed by the King, until Charles the Bald formally converted the territory into the hereditary County of Barcelona in 865.
[93] Wilfred II Borrell was the last of the Counts of Barcelona to pledge fidelity to the Carolingian court, although the renunciation of any claim of feudal overlordship by the French king was not confirmed until 1258 with the Treaty of Corbeil.
[94][95] The preeminence of the Counts of Barcelona among the nobility of the former Spanish Marches[90] was in part due to their ability to expand their territory by conquests from the Moorish walís.
The city of Barcelona, easily defensible and with excellent fortifications, prospered with the increasing power of its overlords,[97] while the other Marcher counties had more limited prospects.
The Catalan institutions sided with the Habsburgs against the Bourbon Philip V, which led to the abolition of the separate status of the Principality of Catalonia[108][109] with the last of the Nueva Planta decrees in 1716,[110] and to the diminution of the political influence of the city of Barcelona in Spain.
[111] However, from the end of the 18th century, the position of Barcelona as a Mediterranean port and the proximity of lignite deposits in the Berguedà became important factors in the Industrial Revolution.
When Prime Minister Antonio Maura mobilised reservists to fight in the Spanish colony of Morocco, the working classes, backed by the anarchists, socialists and republicans, rioted in the streets of Barcelona, resulting in the deaths of over 100 citizens.
[124] A second major international exhibition was organised in 1929,[125] leading to the urbanisation of the area around Plaça Espanya and providing the impetus for the construction of the metro, inaugurated in 1924.
[127] Some of the athletes who had arrived for the Games reputedly stayed to form the first of the Republican International Brigades,[127][128][129] made famous by the writers Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell (Homage to Catalonia), and others.
The autonomous institutions of Catalonia were abolished[142] and the use of the Catalan language in public life was suppressed and effectively forbidden, although its use was not formally criminalised as often claimed.
[143] Barcelona remained the second largest city in Spain, at the heart of a region which was relatively industrialised and prosperous, despite the devastation of the civil war.
[144] The result was a large-scale immigration from poorer regions of Spain (particularly Andalucia, Murcia and Galicia),[145] which in turn led to rapid urbanisation.
The increase in population led to the development of the metro network, the tarmacking of the city streets, the installation of traffic lights and the construction of the first rondas, or ringroads.
[152][153] The process of urban regeneration has been rapid, often supported through public and private funds, and accompanied by a greatly increased international reputation of the city as a tourist destination.
