A Separate Catalonia? Spain is fascinating because it is not a country, but at least five countries

American Thinker ^ | 01/03/2016 | Mike Konrad

[outofsalt]

I don’t really follow this but I think the Catalonians oppose the economic hardship brought on by Madrid’s shift to socialism. They feel they can do better by moving left of Madrid.

[ek_hornbeck]

pain is fascinating because it is not a country, but at least five countries, possibly more: the Basque country, Catalonia, Galicia, Andalusia, and the interior where the hated Madrid bureaucrats live. The closest equivalent might be the United Kingdom. If so, the Basque history of armed insurrection finds its closet equivalent with the Irish. The Catalans find their equivalent with the Scots, with a mix of present legal wrangling and a past of armed resistance. Wales might be similar to Andalusia, in that Andalusia, similar to Wales, is not really able to go it alone.

Galicia is quite surprising. It speaks a dialect closest to Portuguese, and claims a genetic heritage with the ancient Celts, before they left for Ireland about 2,000 years ago. There is no equivalent analog to the UK.

To continue with his British analogy, the closest comparison to Galicia would probably be Cornwall (also Celtic), if only Cornish weren't an effectively dead language and if the Cornish still had a stronger sense of national identity.

Spain and the UK are hardly unique in being nations of nations - Italy includes Sicily, which has its own dialect and sense of nationhood, Belgium is an artificial composite of French Walloons and Flemish Dutch, etc.

[Winniesboy]

if only Cornish weren't an effectively dead language and if the Cornish still had a stronger sense of national identity.

I wouldn't say that out loud in a pub frequented by Mebyon Kernow!

[hanamizu]

Belgium is like one of Randy Newman’s Short People - it’s got no reason to live.

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Well Belgian beer is something to live for! I think historically Belgium is much more like Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia—different people jammed into one country for political reasons by outside powers.

[Mike Darancette]

The Basques having a territory that transects the Spanish French border, separate culture, unique language and ancient presence have the best case for independence.

[RedWulf]

Spain is really just the Castilen empire. If you check the history books almost all of their great men and achivers came from Castile. You see this a lot with empires, one people becomes overwhelming dominate and ends up takes on a regional name to promote unity with it’s subjects. Nations that don’t work this way tend up basket cases like Italy where there is no single dominate group.

[FreedomPoster]

The monks, and others, would still be doing their thing if they were doing it as part of France or Holland, instead of Belgium.

Make mine a Delirium Nocturnum, please.

[hanamizu]

i have a beer book that calls Belgium the “Disneyland of beer”. Haven’t tried the Delirium yet. I do like the Trippels and the red sour ales.