Fronteres, guerra i posicionament polític a la Catalunya dels segles XVI i XVII

Abstract

Borders, war and political positioning in 16th- and 17th-century Catalonia

The location of Catalonia’s Pyrenean border, and of its maritime border, is a crucial element in its modern history. Discussion of the Roussillon and Cer danya counties, occupied by France during the Catalan Civil War with the approval of John II, appears from the beginnings of Ferdinand the Catholic’s reign. His reincorporation coincided with factors that helped make the bor der area more a field of action of the Crown, and less so of the authorities of the Principality. Nevertheless, during his and the following reign, and despite a level of dissent, the border was an issue around which a  common objective between King and country prevailed. In later reigns, the Pyrenean border acquired other dimensions (of religion, smuggling, and open war between the Hispanic Monarchy and France), which, together with Spain’s financial difficulty in maintaining there a significant military presence, primarily in fantry, gave rise to a particular way of life in the localities of the area and pe culiar notions of identity and loyalty. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Pyrenean border was the scene of numerous political, religious and cultural episodes that undoubtedly influenced Catalan identity at the time and in subsequent eras.