The Spanish region of Catalonia is preparing to hold a second referendum on separating from of Spain on October 1st, despite warnings from Madrid. Naturally, the EU is against any such separation. However, the regional tensions are historic and Catalonia is the rich and prosperous region of Spain with Barcelona being perhaps the most beautiful city in Europe. The separatist movement are generally small but rising on a global scale primarily because of governments going broke everywhere.
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Spain was actually formed by the marriage of the Catholic Monarchs of Queen Isabella I of Castile (Spain) and King Ferdinand II of Aragon in general. Both regions were historically two separate nations. That distinction has lived on and it is economics that is driving the separatist movement as we see in Canada with Quebec and in the United States with movements building in Texas and California, albeit small minorities so far. Catalonia was not part of Aragon but to some degree much more isolated from Madrid as you can see on this map.
This post was published at Armstrong Economics on Jul 11, 2017.
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