BY BECKY LITTLE
For hundreds of years, Catalonians have thought of themselves as distinct from the rest of Spain. And while Catalonia’s contested 2017 vote for independence is radically new, it also isn’t the first time this northeast region of Spain—home to 7.5 million people, many of whom speak Catalan—has sought to limit the state’s authority over its wealthy corner of the Iberian Peninsula.
Catalonia has so far received support from Scotland, a region that unsuccessfully tried to leave the United Kingdom in 2014, and may attempt to leave again in the wake of the Brexit vote to withdraw from the European Union.
http://www.history.com/news/the-catalonian-fight-for-independence-has-medieval-roots
