Generalitat de Catalunya

During the succession war, a conflict of European scope where the succession to the Spanish crown was disputed, most of Catalonia supported the Austrian claimant as a way to keep its constitutions in what was internationally known as "the Catalans' case". On 11th September 1714, nevertheless, Barcelona surrendered to the troops of the French claimant. The Treaty of Utrecht, which put an end to the war, meant the enthronement in Spain of the Bourbon French dynasty with Phillip V as king. This monarch, grandson of Louis XIV, established an absolutist system of government which meant for the territories of the old Aragon Crown such as Catalonia, the end of their own institutions and constitutional system by means of the so-called Decret de Nova Planta (The Decree of the New Regime) in 1716. Catalunya stopped having its own state and definitively became part of the Spanish Monarchy.

The Nova Planta also meant the substitution of Spanish for the Catalan language in all public areas: the administration, schools, etc. This brought about a decline in the Catalan language - kept alive nevertheless in the family circle - and culture. This situation persisted until the so-called Renaixença (Renaissance) of the 19th century. In the economic field, and once the effects of war and military occupation had been overcome, Catalonia underwent a gradual process of agricultural, commercial and manufacturing development that laid the foundations for the industrialization of the country in the next century.