ABSTRACT

Spain is a famously diverse land, partly because of topography and climate. Yet diversity is also the result of the country’s belated and partial economic development which, in the late nineteenth century, led to political regionalism, in the form of demands for self-rule in the Basque Country and Catalonia. These soon became an important issue in Spanish politics, and Franco’s brutal attempt to resolve it only increased its salience. This chapter begins by examining the very different response of the democratic regime installed after his death, and how the process of devolution that was put in place developed over time. It then looks at how this process interacted with feelings of regional identity in the various autonomous regions that emerged.