CATALUNYA, ONE NATION, TWO STATES: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF NONVIOLENT RESISTANCE TO ASSIMILATION

Few historians and fewer lay people know that the first feudal constitution to recognize equality between the burghers and nobles was established in 1150 in Catalunya, sixty-five years before the signing of the Magna Carta in England. In the fifteenth century the Corts of Barcelona (a legislative body) established the principle of a 'limited' monarchy obliged to govern according to laws, while guarding a degree of royal power. These facts lie at the foundation of a culture of nonviolent resistance to assimilation that has been used to combat state power in France and Spain ever since.