Moros y cristianos
Moros y Cristianos or Moros i Cristians in English Moors and Christians, is a set of festival activities which are celebrated in many towns and cities of Spain in the southern Valencian Community. According to popular tradition the festivals commemorate the battles and fights between Moors and Christians during the period known as Reconquista. There are festivals of Moros y Cristianos in Spanish America; the festivals represent the capture of the city by the Moors and the subsequent Christian reconquest. The people who take part in the festival are enlisted in local associations called filaes or comparses; the festivals last for several days, feature festive parades with bombastic costumes loosely inspired by Medieval fashion. Christians wear fur, metallic helmets, armor, fire loud arquebuses, ride horses. In contrast, Moors wear ancient Arab costumes, carry scimitars, ride real camels or elephants; the festival develops among shots of gunpowder, medieval music, fireworks, ends with the Christians winning a simulated battle around a castle.
Due to Spanish colonization, the performing art has been adapted in the Philippines since the 17th century and is a popular street play throughout the country. Unlike the Spanish version, the Philippine version is dominated by indigenous Philippine cultures which are used in language, costumes and dances of the play; the main story of the art, has been faithfully retained. The most well-known Moors and Christians festival are the Moors and Christians of Alcoy that takes place in Alcoi from 22 to 24 April, around the Feast Day of Saint George, the patron saint of the Crown of Aragon. According to legend, after James I of Aragon reconquered the city of Alcoi, the Moors, in turn, tried to recover it; as fighting was about to resume, Saint George miraculously appeared, the frightened Moors scattered in defeat. Other traditions ascribe a miraculous saintly appearance to Saint James, the patron saint of Spain at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, sometimes guiding the Christians to surprise the Moors.
The feast day of St. James is 25 July, so some of the Moors' and Christians' festivals occur at the end of July. La Vila Joiosa / Villajoyosa celebrates it in the last week of July, with a reenactment of the Berber pirate attack of 1538, according to tradition repelled when St. Martha sent a flash flood. In northern and western Spain, parades associated with Corpus Christi celebrations may feature gigantic costumed Moors and Christians commemorating the Reconquest. Other noteworthy Moors and Christians festivals are celebrated in the towns of Bocairent, Banyeres de Mariola, Villena with 12,000 participants, Cocentaina, Crevillent, El Campello, Elda, Muro d'Alcoi, Ontinyent, Petrel, Novelda, Monforte del Cid, some districts of the city of Alicante. Andalusia has interesting Moors and Christians performances in the former Moorish kingdom of Granada. Performances are organized in rural towns and villages, such as Válor, Granada, a small town in the Eastern Alpujarras. Spaniards took this tradition overseas.
In the Philippines, fiestas include a moro-moro play. The show begins with a parade of stars in colorful costumes: Christians wear blue costumes, while Moors wear ornamented red costumes. Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia have festivals featuring Moors and Christians reenactments. In the Philippines, the perforing art is called Moro y Cristianos Street Drama by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the cultural agency of the government. On July 5, 1637, Jesuit priest F. Hironimo Perez finished the first Moro y Cristianos play in the Philippines; the first drama was played in a church, was presented to the governor-general for a victory play against Muslims in the south. Afterwards, the play became known in the common tongue as moro-moro, the common name of the street drama today; the street drama itself, did not draw from actual Christian-Muslim conflict in the Philippines. The main precursor of its popularity in the Philippines was the indigenous awit and corrido traditions in Philippine native cultures.
When performing, the representations for the Christians are in blue, while the representations for Muslims are in red or maroon. The street drama includes pasa dobles tune marches, rigodon in battles, courtships between a Moro prince and a Christian princess and vice versa, a conclusion which depicts the Muslim converting into Christianity, the Muslim dying, or the appearance of the Virgin Mary or a saint as the intervention figure of the conflict; the komedya begins with a loa, followed by a parada. The main part of the story begins with a Muslim embahador delivering a challenge to an equally-boastful Christian; the street drama became popular in the rural areas due to the inputting of folk traditions in the play and the need of the people for leisure after a hard day at labor. Overall, the Philippine moros y cristianos may last from one to several days, depending on the Philippine-written script being used. In 2011, the performing
Treaty of the Pyrenees
The Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed on 7 November 1659 to end the 1635–1659 war between France and Spain, a war, a part of the wider Thirty Years' War. It was signed on Pheasant Island, a river island on the border between the two countries which has remained a French-Spanish condominium since the treaty; the kings Louis XIV of France and Philip IV of Spain were represented by their chief ministers, Cardinal Mazarin and Don Luis Méndez de Haro, respectively. France entered the Thirty Years' War after the Spanish Habsburg victories in the Dutch Revolt in the 1620s and at the Battle of Nördlingen against Sweden in 1634. By 1640, France began to interfere in Spanish politics, aiding the revolt in Catalonia, while Spain responded by aiding the Fronde revolt in France in 1648. During the negotiations for the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, France gained the Sundgau and cut off Spanish access to the Netherlands from Austria, leading to open warfare between the French and Spanish. After 23 years of war, an Anglo-French alliance was victorious at the Battle of the Dunes in June 14, 1658, but the following year the war ground to a halt when the French campaign to take Milan was defeated.
Peace was settled by means of the Treaty of the Pyrenees in November 1659. France gained Roussillon and the northern half of Cerdanya, Montmédy and other parts of Luxembourg and other towns in Flanders, including Arras, Béthune and Thionville, a new border with Spain was fixed at the Pyrenees. However, the treaty stipulated only that all "villages" north of the Pyrenees should become part of France; because it was a villa, the historic town of Llívia, once the capital of Cerdanya, was thus unintentionally exempted from the treaty and became a Spanish exclave as part of the comarca of Baixa Cerdanya, in the Spanish province of Girona. This border was not properly settled until the Treaty of Bayonne was signed in 1856, with its final acts accepted 12 years later. On the western Pyrenees a definite borderline was drawn and decisions made as to the politico-administrative affiliation of bordering areas in the Basque region—Baztan, Valcarlos. Spain was forced to confirm all of the French gains at the Peace of Westphalia.
In exchange for the Spanish territorial losses, the French king pledged to quit his support for Portugal and renounced to his claim to the county of Barcelona, which the French crown had claimed since the Catalan Revolt. The Portuguese revolt in 1640, led by the Duke of Braganza, was supported monetarily by Cardinal Richelieu of France. After the Catalan Revolt, France had controlled the Principality of Catalonia from January 1641, when a combined Catalan and French force defeated the Spanish army at Battle of Montjuïc, until it was defeated by a Spanish army at Barcelona in 1652. Though the Spanish army reconquered most of Catalonia, the French retained Catalan territory north of the Pyrenees; the treaty arranged for a marriage between Louis XIV of France and Maria Theresa of Spain, the daughter of Philip IV of Spain. Maria Theresa was forced to renounce her claim to the Spanish throne, in return for a monetary settlement as part of her dowry; this settlement was never paid, a factor that led to the War of Devolution in 1668.
At the Meeting on the Isle of Pheasants in June 1660, the two monarchs and their ministers met, the princess entered France. In addition, the English received Dunkirk, although they elected to sell it to France in 1662; the Treaty of the Pyrenees was the last major diplomatic achievement by Cardinal Mazarin. Combined with the Peace of Westphalia, it allowed Louis XIV remarkable stability and diplomatic advantage by means of a weakened Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé and a weakened Spanish Crown, along with the agreed dowry, an important element in the French king's strategy: All in all, by 1660, when the Swedish occupation of Poland was over, most of the European continent was at peace, the Bourbons had ended the dominance of the Habsburgs. In the Pyrenees, the treaty resulted in the establishment of border customs and restriction of the free cross-border flow of people and goods. In the context of the territorial changes involved in the Treaty, France gained some territory, on both its northern and southern borders.
In the north, France gained French Flanders. In the south:On the east: The northern part of the Principality of Catalonia, including Roussillon, Vallespir and French Cerdagne, was transferred to France, i.e. what came to be known as "Northern Catalonia". On the west: The parties agree to put together a field group to compromise a borderline on disputed lands along the Basque Pyrenees, involving Sareta—Zugarramurdi, etc.— Aldude, the Spanish wedge of Valcarlos. Language policy in France Parliament of Quillín "Full Text of Treaty". Archived from the original on 2005-09-18. France National Archives Transcription
Catalan cuisine
Catalan cuisine is the cuisine from Catalonia. It may refer to the shared cuisine of Roussillon and Andorra, the second of which has a similar cuisine to that of the neighbouring Alt Urgell and Cerdanya comarques and, referred to as "Catalan mountain cuisine", it is considered a part of western Mediterranean cuisine. It relies on ingredients popular along the Mediterranean coast, including fresh vegetables, wheat products, Arbequina olive oils, legumes, all sorts of pork preparations, all sorts of cheese, poultry and many types of fish like sardine, anchovy and cod; the traditional Catalan cuisine is quite diverse, ranging from pork-intensive dishes cooked in the inland part of the region to fish-based recipes along the coast. The cuisine includes many preparations that mix sweet and savoury and stews with sauces based upon botifarra and the characteristic picada. Catalan-style cod Escalivada Escudella Ollada Esqueixada Mongetes amb botifarra Pa amb tomàquet Tonyina en escabetx Suquet de peix Savoury Coca Mar i Muntanya dishes, which combine meat and seafood Embotits, a generic name for different kinds of cured pork meat, including Fuet and Salchichón or Llonganissa.
Calçot Cargols a la llauna Sonsos Allioli, a thick sauce made of garlic and olive oil, used with grilled meats or vegetables, some dishes. Allioli means oil in Catalan. Samfaina called tomacat or pebrots amb tomàquet. It's a variety of Spanish Pisto. Salvitxada from Valls. Xató, a variety of Salvitxada without tomatoes. Crema catalana, the famous yellow cream made with egg yolk and sugar, whose denseness is between a crème pâtissière or natillas and a flan. Mató de Pedralbes or mató de monja is another kind of Catalan cream, similar to crema catalana, originating in Barcelona. Menjablanc or menjar blanc, typical of Reus but eaten all over Catalonia, is a kind of white cream made with almonds, from which a sort of milk is first obtained, followed by a cream to be eaten with a small spoon. Peres de Lleida is a typical dessert originated in Lleida composed of peeled pears cooked in a kind of lighter crema catalana and served cold, covered by meringue and decorated with cherries. Xuixos are fried pastries stuffed with crema catalana.
Mel i mató, a dessert of mató cheese with honey Pastissets, or casquetes, de cabell d'àngel are sweet half-circle shaped pastries stuffed with cabell d'àngel and covered with white crystal sugar which are eaten at coffee time. Carquinyolis are little crunchy almond biscuits eaten at coffee time. Catànies are Catalan marcona almonds covered with white chocolate and powdered black chocolate to be eaten with the coffee. Pets de monja are small nipple-shaped and -sized biscuits eaten at coffee time. At first they were called pits de monja but time has changed their name to the current pets de monja. Sweet coques were at first eaten only on holidays. Catalans have at least one type of traditional coca for each feast day of the year. Orelletes are thin fried pastries eaten during Carnival, they exist in nearby regions in Spain or France. Sweet bunyols as bunyols de vent, bunyols stuffed with crema catalana or bunyols de l'Empordà are done and eaten on Wednesdays and Fridays during Lent. Mona de Pasqua is a pastry richly covered with almonds, yolk jam, chocolate eggs and coloured decoration that the godfather and godmother give as a present every year to their godchildren on Easter.
It is an ancient pre-Christian tradition. At first, it has one egg for each year of the children's age, continuing to add one egg each year until twelve, as at thirteen they are no longer considered children. Panellets are small pastries made of pine nuts and sugar with different shapes and flavors, eaten during la Castanyada, which Catalans celebrate on 1 November instead of Halloween, their origin is Jewish, before the Middle Ages. Tortell called torta or roscó in Northern and Southern dialects, it is round, it can be made of puff pastry or a mixture similar to lionesas and palos, stuffed with trufa or with crema catal
Andorra
Andorra the Principality of Andorra called the Principality of the Valleys of Andorra, is a sovereign landlocked microstate on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees, bordering France to the north and Spain to the south. Believed to have been created by Charlemagne, Andorra was ruled by the Count of Urgell until 988, when it was transferred to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Urgell, the present principality was formed by a charter in 1278, it is known as a principality as it is a diarchy headed by two Princes: the Catholic Bishop of Urgell in Catalonia and the President of France. Andorra is the sixth-smallest nation in Europe, having an area of 468 square kilometres and a population of 77,281; the Andorran people are a Romance ethnic group of Catalan descent. Andorra is the 16th-smallest country in the 11th-smallest by population, its capital, Andorra la Vella, is the highest capital city in Europe, at an elevation of 1,023 metres above sea level. The official language is Catalan. Tourism in Andorra sees an estimated 10.2 million visitors annually.
It is not a member of the European Union. It has been a member of the United Nations since 1993. In 2013, Andorra had the highest life expectancy in the world at 81 years, according to the Global Burden of Disease Study; the origin of the word Andorra is unknown. The oldest derivation of the word Andorra is from the Greek historian Polybius who describes the Andosins, an Iberian Pre-Roman tribe, as located in the valleys of Andorra and facing the Carthaginian army in its passage through the Pyrenees during the Punic Wars; the word Andosini or Andosins may derive from the Basque handia whose meaning is "big" or "giant". The Andorran toponymy shows evidence of Basque language in the area. Another theory suggests that the word Andorra may derive from the old word Anorra that contains the Basque word ur. Another theory suggests that Andorra may derive from Arabic al-durra, meaning "The forest"; when the Moors colonized the Iberian Peninsula, the valleys of the Pyrenees were covered by large tracts of forest, other regions and towns administered by Muslims, received this designation.
Other theories suggest that the term derives from the Navarro-Aragonese andurrial, which means "land covered with bushes" or "scrubland". The folk etymology holds that Charlemagne had named the region as a reference to the Biblical Canaanite valley of Endor or Andor, a name bestowed by his heir and son Louis le Debonnaire after defeating the Moors in the "wild valleys of Hell". La Balma de la Margineda, found by archaeologists at Sant Julia de Loria, was first settled in 9,500 BC as a passing place between the two sides of the Pyrenees; the seasonal camp was located for hunting and fishing by the groups of hunter-gatherers from Ariege and Segre. During the Neolithic Age, a group of people moved to the Valley of Madriu as a permanent camp in 6640 BC; the population of the valley grew cereals, raised domestic livestock, developed a commercial trade with people from the Segre and Occitania. Other archaeological deposits include the Tombs of Segudet and Feixa del Moro both dated in 4900–4300 BC as an example of the Urn culture in Andorra.
The model of small settlements began to evolve to a complex urbanism during the Bronze Age. Metallurgical items of iron, ancient coins, relicaries can be found in the ancient sanctuaries scattered around the country; the sanctuary of Roc de les Bruixes is the most important archeological complex of this age in Andorra, located in the parish of Canillo, about the rituals of funerals, ancient scripture and engraved stone murals. The inhabitants of the valleys were traditionally associated with the Iberians and located in Andorra as the Iberian tribe Andosins or Andosini during the 7th and 2nd centuries BC. Influenced by Aquitanias and Iberian languages, the locals developed some current toponyms. Early writings and documents relating to this group of people goes back to the second century BC by the Greek writer Polybius in his Histories during the Punic Wars; some of the most significant remains of this era are the Castle of the Roc d'Enclar, l'Anxiu in Les Escaldes and Roc de L'Oral in Encamp.
The presence of Roman influence is recorded from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD. The places found with more Roman presence are in Camp Vermell in Sant Julia de Loria, in some places in Encamp, as well as in the Roc d'Enclar. People continued trading with wine and cereals, with the Roman cities of Urgellet and all across Segre through the Via Romana Strata Ceretana. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Andorra came under the influence of the Visigoths, not remotely from the Kingdom of Toledo, but locally from the Diocese of Urgell; the Visigoths remained in the valleys for 200 years. When the Muslim Empire and its conquest of most of the Iberian Peninsula replaced the ruling Visigoths, Andorra was sheltered from these invaders by the Franks. Tradition holds that Charles the Great granted a charter to the Andorran people for a contingent of five thousand soldiers under the command of Marc Almugaver, in
History of Catalan
Catalan originated from Vulgar Latin in the Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain. It diverged from the other Romance languages in the 9th century. At that time, Catalan spread throughout the Iberian peninsula when the Catalan counts conquered Muslim territory. By the 11th century, the Catalan language was present in several feudal documents. Catalan was present throughout the Mediterranean by the 15th century; this was during a time. In 1659, the Treaty of Pyrenees was signed, beginning a suppression of the Catalan language. Louis XIV issued a decree; the repression continued during the French Revolution when the First French Republic prohibited the usage of Catalan in linguistic education. The repression continued until when the French government in 2007 promoted the usage of Catalan publicly and in education. In Spain, the usage of Catalan was prohibited. Under Francisco Franco, Catalan was prohibited in education, it was prohibited in mass media but allowed during the early 1950s. The publishing of written works in Catalan continued.
When Franco died and a constitutional monarchy was instituted, the usage of Catalan was promoted. By the 9th century, the Catalan language had developed from Vulgar Latin on both sides of the eastern end of the Pyrenees mountains, as well as in the territories of the Roman province and archdiocese of Tarraconensis to the south. From the 8th century on, the Catalan counts extended their territory southwards and westwards, conquering territories occupied by Muslims, bringing their language with them; this phenomenon gained momentum with the separation of the County of Barcelona from the Carolingian Empire in 988 AD. By the 9th century, the Christian rulers occupied the northern parts of present-day Catalonia termed "Old Catalonia", during the 11th and 12th centuries they expanded their domains to the region north of the Ebro river, a land known as "New Catalonia". During the 13th century, the Catalans expanded to the Land of Valencia and across to the Balearic Islands and Alghero in Sardinia.
According to historian Jaume Villanueva, the first attested Catalan sentence is thought to be found in an 8th-century manuscript from Ripoll that has since been lost. It was a whimsical note in 10th- or early 11th-century calligraphy: Magister ms no vol que em miras novel. Starting in the 9th century, several feudal documents written in macaronic Latin began to exhibit elements of Catalan, with proper names or sentences in Romance. For example, in the act of consecration of the cathedral of Urgell from 839 the toponymy exhibits clear Catalan traits, like apocope in Argilers < ARGILARIUS, Llinars < LINARES, Kabrils < CAPRILES, reduction of Latin clusters as in Palomera < PALUMBARIA. Another text, from the early 11th century, exhibits the names of seven fruit trees: Of special historical and linguistic importance is the Memorial of Complaints of Ponç I, featuring whole sentences in Romance. By the middle of the 11th century, documents written or in Catalan begin to appear, like the Oath of Radulf Oriol Complaints of Guitard Isarn, Lord of Caboet, or The Oath of Peace and Truce of Count Pere Ramon.
The hagiographic poem Cançó de Santa Fe from ca. 1054 is not considered one of the oldest Catalan texts because it is hard to tell if it is written in Catalan or Occitan, since its place of composition is unknown and it is difficult to assign it to one language or the other, the fact that both languages were so similar to each other at the time. Catalan shares many features with Gallo-Romance languages, which are located in France and Northern Italy. Old Catalan diverged from Old Occitan between the 11th and 14th centuries, although it wasn't until the nineteenth century that Catalan was formally considered a separate language, when in 1863 the German philologist Friedrich Christian Diez first put Catalan on the same level as the rest of the romance languages, though still admitting a close relationship with Occitan. Catalan lived a golden age during the Late Middle Ages, reaching a peak of maturity and cultural plenitude. Examples of this can be seen in the works of Majorcan polymath Ramon Llull, the Four Great Chronicles, the Valencian school of poetry which culminated in Ausiàs March.
By the 15th century, the city of Valencia had become the center of social and cultural dynamism, Catalan was present all over the Mediterranean world. The belief that political splendor was correlated with linguistic consolidation was voiced through the Royal Chancery, which promoted a standardized language; the outstanding novel of chivalry Tirant lo Blanc, by Joanot Martorell, shows the transition from medieval to Renaissance values, something that can be seen in the works of Bernat Metge and Andreu Febrer. During this period, Catalan was what Costa Carreras terms "one of the'great languages' of medieval Europe"; the flowering of the Renaissance was associated with the advent of the printing press, the first book produced with movable type in the Iberian Peninsula was printed in Valencia in 1474: Trobes en llaors de la Verge maria. After the Treaty of the Pyrenees, a royal decree by Louis XIV of France on April 2, 1700 prohibited the use of the Catalan language in present-day Northern Catalonia.
The decree forbade use under the threat of being invalidated. Sho
Falles
The Falles is a traditional celebration held in commemoration of Saint Joseph in the city of Valencia, Spain. The term Falles refers to the monuments burnt during the celebration. A number of towns in the Valencian Community have similar celebrations inspired by the original Falles de València celebration; the Falles festival was added to UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage of humanity list on 30 November 2016. Each neighbourhood of the city has an organised group of people, the Casal faller, that works all year long holding fundraising parties and dinners featuring the noted dish, paella, a specialty of the region; each casal faller produces a construction known as a falla, burnt. A casal faller is known as a comissió fallera and there are 400 registered in Valencia; the name of the festival is the plural of the Valencian word falla. The word's derivation is as follows: Latin fax, "torch" → Latin facula → Vulgar Latin *faclam → Valencian falla. Much time would be spent by the casal faller preparing the ninots.
During the four days leading up to 19 March, each group takes its ninot out for a grand parade, mounts it, each on its own elaborate firecracker-filled cardboard and paper-mâché artistic monument in a street of the given neighbourhood. This whole assembly is a falla; the ninots and their falles are constructed according to an agreed-upon theme that has traditionally been a satirical jab at whatever draws the attention of the fallers. In modern times, the two-week-long festival has spawned a substantial local industry, to the point that an entire suburban area has been designated the Ciutat fallera. Here, crews of artists and artisans, sculptors and other craftsmen, all spend months producing elaborate constructions of paper and wax and polystyrene foam tableaux towering up to five stories, composed of fanciful figures caricatures, in provocative poses arranged in a gravity-defying manner; each of them is produced under the direction of one of the many individual neighbourhood casals fallers who vie with each other to attract the best artists, to create the most outrageous allegorical monument to their target.
There are about 750 of these neighbourhood associations in Valencia, with over 200,000 members, or a quarter of the city's population. During Falles, many people wear their casal faller dress of regional and historical costumes from different eras of València's history; the dolçaina and tabalet are heard, as most of the different casals fallers have their own traditional bands. Although the Falles is a traditional event and many participants dress in medieval clothing, the ninots for 2005 included such modern characters as Shrek and George W. Bush, the 2012 Falles included characters like Barack Obama and Lady Gaga; the five days and nights of Falles might be described as a continuous street party. There are a multitude of processions: historical and comedic. Crowds in the restaurants spill out into the streets. Explosions can be heard sporadically through the night. Everyone from small children to elderly people can be seen throwing fireworks and noisemakers in the streets, which are littered with pyrotechnical debris.
The timing of the events is fixed, they fall on the same date every year, though there has been discussion about holding some events on the weekend preceding the Falles, to take greater advantage of the tourist potential of the festival or changing the end date in years where it is due to occur in midweek. Each day of Falles begins at 8:00 am with La Despertà. Brass bands begin to march down every street playing lively music. Close behind them are the fallers; the Mascletà, an explosive barrage of coordinated firecracker and fireworks displays, takes place at 2:00 pm every day of the festival. At 2:00 pm the clock chimes and the Fallera Major, dressed in her fallera finery, will call from the balcony of City Hall, Senyor/a pirotècnic/a, pot començar la mascletà!, the Mascletà begins. The Mascletà is unique to the Valencian Community, popular with the Valencian people. Smaller neighbourhoods hold their own mascletà for saint's days and other celebrations. A nighttime variant runs in the evening hours by the same pyrotechnicans that were present in the afternoon.
On the day of the 15th, all of the falles infantils are to be finished being constructed, that night all of the falles majors are to be completed. If not, they face disqualification. In this event, the flower offering, each of the casals fallers takes an offering of flowers to the Virgin Mary as Our Lady of the Forsaken; this occurs all day during 17–18 March. A statue of the Virgin Mary and its large pedestal are covered with all the flowers. On the nights of the 15, 16, 17, 18th there are firework displays in the old riverbed in València; each night is progressively grander and the last is called La Nit del Foc. On the final evening of Falles, at 7:00 pm on March 19, a parade known in Valencian as the Cavalcada del Foc takes place along Colon street and Porta de la Mar square; this spectacular celebration of fi
Valencian Community
The Valencian Community is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous autonomous community after Andalusia and Madrid with more than 4.9 million inhabitants. Its homonymous capital Valencia is metropolitan area in Spain, it is located along the Mediterranean coast on the east side of the Iberian peninsula. It borders with Catalonia to the north and Castilla–La Mancha to the west, Murcia to the south; the Valencian Community consists of three provinces which are Valencia and Alicante. According to its Statute of Autonomy, the Valencian people are a nationality, their origins date back to the Aragonese reconquest of the Moorish Taifa of Valencia, taken by James I of Aragon in 1238 during the Reconquista. The newly founded Kingdom of Valencia was granted wide self-government under the Crown of Aragon. Valencia experienced its golden age in the 15th century. Self-government continued after the unification of the Spanish Kingdom, but was suspended in 1707 by Phillip V of Spain as a result of the Spanish War of Succession.
Valencian nationalism resurged towards the end of the 19th century, which led to the modern conception of the Valencian Country. Self-government under the Generalitat Valenciana was reestablished in 1982 after Spanish transition to democracy. Many Valencian people speak Valencian, the region's own co-official language, a southwestern dialect of Catalan standardised by the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua. Valencian is a diglossic language, repressed during Franco's dictatorship in favour of Spanish. Since it regained official status in 1982 in the Valencian Estatut d'Autonomia. Valencian has been implemented in public administration and the education system leading to an exponential increase in knowledge of its formal standard. Valencian is understood by more than half of the population living within the Valencian Community. Valencia was founded by the Romans under the name of "Valentia Edetanorum", which translates to'Valiance of the Land of the Lamb'. With the establishment of the Taifa of Valencia, the name developed to بلنسية, which became Valencia after the expulsion of the Moors.
"Valencian Community" is the standard translation of the official name in Valencian recognized by the Statute of Autonomy of 1982. This is the name most used in public administration, the media and Spanish written language. However, the variant of "Valencian Country" that emphasizes the nationality status of the Valencian people is still the preferred one by left-wing parties, civil associations, Catalan written language and major academic institutions like the University of Valencia. "Valencian Community" is a neologism, adopted after democratic transition in order to solve the conflict between two competing names: "Valencian Country" and "Former Kingdom of Valencia". On one hand, "Valencian Country" represented the modern conception of nationality that resurged in the 19th century, it became well-established during the Second Spanish Republic and on with the works of Joan Fuster in the 1960s, implying the existence of the "Catalan Countries". This nationalist subtext was opposed by anti-Catalan blaverists, who proposed "Former Kingdom of Valencia" instead in order to emphasize Valencian independence from Catalonia.
Blaverists have accepted the official denomination. The autonomous community can be homonymously identified with its capital "Valencia". However, this could be disregarding of the provinces of Castellón. Other more anecdotal translations have included "Land of Valencia", "Region of Valencia" and "Valencian Region"; the term "Region", carries negative connotations among many Valencians because it could deny their nationality status. The Pre-Roman autochthonous people of the Valencian Community were the Iberians, who were divided in several groups; the Greeks established colonies in the coastal towns of Saguntum and Dénia beginning in the 5th century BC, where they traded and mixed with the local Iberian populations. After the end of the First Punic War between Carthage and Rome in 241 BC, which established their limits of influence in the Ebro river, the Carthaginians occupied the whole region; the dispute over the hegemony of Saguntum, a Hellenized Iberian coastal city with diplomatic contacts with Rome, destroyed by Hannibal in 219 BC, ignited the Second Punic War, which ended with the incorporation of the region to the Roman Empire.
The Romans founded the city of Valentia in 138 BC, over the centuries overtook Saguntum in importance. After the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the Barbarian Invasions in the 5th century AD, the region was first invaded by the Alans and ruled by the Visigoths, until the arrival of the Arabs in 711, which left a broad impact in the region, still visible in today's Valencian landscape and culture. After the fall of the Caliphate of Cordoba, two main independent taifas were established at the region, Balansiya and Dénia, along with the small and short living taifas of Orihuela, Alpuente, Jérica and Sagunt and the short Christian conquest of Valencia by El Cid. However, the origins of present-day Valencia date back to the Kingdom of Valencia, which came into existence in the 13th century. James I of Aragon led the Christian conquest and colonization of the existing Islamic taifas with Aragonese and Catalan colonizers in 1208; the kingdom developed intensively in the 14th and 15th centuries, which are con
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