The first known human settlements in what is now Catalonia were at the beginning of the Middle Palaeolithic. The oldest known trace of human occupation is a mandible found in Banyoles, described by some sources as pre- See more

Visigothic and Muslim rule
In the 5th century, as part of the invasion of the Roman Empire by Germanic tribes, the See more

Napoleonic Wars
In 1808, during the Napoleonic Wars, Catalonia was occupied by the troops of General Guillaume Philibert Duhesme. The official Spanish army had evaporated, but popular resistance against the French occupation … See more

Rise of the Iberian culture
An iron using culture first appeared in eastern Iberia in the 8th century BC. By the 5th century BC, … See more

Dynastic union with Aragon
Until the middle of the 12th century, the successive counts of Barcelona tried to expand their domain in multiple directions. Ramon Berenguer III incorporated the County of Besalú, part of the County of Empúries See more

Crown of Aragon union with Crown of Castile
Ferdinand's 1469 marriage to Isabella I of Castile brought about a dynastic union of the Crown of Aragon with Castile. After the 1512 invasion of the Kingdom of Navarre, in 1516 the … See more

Franco's dictatorship
As in the rest of Spain, the Franco era (1939–1975) in Catalonia saw the annulment of … See more