The monarchs following Ferdinand and Isabella virtually ignored Catalonia, preferring to remain in Castile.   The monarchs also preferred Castile's political and governmental system and attempted to replace Catalonia's with one based on the Castillian model.  The people of Catalonia resisted, and in 1640 a revolution to free Catalonia from Madrid erupted. Simulatneously, a social revolution began, and the poor fought to free themselves from the oppression of the rich.    Catalonia became first an independent state, but then chose to become a province of France.  However, in 1652, Barcelona was forced to surrender to the current king, Philip IV.  A general pardon was issued and Philip IV promised to observe all of Catalonia's laws and liberties.

 
 
 

After Philip IV's death, however, Castile and Catalonia could not agree on the heir to the throne of Spain.  Castile announced Philip V as king, and Catalonia declared that the Archduke Charles was now Charles III, King of Spain.  War, of course, erupted.  Catalonia is defeated on the eleventh of September in 1714, and its political system is dismantled and replaced by one based on the Castillian model, the Catalan language is banned for use in politics, and the Catalan Universities are ablished and replaced by a Royalist univeristy.     While the Catalan people lost a great amount of liberties on that day, September 11 ultimately became a symbol of hope and was named a national holiday in 1980.

 
 
 
 

Visible responses to Catalonia's repression only began to surface in the 1800s with a literary revival of the Catalan language.  In 1860 a history of Catalonia written in Catalan was published.  Catalan literary regionalism coincided with the idea of Republicanism, creating a strong political movement for decentralization.  However, this political movement was almost strictly reserved for the upper- and middle-classes.  The Catalan workers turned to anarchism instead.  While the regionalists and anarchists generally hated each other, both groups demanded autonomy.