0:01

Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class,

0:03

a production of iHeartRadio.

0:11

Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy

0:14

V. Wilson and I'm Holly Frye. As

0:17

we've discussed recently, we went to

0:19

Barcelona, sure did. This

0:21

is the seconds

0:23

inspired by a Barcelona

0:26

episode the folks that went with us on the strip

0:28

band. Everybody was just so interesting and gracious

0:31

and fun to be around. Yeah, it was a magnificent

0:33

group. This episode,

0:35

though, is inspired by a thing that I did when none

0:37

of those folks were around. It was on our

0:39

free day in Barcelona.

0:42

My spouse and I went up to the top of Monjuique,

0:45

which involved navigating

0:47

Barcelona's public transportation system

0:49

by ourselves, taking a funicular

0:52

railway and also an aerial

0:54

cable car. Honestly, the

0:57

funicular railway and the aerial cable

0:59

car. We're each on our list of things

1:01

we wanted to do, and so it just went out

1:04

on one thing. One outing.

1:07

We visited Manjui Castle, really

1:09

a fortress dating back to the seventeenth

1:11

century that's now a museum, surrounded by

1:13

lots of paths and green space and a lot of

1:15

stuff caught my attention at this museum,

1:18

one thing being an exhibit that talked

1:20

about the Forts artillery being used

1:23

to bombard the city of Barcelona

1:25

in eighteen forty two. And

1:27

all of the signs in this exhibit

1:30

were in multiple languages, and if I'm remembering

1:32

correctly, it was Catalan, Spanish, English,

1:34

and French. So I could read these

1:37

explanations, but I also really

1:39

just felt like I was missing something. I would like

1:41

the text assumed that I knew

1:44

things that I did not already know. And this

1:46

is not a criticism of these museum signs.

1:49

I'm sure it also happens to folks who listen

1:51

to our podcast and are not from the United

1:53

States when we just like name drop

1:55

something that has been steeped

1:58

that we've been steeped in our lives that

2:00

people have not that live elsewhere.

2:03

So it turns out though this

2:05

fort slash Castle has been

2:07

involved in both the defense of Barcelona

2:10

and its repression repeatedly

2:12

over the course of centuries. This

2:14

eighteen forty two bombardment was one

2:16

of several launched from the

2:18

fort. So we're going to talk about the fort's history

2:21

and these bombardments and how this is also interconnected

2:25

with the greater history of Catalonia

2:27

and Spain, and Spain's many

2:30

civil wars. Montuique

2:32

is a hill with an elevation of one hundred

2:34

and seventy three meters or about five hundred

2:37

and sixty seven feet. It overlooks

2:39

the Mediterranean Sea in the city of Barcelona,

2:42

so it's an ideal location for a fort and

2:44

other defenses, but its

2:46

name has a different origin, usually

2:48

cited as one of two possibilities.

2:51

It may be from Latin words meaning

2:53

mountain of Jupiter, coming from a Roman

2:55

era settlement there, or it may

2:57

come from medieval Catalan words meaning Jewish

3:00

mountain, referencing a Jewish cemetery

3:03

on northeast side of the hill that may

3:05

have been established as early as the ninth century.

3:08

This isn't the terraced cemetery that you

3:10

can see on the southeastern slope of

3:13

Montuik today. That one opened

3:15

in eighteen eighty three. There

3:17

is not much visible evidence of the

3:19

Jewish cemetery on the surface of this hill

3:21

today. Barcelona's Jewish

3:24

community faced repeated antisemitic

3:26

violence in the fourteenth century, including

3:29

a deadly attack on the city's Jewish

3:31

quarter known as El cal in thirteen

3:33

forty nine, and the Catholic

3:36

kingdoms of Aragon and Castile also

3:38

expelled Spain's Jewish population

3:41

under the Alhambra Decree in fourteen

3:43

ninety two. That's something that we have covered

3:45

on the show before. During

3:48

and after all of this, people stole

3:50

a lot of the cemetery's headstones

3:52

and then used them as building materials,

3:55

so today you can see

3:57

Hebrew inscriptions from some of these

3:59

grit markers just as part of

4:01

buildings in Barcelona. Archaeological

4:05

work also started in this area beginning

4:08

in the mid twentieth century, and that's something

4:10

that has been controversial because exhuoming

4:12

bodies from their grave sites is generally

4:15

forbidden under Jewish law.

4:17

Any exceptions to that are generally

4:20

focused on honoring the deceased,

4:22

so this has led to efforts to

4:24

just protect this cemetery and any

4:27

remaining grave sites there. Manchuik's

4:30

use as a settlement and market area

4:32

probably goes back to at least the sixth

4:34

or seventh century BCE. A

4:37

beacon and tower had been built on the hill

4:39

by the early eleventh century CE,

4:42

one where lookouts could keep watch for incoming

4:44

enemy ships or armies, or

4:46

light signal fires that could be seen out

4:48

at sea. And in the surrounding countryside.

4:52

The forts beginnings go back to

4:54

the seventeenth century during the Cattle and

4:56

Revolt, also known as the Reaper's

4:58

War. For some context

5:00

on that, going back to about the

5:02

twelfth century, Catalonia had

5:04

been a principality with its capital in

5:07

Barcelona, and Catalonia

5:09

and the Kingdom of Aragon had both

5:11

been ruled by the same monarch.

5:14

That started to shift when Ferdinand the Second

5:16

of Aragon and Isabella the First of Castile

5:19

got married in fourteen sixty nine.

5:21

That marriage united multiple kingdoms

5:24

into a lot of what we now think

5:26

of as Spain. Although

5:29

Catalonia retained some of its

5:31

autonomy, it did not have as much

5:33

prominence or power as it had before

5:36

these kingdoms were united, and there

5:38

were people and movements who wanted

5:41

Catalonia to be fully independent

5:43

from the rest of the kingdoms. The

5:46

Reaper's War started in sixteen forty

5:49

during the Franco Spanish War. It

5:51

was named for an uprising of reapers

5:54

that started on the Feast of Corpus Christi that

5:56

year. Some of this grew

5:58

out of economic tensions between the poorer

6:00

classes and the aristocracy, as well

6:02

as new taxes to support the military

6:05

and requirements that people quarter soldiers

6:07

in their homes. As Catalonia's

6:10

peasant class rose up against Spanish monarch

6:12

Philip the Fourth, it sought the protection

6:15

of Louis the thirteenth of France. During

6:18

this uprising, the people of Barcelona built

6:20

a small fort at the top of Monjuiq

6:22

to try to defend the city, and they built

6:24

this fort over the span of only about

6:26

thirty days. The Battle

6:29

of Monjuiq took place on January

6:31

twenty sixth, sixteen forty one, when

6:33

a Spanish force tried to capture

6:35

this newly built fort. But

6:38

even though this was a pretty basic fortification

6:40

that had been built very quickly, it was

6:42

a fort on top of a hill. The

6:44

defensible position the

6:47

fort was able to hold off the Spanish troops

6:49

until Catalan reinforcements arrived.

6:52

The Franco Spanish War and the Reaper's

6:54

War continued for more than a decade,

6:56

and Philip the Fort's forces eventually

6:59

captured Barcelona in sixteen fifty

7:01

two. At that point,

7:03

Spanish forces took control of the fort

7:05

and from there took over much of Catalonia.

7:08

The Treaty of the Pyrenees formally ended

7:11

both of these wars, and under its terms,

7:13

the parts of Catalonia that lay to the northeast

7:15

of the Pyrenees came under French control,

7:18

while the rest of Catalonia was controlled by

7:20

Spain. The word for

7:22

reapers is segadors in Catalan

7:25

and Catalonia's national anthem, El

7:27

Segador's is about the Reaper's War.

7:31

Although France had supported Catalonia's

7:33

uprising against Spain during

7:36

the Nine Years War, the two were on opposite

7:38

sides. The Spanish Empire had joined

7:41

the Grand Alliance that had united to resist

7:43

French expansionism, and in sixteen

7:45

ninety seven French forces besieged

7:48

and bombarded the city of Barcelona.

7:50

Then in seventeen hundred, just a few

7:53

years after the end of the Nine Years War,

7:55

Charles the Second, the last Habsburg

7:57

Monarch of Spain, died without air.

8:01

Under the terms of his will, Philip, Duke of

8:03

Anjou, would become King of Spain. Philip

8:07

was grandson of King Louis the fourteenth

8:09

of the House of Bourbon and was in the line of

8:11

succession for the French throne, so

8:13

this would put both France and Spain

8:16

under the control of Bourbon. Monarchs,

8:18

and it meant that Philip could potentially become

8:20

king of both countries, so

8:23

other nations saw this as a huge

8:25

threat to the balance of power in Europe.

8:27

Those nations included Austria, which

8:30

instead backed Habsburg Archduke

8:33

Charles of Austria as heir to the Spanish

8:35

throne. Charles would eventually

8:37

become Holy Roman Emperor Charles

8:39

the sixth, and his claim to the Spanish

8:42

throne was backed by other nations, including

8:44

England, Holland and Prussia. This

8:47

of course led to the War of the Spanish

8:49

Succession, which

8:52

is such a big, messy war that I

8:54

didn't fully realize we were going to have to talk

8:56

about in this episode. This involved

8:59

another multi national grand alliance

9:01

which backed the Habsburg claim to the

9:03

Spanish throne, fighting against Philip

9:05

and those were loyal to the Bourbons. By

9:08

this point, there was a lot of anti

9:11

French sentiment in Catalonia, as well

9:13

as concerns about what would happened to Catalonia

9:15

under Philip's rule. Catalonia

9:18

already had less power and autonomy

9:20

than it did before the Reaper's War, and

9:22

it seemed likely that Philip would try to further

9:25

consolidate political power in Madrid

9:27

and away from Barcelona. It

9:29

also seemed likely that if Philip won the war,

9:32

he would punish Catalonia for disloyalty.

9:35

In spite of that risk, Catalonia

9:38

backed Charles's claim to the Spanish

9:40

throne with the hope of preserving

9:42

its own autonomy. On June

9:44

twentyth seventeen oh five, representatives

9:47

from Catalonia signed a pact

9:49

with Queen Anne of England in

9:51

which England agreed to provide Catalonia

9:53

with soldiers, rifles and ammunition,

9:56

and then, under this packed, Catalonia also

9:59

recognized Charles as the legitimate

10:01

king of Spain. This pact

10:04

also specified that Charles

10:06

would respect the laws and traditions

10:08

of Catalonia. This was

10:10

not as simple as Catalonia simply

10:12

joining the Grand Alliance, though Catalonia

10:15

was still considered to be under the control of

10:18

Spain's central government in Madrid and

10:20

in Barcelona, Philip's supporters

10:22

initially controlled the fort at Montjuiq,

10:25

so Barcelona was once again besieged

10:28

from mid September to mid October

10:30

of seventeen oh five as the Grand Alliance

10:32

tried to take control, and

10:35

it ultimately did. Charles formally

10:37

entered Barcelona and was recognized

10:39

as the sovereign of Catalonia on October

10:42

twenty second, seventeen oh five. Charles's

10:45

allies captured the fort over the course

10:47

of seventeen oh five and seventeen oh six.

10:50

This was not at all the end of it, though, Philip

10:53

got support from France to try to retake

10:56

Barcelona and the fort, and the

10:58

fort was nearly destroyed by philips

11:00

allies in seventeen oh six. A

11:02

Grand Alliance fleet arrived with reinforcements

11:05

in May, taking the fort back and starting

11:07

rebuilding efforts. When Bourbon

11:10

troops lay siege to Barcelona again

11:12

in July of seventeen thirteen, they focused

11:14

on the city rather than the fort.

11:17

The Duke of Berwick, who was in command of this mission,

11:20

recognized that trying to attack the

11:22

fort would come at an enormous costs, like it

11:24

had been demonstrated very well that it

11:26

was hard to take a fort that

11:28

was up on top of the hill in this way. By

11:31

this point, much of the War of the Spanish

11:34

Succession was over, and many

11:36

nations of the Grand Alliance had recognized

11:38

Philip the Fifth as King of Spain under

11:41

treaty terms that prevented him from also

11:43

becoming King of France. This

11:45

included England, although Catalonia

11:48

had continued to try to secure England's

11:50

aid and support, yeah

11:52

England didn't really follow

11:54

through on all of the terms of that

11:57

pact. Fancy that Catalonia

12:01

continued to support Charles as monarch

12:04

until September eleventh, seventeen

12:06

fourteen, when the Siege of Barcelona

12:08

finally ended in defeat for Catalonia.

12:11

Afterward, Catalonia faced brutal

12:14

repression for both its backing of the

12:16

Habsburg claim to the throne and

12:18

having essentially acted like its own independent

12:21

republic during this war, including signing

12:24

international treaties without the oversight

12:26

of Madrid. Philip also

12:29

stripped Catalonia of its autonomy

12:31

after this and abolished its constitution,

12:34

so all of the things they were afraid of

12:36

right This defeat ultimately led

12:38

to Catalonia's status as an autonomous

12:41

community within Spain, and today

12:43

September eleventh is observed as the National

12:45

Day of Catalonia or the Diada.

12:48

You can read lots of articles about how Catalonia's

12:51

national day is observing a military

12:53

defeat and why that is

12:56

will have more after

12:59

a sponsor break The

13:09

fort at Montuig was badly damaged

13:12

during the War the Spanish Succession, and

13:14

in the decades that followed, architect

13:16

and military engineer Juan Martinez Sermeno

13:18

renovated, modernized, and expanded

13:21

it. This was a project that stretched from

13:23

seventeen fifty three to seventeen seventy

13:25

nine. Then in the nineteenth century,

13:27

the fort's armaments were repeatedly

13:30

used to bombard Barcelona.

13:32

You may notice we are skipping entirely

13:35

over the Napoleonic Wars, which Holly

13:37

talked about more in her

13:39

episode on Barcelona. I didn't

13:42

find as much about the

13:44

fort specifically related to

13:46

the Napoleonic Wars. I like how our stuff

13:49

kind of accidentally interlocked together

13:51

to cover stuff the other one did not. Yeah,

13:54

these bombardments that Tracy just mentioned

13:57

of Barcelona began under General

13:59

Baldomero as Bertro and we need

14:01

a bit of setup to explain who

14:03

that was. In eighteen thirty

14:05

three, after the death of King Ferdinand, the

14:07

seventh Spain once again faced a dispute

14:10

about who its next monarch should be. Unlike

14:14

Charles the second, Ferdinand did have

14:16

a direct air, but that heir was

14:18

his daughter Isabella the second, who was

14:20

only three years old at the time in

14:22

addition to her age, The status of

14:24

women and girls in the Spanish line

14:27

of succession was kind of a tangle

14:29

at this point. During the War of

14:31

the Spanish Succession, Philip the Fifth

14:33

and the Spanish Parliament had established

14:35

that a woman could ascend to the Spanish

14:38

throne only if there were

14:40

no remaining male heir anywhere

14:43

in the line of succession. Ferdinand's

14:45

predecessor, Charles the Fourth, had

14:48

issued a decision revoking

14:50

that change in seventeen eighty nine,

14:52

but that decision had never been implemented.

14:55

So then in eighteen thirty, Ferdinand issued

14:57

a decree known as the Pragma

15:00

Sanction, which promulgated Charles the

15:02

Fourth's seventeen eighty nine decision. When

15:05

Ferdinand did this, he was not well

15:07

his wife, Queen Maria Christina Debourban,

15:10

was pregnant, so this decree

15:13

was absolutely meant to ensure that his

15:15

child could inherit the throne, regardless

15:19

of that child's sex. If he died. Without

15:21

the Pragmatic Sanction, Isabella would

15:24

not have been the next Spanish monarch.

15:26

Instead, Ferdinand's brother Carlos

15:28

would have been next in line, and

15:30

after Ferdinand's death, Carlos proclaimed

15:33

himself King Carlos or Charles

15:35

the Fifth. Carlos's supporters

15:38

were known as the Carlists, and overall

15:40

the Carlists were more conservative and

15:42

more aligned with the Catholic Church than Queen

15:44

Maria Christina, who was acting as

15:46

Isabella's regent, as well as Isabella's

15:49

other supporters. Carlos

15:51

declared war on the newly crowned toddler

15:53

queen, and that started the First Carlist

15:56

War, which went on for seven years.

15:59

There were three of these wars,

16:02

which were as much about conservatism versus

16:04

liberalism as they were about Carlos

16:06

and his descendants claimed to the Spanish

16:08

throne. The Carlist side

16:11

had a lot of support in Catalonia

16:13

and Basque Country in particular. The

16:16

First Carlist War ended in a peace

16:18

treaty known as the Embrace of Ergara

16:21

in eighteen thirty nine, and that acknowledged

16:23

Isabella the Second as the rightful Queen.

16:27

Just as a note Burgara is in Basque

16:29

Country and it's spelled with a B, but references

16:31

to these historical events and the treaty typically

16:34

spell it with a V. And

16:36

a year after this treaty was signed, Isabella's

16:38

mother resigned from her regency. The

16:41

reasons don't really have anything to do with

16:43

the war. Maria Christina had

16:46

secretly married a member of the royal

16:48

bodyguard, a commoner named Augustin

16:50

Fernando Munozi Sanchez, and

16:52

she had children with him. She

16:54

also faced a mutiny, a revolt,

16:56

a coup, and an increasing lack of confidence

16:59

in her abilities during her time as regent.

17:02

While her marriage and children had been

17:04

sort of an open secret at court, when

17:06

it became more publicly known, she was widely

17:08

condemned, and she eventually went into exile.

17:12

After her mother stepped down as regent,

17:14

Isabella's new regent was Baldomarro

17:17

Espretero, Prince de Regara, General,

17:19

who had defended the Queen and her regent during

17:22

the First Carlos War. He had

17:24

also been a key negotiator on the

17:26

Embrace of Regara. He had

17:28

been pushing for a number of reforms

17:30

after returning to Madrid after the end

17:32

of this war, but while some of those reforms

17:36

were seen as progressive, they

17:38

weren't necessarily successful. They

17:41

weren't necessarily things that parts of the population

17:43

wanted. In particular,

17:45

his free trade policies led

17:48

to uprisings in Barcelona because

17:50

there was a sudden influx of imported

17:52

goods from Britain, especially textiles,

17:56

that threatened people's livelihoods. So

17:58

by eighteen forty two there were anti Espartero

18:01

periodicals in Barcelona and various

18:03

propaganda lampooning him was

18:05

being published around the city. Tensions

18:08

in the city were also high because of economic

18:11

conflicts. Barcelona was

18:13

encircled by a wall, with people of all

18:15

classes overcrowded together inside,

18:17

and there was a lot of strife between

18:20

the more affluent people and the working classes.

18:23

The Carlists had been associated with conservative

18:25

Catholicism and the clergy, and

18:28

in part because of this, many monasteries

18:30

and convents in Barcelona had been

18:32

burned or otherwise destroyed in eighteen

18:35

thirty five. So there were political

18:37

and religious conflicts as well, and

18:39

there were lingering after effects from the War

18:42

of the Spanish Succession. Broadly

18:44

speaking, the nobility and clergy had supported

18:46

the Bourbons, while the common people had

18:48

supported the Austrian Habsburgs, and

18:51

no one had really forgotten that this

18:54

eighteen thirty five destruction of the monasteries was

18:56

something that our guide like just repeatedly,

18:59

almost actually referenced as we

19:01

were walking through Barcelona

19:04

on a walking tour, and I kept

19:06

being like, what why was this happening in

19:08

eighteen thirty five, Like it just seemed

19:10

like an odd time to me to have a sudden destruction

19:12

of a lot of monasteries and convents and things.

19:15

I was connected to all of this. A

19:18

massive popular uprising started

19:20

in Barcelona on November thirteenth, eighteen

19:22

forty two, and according to one account,

19:24

some laborers had taken wine with

19:26

them to drink with their lunch as they went to

19:28

work in the fields outside the city walls.

19:31

November thirteenth was a Sunday, so there's

19:34

also a version that it was people who

19:36

had left the city to go on various

19:38

outings on their day off, and they had bought

19:40

wine while they were away, and

19:42

they were bringing back what was left over

19:45

home with them. Either

19:48

way, people were trying to enter

19:50

the city at the end of the day. They were ordered

19:52

to pay at tax on these wine

19:54

leftovers, which they refused

19:56

to do. There are also some sources

19:59

that say it wasn't like this at all, that this was

20:01

not left over lunchline, it

20:03

was wine that smugglers were trying

20:05

to sneak into the city, so regardless

20:08

of that fuzziness, this was the start of

20:10

a huge popular uprising

20:12

that was connected to things like taxes and the

20:14

cost of food. This led

20:17

to fighting between the National Militia and

20:19

Barcelona's army garrison, with the

20:21

soldiers eventually retreating to the castle

20:23

to the Citadel of Barcelona. Hundreds

20:26

of people were killed in this conflict

20:28

and stores were ransacked and looted.

20:31

A provisional popular court issued demands

20:34

that Esparto be dismissed and

20:36

that Catalonian industries be protected,

20:38

and that the queen marry someone Spanish.

20:42

After about three weeks of this unrest and

20:44

violence, es Bartaro arrived in

20:46

Barcelona and responded

20:48

to this ongoing crisis by having

20:51

the city bombarded from the fort.

20:53

The bombardment started in the middle of the day

20:56

on December third, eighteen forty two, and

20:58

it continued for twelve hours until

21:00

a delegation representing the city's

21:02

residence unconditionally surrendered.

21:05

More than a thousand projectiles

21:07

were fired from the fort during this bombardment.

21:10

At least twenty people were killed and

21:13

hundreds of buildings were badly damaged.

21:16

One eyewitness wrote that after the bombardment,

21:18

quote, the city had taken on a sepulchral

21:21

aspect, doors and shops closed,

21:23

the streets almost deserted in some

21:26

places, obstructed by the ruins and rubble

21:28

of devastated houses, and shrouded

21:31

by the smoke coming from the many still

21:33

burning buildings. As

21:35

Bartero was quoted as saying, quote, for the good

21:37

of Spain, Barcelona must be

21:39

bombarded once every fifty years.

21:43

In the wake of the uprising, thirteen people

21:45

were tried and sentenced to death, and

21:48

another eighty were imprisoned. Less

21:51

than a year later, another uprising

21:53

started in Barcelona, this one known as

21:55

Laha Mancia. This name

21:57

came from a word for food, was probably

21:59

auraging reference to people who

22:01

joined volunteer battalions in

22:03

order to get free meals, and there was

22:05

a lot going on with his uprising. Some

22:08

of Spain's generals had found Espartero's

22:11

bombardment of Barcelona to be really

22:13

an appalling act, and so the

22:15

military's more liberal and moderate

22:17

factions had banded together to

22:19

try to unseat him as regent. These

22:22

factions were led by General Ramlo

22:24

Maria Navarez, a compos and some

22:27

of his supporters had backed him

22:29

because of reforms they expected him

22:31

to bring. When those reforms

22:33

didn't arrive right away, he lost their

22:35

support. This was also an uprising

22:38

against the government of Spanish

22:40

Prime Minister Joaquin Maria Lopez,

22:42

and an anti aristocratic uprising

22:45

that was calling for fairer distribution

22:47

of wealth. There were just a lot of factors

22:50

going on with this. Their response

22:52

to this uprising involved another

22:54

bombardment of the city of Barcelona

22:56

from the Fort at Montjuique, this

22:59

time one that last for two months.

23:01

There were three hundred thirty five deaths and

23:04

hundreds of serious injuries, and at least

23:06

forty thousand people fled the city.

23:09

In the wake of all this, Baldemaro Espartero

23:11

was ousted as regent and Isabella

23:13

the Second, now thirteen years old, was

23:16

declared legally of age to rule.

23:18

She assumed the throne of Spain directly

23:21

on November tenth, eighteen forty three,

23:24

and there was still one more major bombardment

23:27

of Barcelona from the Fort at Montuique.

23:29

In the nineteenth century, Baldomero

23:32

Espartero had left Spain after being

23:34

ousted as regent, but eventually

23:36

returned and in eighteen fifty four,

23:39

he and General Leopoldo O'Donnell

23:41

were jointly put in charge of the government

23:44

in what was described as the Biennio progressista,

23:47

or the Progressive Biennium. This

23:49

was intended to be a period of progressive

23:52

reform, but in July of eighteen

23:54

forty six, O'Donnell displaced Esparto,

23:57

something that some sources described as

23:59

a coup. The people of Barcelona

24:02

rose up against this change in power and

24:04

were once again bombarded from the fort.

24:07

Isabella the second was driven into exile

24:10

after an uprising in eighteen sixty eight,

24:12

and she abdicated the throne in eighteen seventy.

24:15

During her reign, she had weathered

24:18

another Carlist War, and a

24:20

third followed after she had been deposed

24:23

in eighteen seventy four. During the third

24:25

Carlist War, her oldest surviving

24:28

son was declared King Alfonso. This wealth.

24:31

We'll talk about the history of this fort

24:33

later in the nineteenth century and into the twentieth.

24:36

After a sponsor break in

24:47

the late nineteenth century, the fourth at Manchuique

24:50

was largely used as a prison, particularly

24:52

for radicals, revolutionaries, and anarchists.

24:56

This had some similarities to the First

24:58

Red Scare in the United States States, which

25:00

we've talked about on the show before. Authorities

25:03

in Spain responded to anarchist

25:05

attacks and bombings with mass arrests

25:08

and imprisonments, and there were demonstrations

25:10

in the city of Barcelona as people learned

25:13

that prisoners being held at the fort were

25:15

also being tortured and executed. But

25:18

a key difference between what was happening

25:20

in Barcelona and what would happen

25:23

in the US a couple of decades later

25:25

is that the labor movement in Catalonia

25:28

was deeply rooted in anarcho

25:31

syndicalism. That's a branch

25:33

of anarchism that's focused on trade

25:35

unionism and on working class direct

25:38

action meant to dismantle capitalism

25:40

and the wage system entirely and establish

25:43

a new society that's democratically

25:45

managed by workers themselves. During

25:48

this period, the Barcelona City Council,

25:51

understanding that atrocities were happening

25:53

at the fort, argued that the fort

25:56

at Monjuique should be ceded to the

25:58

city so that it could be totally dismantled

26:01

or maybe turned into an anti war museum.

26:04

The fort also played a part in the events

26:06

that led up to the Spanish Civil War and the

26:08

war itself. This once again

26:11

requires us to back up a little. We've

26:13

already talked about so many wars

26:16

and coups that took place in Spain over

26:18

the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and

26:20

things became even more divided in the

26:22

early twentieth century. There was

26:24

a whole series of attempted military

26:27

coups and multiple assassination attempts

26:29

against King Alfonso the thirteenth, son

26:31

of Alfonso the twelfth, and his wife,

26:34

Queen Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg.

26:37

In nineteen twenty three, Miguel Primo de

26:39

Rivera was made Prime Minister of

26:41

Spain after one of these many military

26:43

coups. He ran Spain essentially

26:46

as a dictator. And at this point

26:48

two different factions had been

26:51

advocating for Catalonian autonomy

26:53

or even full independence from

26:56

Spain for decades, and these two factions

26:58

had very points of view.

27:01

One was primarily conservative

27:04

and Catholic, and it included a lot of people

27:06

who had backed the Carlist side

27:08

in the Carlist Wars. Once

27:10

the last of the Carlist Wars had ended,

27:13

a lot of Carlists in Catalonia had

27:15

gone from supporting one of Carlos's

27:17

descendants as monarch of Spain

27:20

to instead supporting Catalonian independence.

27:23

The other faction was really

27:25

largely secular and left leaning. It

27:28

included a lot of socialists and anarchists

27:30

and anarcho syndicalists. Catalonia

27:33

had been given a degree of autonomy

27:35

in nineteen thirteen, but Primo de Rivera

27:38

repealed that legislation in nineteen

27:40

twenty five. He was campaigning

27:42

for national unity under the slogan

27:45

country religion monarchy, and

27:48

his idea of unity did

27:50

not include any possibility for

27:52

any Catalonian autonomy. Primo

27:55

de Rivera's actions toward Catalonia led

27:57

its more left wing factions to form a co

28:00

coalition party called Escuere Republicana.

28:03

This coalition won a majority in a nineteen

28:05

thirty one election, and soon afterward the Generalita

28:08

to Catalunya or Government of Catalogna,

28:10

declared Cataloonya a republic.

28:13

King Alfonso the thirteenth was forced to

28:15

leave Spain that same year, although

28:17

he did not formally abdicate his

28:20

throne. This started the

28:22

period known as the Second Spanish Republic,

28:24

and faced with the possibility of Catalonia

28:27

declaring itself fully independent,

28:30

the new central government in Madrid negotiated

28:32

a compromise. Legislation

28:35

that granted some autonomy to Catalonia,

28:38

but not independence, was passed

28:40

in September of nineteen thirty two. Initially,

28:43

the newly formed Republican government in

28:45

Madrid had tried to pass pretty

28:48

overall progressive reforms, and

28:51

Conservatives, Catholics, and the military

28:53

objected to a lot of these reforms.

28:56

Then, in nineteen thirty three, a coalition

28:58

of right wing political factions called

29:00

the Spanish Confederation of Autonomous

29:02

Rights attained a majority in the

29:04

Spanish government. When the newly

29:07

elected representatives took office, they

29:09

started rolling back those reforms,

29:11

and then beyond that. A lot

29:13

of people on the left in Spain regarded

29:16

the Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Rights

29:18

as fascist. After

29:20

the newly formed Spanish government came into

29:23

power in nineteen thirty four, socialists,

29:25

unionists, anti fascist groups,

29:28

an arcosyndicalists and others

29:30

on the left started a wave of general

29:32

strikes and uprisings. This

29:34

is sometimes called the Revolution of nineteen

29:36

thirty four or the October Revolution

29:39

of nineteen thirty four. In Catalogna,

29:41

President Luis Compaos proclaimed

29:43

the Catalan State within the Spanish Republic

29:46

on October sixth, nineteen thirty four, saying

29:48

that monarchs and fascists had attacked

29:50

the Spanish government. In

29:53

response, Spanish military authorities

29:55

declared martial law, and soon Companos

29:58

was arrested. The statue

30:00

that had granted Catalonian autonomy was

30:02

suspended, and Campagnos was imprisoned

30:04

until nineteen thirty six. Also

30:07

in nineteen thirty six, the Spanish government's

30:09

political alignment shifted once

30:12

again, with the liberal Popular

30:14

Front winning a majority in parliament.

30:17

The Popular Front was concerned about the

30:19

spread of nationalism within Spain's

30:22

military and started removing people

30:24

who were suspected of conspiring against

30:26

the Spanish government. Some of these

30:28

were very high ranking officers who had

30:30

generally backed the conservative National

30:33

Front. One of these officers

30:35

was Francisco Franco. Franco

30:37

eventually joined a group of military leaders

30:40

who launched a coup in July of nineteen

30:42

thirty six and in Barcelona.

30:44

The coup involved most of the Spanish army

30:46

officers who were stationed there, but

30:49

then the Civil Guard and other law enforcement

30:51

in Barcelona fought back against the

30:53

military, along with civilians

30:55

and anarcosyndicalist militias, so

30:58

the Spanish army's attempt to take over Barcelona

31:01

was unsuccessful, and for a few months

31:03

after this, the anarcho syndicalist militia

31:05

were more numerous and better armed

31:07

than the regular law enforcement in Barcelona,

31:10

and they essentially had control of the city.

31:13

This coup became the start of

31:15

the Spanish Civil War, which was

31:18

broadly speaking again between

31:20

the Nationalists and the Republicans. The

31:22

Nationalists were more conservative, more

31:25

likely to be Catholic and affluent, while

31:27

the Republicans, also known as Loyalists,

31:29

included more middle class people, laborers,

31:32

communists, and other leftists. The

31:35

Third Carlist War had ended

31:37

decades before this, but a lot

31:40

of former Carlists were on the Nationalists

31:42

side. There were certainly

31:45

people in Catalogna and Barcelona who supported

31:47

Franco and the nationalist side,

31:50

but as a region, Catalogna was loyal

31:52

to the Second Spanish Republic and its elected

31:55

government. A lot of the

31:57

international news coverage at the beginning of

31:59

the war was about Barcelona, and

32:01

many of the volunteers who joined the international

32:03

brigades from elsewhere in the world to fight

32:05

on the Republican side were inspired

32:08

by dispatches from Barcelona, George

32:11

Orwell traveled to Spain and joined a militia,

32:13

and his memoir Homage to Catalonia

32:16

detailed his training in Barcelona and

32:18

his experiences elsewhere in the war.

32:21

On August twenty third, nineteen thirty six,

32:23

Catalonia's Committee of Anti Fascist

32:25

Militias took control of

32:28

the Fort at Manjuik and used it as a

32:30

recruitment center and a place to imprison

32:32

and try political prisoners. Republicans

32:35

in Barcelona cracked down on nationalists

32:38

and members of the Falange political party,

32:41

which had become the official nationalist

32:43

party in nineteen thirty seven. Between

32:45

nineteen thirty six and nineteen thirty eight, one

32:47

hundred and seventy three people were executed

32:50

at the fort. Leftists in

32:52

Barcelona also took over theaters,

32:54

clubs, and homes belonging to people

32:57

and organizations that were believed to be aligned

32:59

with Ranco or complicit in fascism.

33:03

There were also some really deep

33:05

divisions within the Republican

33:07

side in Barcelona that led

33:09

to a series of violent clashes

33:12

known as the Barcelona May Days

33:14

in nineteen thirty seven. By

33:16

the end of the war, Catalonia was

33:18

the last remaining Republican stronghold

33:20

in Spain aside from Madrid. Franco's

33:23

troops finally seized Barcelona on

33:26

January twenty sixth, nineteen thirty nine,

33:28

and afterward also took control

33:30

of the fort at Montuique. From

33:33

there, the Nationalists took the rest of

33:35

Catalonia. This was an enormous

33:37

loss for the Republican side in terms of

33:39

both troop casualties and Catalonia's

33:42

industrial resources. Madrid

33:45

fell a couple of months later. This

33:47

was a truly, truly horrifying

33:50

war that involved a long series

33:52

of mass atrocities. At least

33:54

five hundred thousand people died during the

33:56

war itself and afterward.

33:58

Franco's regime executed and estimated

34:01

one hundred thousand Republican prisoners.

34:04

After the war ended, Franco ruled Spain

34:07

as a dictator. He stripped Catalonia

34:09

of all remaining political autonomy

34:12

and banned hallmarks of Catalonian

34:14

heritage and independence, including

34:16

banning the Catalan language.

34:19

During the Franco era, Monchuique

34:21

Castle was still used as a prison and

34:24

a place to hold trials for political dissidents,

34:27

but this time for people who opposed Francisco.

34:30

Franco and his government. In

34:32

nineteen forty, exiled president of

34:34

Catalonia, Luis Campaneus was arrested

34:37

in France and transferred to Barcelona

34:39

at the request of Franco's government. On

34:42

October fourteenth, nineteen forty, he

34:44

faced a summary court martial at

34:46

Monchuque Castle and was sentenced

34:48

to death. Campagneus

34:50

was executed by firing squad at

34:52

the fort on the following day. In

34:55

nineteen sixty the fort at Monjuique

34:57

was partially seated to the city of barcel

35:00

although it still retains some military

35:02

functions, and Francisco Franco

35:04

established a military museum there

35:07

in nineteen sixty three. After

35:09

Franco's death in nineteen seventy five,

35:11

Spain became a democracy and Catalonia

35:14

was recognized as an autonomous community,

35:17

with Catalan recognized as an

35:19

official language. The Catalan

35:21

government declared the castle a

35:23

cultural asset of national interest

35:26

in nineteen eighty eight. In

35:28

two thousand and seven, the castle was

35:30

fully seeded to the Barcelona City

35:32

Council and it became property of

35:35

the people of Barcelona. The military

35:37

museum was ordered to be closed that year.

35:39

It stopped operation in two thousand and nine,

35:42

with the last of its collection transferred

35:44

to other institutions. We've

35:47

really only talked about the fort, but the fort

35:49

is obviously not the only thing located

35:51

on Manjuiq. Among other

35:53

things, it was the site of the World Expo

35:56

in nineteen twenty nine and the nineteen

35:58

ninety two Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona.

36:01

There are a lot of sports facilities up there,

36:03

including a stadium named for Luis

36:06

Campagnes and other museums

36:08

besides the one that's housed in the castle now.

36:10

A lot of the archaeological finds that have been

36:13

unearthed on Monjuik were found during

36:15

the preparations and construction for the World

36:17

Expo and the Olympic Games. There's

36:20

still an ongoing Catalan independence

36:22

movement. A twenty seventeen independence

36:25

referendum made headlines around the world

36:27

and was declared illegal by Spain's

36:29

Constitutional Court. The

36:32

referendum itself was also contentious.

36:34

The votes that were cast were overwhelmingly

36:37

in favor of independence, but

36:39

the turnout was low, in part because

36:41

many unionists boycotted the

36:43

vote. At that point, separatists

36:46

held a majority in the Catalonian Parliament

36:48

and voted for full independence, prompting

36:50

the Central Spanish government in Madrid to

36:53

dissolve the Catalonian Parliament and

36:55

call for new elections. All

36:57

of this happened in the midst of widespread

37:00

demonstrations and unrest, and a police

37:02

cracked down on demonstrators. More

37:05

recently, pro independence parties

37:07

won more than half the vote in the twenty

37:09

twenty one regional elections.

37:12

As a total outsider to this, I feel

37:14

like things have been quieter

37:16

on this front than in

37:19

twenty seventeen when

37:21

the yeah, when the referendum happened.

37:25

That again, that's based

37:28

on my ignorant American

37:30

perception of international news and

37:32

who knows what will happen, you

37:35

know, immediately after we record this episode

37:37

based on our previous track record, right,

37:40

I feel like while we were there in Barcelona,

37:42

our wonderful tour guide I to

37:45

this moment. Do not know if she was trying

37:47

to downplay it to make everything palatable

37:50

to tourists, or

37:52

if this is just the vibe and

37:54

like it's hard for us to grasp because

37:56

like at one point we had walked by like

37:59

an apartment building where people had

38:02

flags out that we're still protesting

38:04

and like, you know, calling for independence,

38:07

and she's like, oh, you know, people that are

38:09

allowed to voice their ideologies here

38:11

and everyone just knows that.

38:13

You know, we listened to each other, and I'm like, wait,

38:17

is this just an undercurrent of conflict

38:19

that you're so used to you've learned to work around

38:22

it, or are you just making this very

38:24

simplified and not scary to people that

38:26

are set In

38:28

terms of what I personally witnessed

38:30

while we were in Barcelona, I

38:33

saw signs related

38:35

to homes

38:38

that will have to be destroyed if

38:40

Sigratta Familia is completed

38:42

according to its current plan, right,

38:45

Like, there are people who would be displaced from

38:47

their homes and their homes would be destroyed,

38:49

like if those plans are followed. So I saw

38:52

banners and signs and things about that, and

38:55

I also saw we

38:58

were in Barcelona.

39:00

I don't this is an ongoing thing,

39:02

so it's not something we can say whether this was really

39:04

early or not. But like the

39:07

Israel Hamas war, yes

39:10

was happening while we were there.

39:13

And at one point I did see a

39:16

like a pro Palestinian demonstration

39:19

nearby to where we were, And

39:22

like, those were two things that were more

39:25

obvious to me while we

39:27

were there than things

39:29

related to independence or

39:32

autonomy or independence,

39:34

really, I guess would be the more. Yeah, I would agree,

39:36

there were other issues that were way more at the forefront

39:38

when we would see any political or

39:41

you know, socially oriented

39:44

signage like that's a good out a familiar

39:46

thing, which is a tricky one, right

39:49

because that space where those apartments are

39:51

was supposed to never be built on, and then it

39:53

was, and now it's where

39:55

people live. Yeah, and in some

39:57

cases, like people have been living there for years

39:59

and year, right, because the Gotta Familia

40:02

has taken literally more

40:04

than one hundred right. Yeah,

40:06

So I can understand where there was a moment of we

40:08

cannot wait forever. We need more space for people

40:10

in the city. Yeah, we got to build

40:13

here. That one's so tricky

40:15

to envision, like how that can play out

40:17

in a way that is I

40:19

don't peaceful is not the right word, but that is

40:22

acceptable and doesn't ruin

40:24

anyone's life, right yeah.

40:26

Yeah. So anyway,

40:29

that was just our perception as non

40:31

local people visiting Barcelona in

40:34

whatever month we were there, was it October?

40:39

Time has blurred. It's bad. Speaking

40:42

of time, I have listener mail. Listener

40:45

mail is from Andrew. Andrew wrote

40:48

and the title of this email

40:50

is Thursday next and the Rebecca Riots.

40:52

And Andrew wrote, Tracy and Holly, I

40:55

got a real kick out of the episode about the Rebecca

40:57

Riots. I just finished rereading

40:59

Jazzds The Air Affair and

41:01

was wondering why in the book the

41:03

People's Republic of Wales was

41:06

founded in eighteen thirty nine with the capital

41:08

the town of merthur Tidville. When

41:10

I heard both mentioned in your episode, I was quite

41:13

tickled. Oh, and thanks for the book

41:15

news from the same episode. I have some family

41:17

friends who aren't Lingott and I know they

41:20

would be tickled to know that such a book exists. Just dropping

41:23

you a note to say how much I enjoy the show, Andrew,

41:25

thanks so much for this note. Andrew. I read

41:27

The Air Affair many years ago. I

41:30

remember its basic conceit, but no details,

41:33

and so I had no recollection

41:36

at all that in the world of

41:38

the Air Affair, Wales

41:40

is its own republic and its capital

41:43

is in mirth Tidvill, and I

41:46

feel like that has an un an

41:48

accidental tangential relationship

41:50

to what we have been talking about in this episode

41:53

in terms of autonomy

41:55

and independence for places

41:58

that are considered part of another nation. So anyway,

42:00

thanks so much Andrew for sending this note.

42:02

If you would like to send us a note about

42:04

this or any other podcast, we're at History podcast

42:07

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42:09

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42:11

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