Its lyrics were written down by Manuel Milà i Fontanals, drawn from oral histories of the Reapers War dating back the 17th century. The Catalan people commemorate the importance to their identity of the reapers’ revolution with their anthem “El Segadors” (“The Reapers”). Some historians write that the Spanish crown’s focus on the Catalan conflict played a role in the downfall of its empire, as it used valuable resources that it was unable to employ in its wars with Portugal or in Latin America. French soldiers would continue to occupy the northern regions of Catalunya until France and Spain signed the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659.Ĭatalunya was not to be at peace, however the French and Spanish crowns would clash for the rest of the 17th century, and the War of Spanish Succession that would drag half of Europe into conflict-and determining the final political fate of the Principality of Catalunya in 1714-was still to come. Twelve years later, the war finally ended when Don Juan José de Austria and Spanish troops eventually seized Barcelona in 1652. Meanwhile, the Catalan ruling classes had to contend with the ever-increasing peasant anger towards them the peasants’ daily lives had not noticeably improved since their rebellion first began. While the combined French and Catalan forces won an important victory in the Battle of Montjuïc in 1641, they also suffered significant losses, such as the execution of hundreds of rebels at the hands of Fajardo and the defeat of a rebel Republican army at Martorell. This consolidation of French strategic influence in the Pyrenees attracted the attention of the Spanish throne, which sent a mass of troops under Pedro Fajardo to recapture Barcelona. The republic only lasted about a week, however it ended when Catalunya officially declared the French Louis XIII to be the Count of Barcelona. It was with this French support that Catalunya declared itself a republic under the protection of the French monarchy on January 17, 1641. The two governments later came to an agreement called the Pact of Ceret, in which the French promised to help support the Principality of Catalunya against Spain. These measures only exacerbated tensions with the Spanish crown.Ĭlaris also asked for help from nearby France to put down the peasants’ revolt, establishing closer ties than ever between the Catalan government and the French. Pau Claris, the President of the Generalitat at the time, called for an emergency assembly (or junta de braços), of all the representatives of the Cortes Catalanes in order to implement certain revolutionary measures, for example, the establishment of a Council of Defense of the Catalan Principality, and a special tax on the upper classes. News of violent clashes in rural areas spread from village to village, and eventually into the city of Barcelona. Local rebellions began to occur spontaneously in various towns, and the general tension and anger continued to grow. This combination of general unrest, financial strain and growing distrust of the aristocracy came to a head in 1639. The poorer classes felt increasingly frustrated with the bourgeoisie and the land-owning nobility, as their attitudes towards the monarchy were generally more moderate. On top of onerous taxes, it was in their homes that soldiers were quartered during the conflict, resulting in reports of rape, property destruction and other forms of violence. In the meantime, the Catalan peasants were growing more and more restless. Its separate representative assembly and its political traditions-which in some ways had more in common with France than with the Spanish traditions that had taken shape since the Castilian Reconquest-gave Catalunya a limited autonomy, which was now under serious threat.

Their excesses and violence exacerbated fiscal tensions and class strife that already existed in Catalunya. These factors included the presence of an army composed of French troops and mercenaries of several nationalities that were stationed in Catalunya during this period of military conflict. The end result of the war ultimately shaped the geography of this part of Europe as we know it: the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 officially made the northern half of the province of La Cerdanya and the entire province of Roussillon a part of France, meaning the northernmost Catalan provinces were now cut off from Spain by the Pyrenees mountains.Ī number of factors contributed to what would essentially become a class war between Catalan peasants and the ruling classes. It showed just how important the role the Principality of Catalunya played as a strategic stronghold between these two European powers. What is known as The Reaper’s War (1640-1659) took place in the context of the conflict between France and Spain commonly referred to as the Thirty Years’ War, from 1618 to 1648.

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