Catalan Countries in the context of "Republican Left of Catalonia"

Catalans (Catalan, French and Occitan: catalans; Spanish: catalanes; Italian: catalani; Sardinian: cadelanos or catalanos) are a Romance-speaking ethnic group native to Catalonia, who speak Catalan. The current official category of "Catalans" is that of the citizens of Catalonia, a nationality and autonomous community in Spain and the inhabitants of the Roussillon historical region in Southern France, today the Pyrénées Orientales department, also called Northern Catalonia and Pays Catalan in French.

Some authors also extend the word "Catalans" to include all people from areas in which Catalan is spoken, namely those from Andorra, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, eastern Aragon, and the city of Alghero in Sardinia.

Catalan (català) is a Western Romance language. It is the official language of Andorra and the official language of three autonomous communities in eastern Spain: Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, where it is called Valencian (valencià). It has semi-official status in the Italian municipality of Alghero, and it is spoken in the Pyrénées-Orientales department of France and in two further areas in eastern Spain: the eastern strip of Aragon and the Carche area in the Region of Murcia. The Catalan-speaking territories are often called the Països Catalans or "Catalan Countries".

The language evolved from Vulgar Latin in the Middle Ages around the eastern Pyrenees. It became the language of the Principality of Catalonia and the kingdoms of Valencia and Mallorca, being present throughout the Mediterranean as the main language of the Crown of Aragon. It was replaced by Spanish as a language of government and literature in the 1700s, but nineteenth century Spain saw a Catalan literary revival, culminating in the early 1900s. With the end of Franco dictatorship (1975) and its repressive measures against the language, Catalan entered a relatively successful process of re-normalization between the 1980s and the 2000s. However, during the 2010s, it experienced signs of decline in social use, diglossia and the re-growth of discrimination cases.

The Principality of Catalonia was a medieval and early modern state in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula. During most of its history it was in dynastic union with the Kingdom of Aragon, constituting together the Crown of Aragon. Between the 13th and the 18th centuries, it was bordered by the Kingdom of Aragon to the west, the Kingdom of Valencia to the south, the Kingdom of France to the north and by the Mediterranean Sea to the east. Its sovereign or prince had the title of Count of Barcelona. The term Principality of Catalonia was official until the 1830s, when the Spanish government implemented the centralized provincial division, but remained in popular and informal contexts. Today, the term Principat ("Principality") is used primarily to refer to the autonomous community of Catalonia in Spain, as distinct from the other Catalan Countries, and often including the historical region of Roussillon in Southern France.

The first reference to Catalonia and the Catalans appears in the Liber maiolichinus de gestis Pisanorum illustribus, a Pisan chronicle (written between 1117 and 1125) of the conquest of Majorca by a joint force of Northern Italians, Catalans, and Occitans. At the time, Catalonia did not yet exist as a political entity, though the use of this term seems to acknowledge Catalonia as a cultural or geographical entity. The counties that eventually made up the Principality of Catalonia were gradually unified under the rule of the count of Barcelona. In 1137, the County of Barcelona and the Kingdom of Aragon were unified under a single dynasty, creating what modern historians call the Crown of Aragon; however, Aragon and Catalonia retained their own political structure and legal systems, developing separate political communities along the next centuries. Under Alfons I the Troubador (1164–1196), Catalonia was regarded as a legal entity for the first time in 1173. Still, the term Principality of Catalonia was not used legally until the 14th century, when it was applied to the territories ruled by the Courts of Catalonia.

Catalans (Catalan, French and Occitan: catalans; Spanish: catalanes; Italian: catalani; Sardinian: cadelanos or catalanos) are a Romance-speaking ethnic group native to Catalonia, who speak Catalan. The current official category of "Catalans" is that of the citizens of Catalonia, a nationality and autonomous community in Spain and the inhabitants of the Roussillon historical region in Southern France, today the Pyrénées Orientales department, also called Northern Catalonia and Pays Catalan in French.

Some authors also extend the word "Catalans" to include all people from all the areas where Catalan is spoken, namely those from Andorra, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, eastern Aragon, and the city of Alghero in Sardinia.

Blaverism (Valencian: blaverisme, IPA: [blaveˈɾizme]) is a Spanish nationalist and Valencian regionalist ideology in the Valencian Community (Spain) that emerged with the Spanish transition to democracy characterised by strong anti-Catalanism, born out of its opposition to Joan Fuster's book Nosaltres, els valencians (1962), which promoted the concept of the Catalan Countries which includes Valencia. They consider Fuster's ideas as an imperialist Catalan nationalist movement that tries to impose Catalan domination upon Valencia. Blaverism takes its name from the blue (Valencian: blava) fringe which distinguishes the Valencian flag from other flags with a common origin, particularly from the Catalan.

The term "blaverism" originally had a negative connotation, often pejorative connotation, which is still kept among the social groups who consider the blaverism a type of far-right movement. In the 21st century, the term blaver is recognised by different Valencian language dictionaries, including the official dictionary made by the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua. In its origins in the second half of the twentieth century, blaverism was a populist and heterogeneous movement, which grouped together regionalists and supporters of Valencian foral civil law. Support for blaverism has been strongest in the city of Valencia and in the areas immediately surrounding it.