Check out this interesting 1854 map!

Does this document show the past, or the future?.

This 1854 political map, from the National Library in Madrid, shows the Catalan-speaking parts of Spain (Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, and Aragon ) as La España incorporada o asimilada (Absorbed or assimilated Spain) while the rest of Spain is described as España uniforme o puramente constitucional, comprende 34 Provincias de las coronas de Castilla y León (Uniform and purely-constituted Spain, comprised of 34 provinces of the crowns of Castilla y León.) The Basque Country and Navarre, on the other hand, are apparently not pure, as they are shown grouped together, but as a separate region. One can also see the Philippines and the Antilles in Colonial Spain.

The makers of this map made clear that Catalonia is not part of pure and uniform Spain, but instead “absorbed” and “assimilated.” What they don’t say is whether this happened voluntarily or by force.