Discrimination of the Catalan language in the 18th Century

Discrimination against Catalan in the 18th Century

• 1700 Decree by Louis XIV of France establishing that all judicial proceedings, deliberations by magistrates, official documents, and public acts be written in French and be deemed null otherwise.

 1700 Louis XIV of France writes that “Catalan disgusts him and is contrary to the virtue of the French nation.”

• 1707 - 1719 Nueva Planta Decrees in Valencia (1707), Majorca (1715), Catalonia (1716), and Sardinia (1719). It bans he use of the Catalan language.

• 1707, the process of Spanish-ization begins. Place names in Valencia are changed or eliminated. On December 6th, Melchor Rafael de Macanaz (link in Catalan) presents a public ban in Valencia with the order of Philip V of Spain to build, in the location where Xàtiva was located, a new town called San Felipe (in Spanish). For more information, take a look at the interesting article titled Extermini de Xàtiva (Xativa's Extermination—link is in Catalan).

• 1707, elimination of the place name Island of Xàtiva from the maps of America. This was the original name of the first colonized island in Tierra del Fuego—now named Big Island of Tierra del Fuego.

• 1712, February 20 Secret instructions to the chief magistrates in Catalonia: “You shall take special care to introduce the Castilian (Spanish) language, to which end you shall make the most tempered and disguised provisions, so as not to reveal our intention.”

• 1714 Philip V of Spain writes: “It's important to slowly introduce the Spanish language in those places where is not spoken.”

• 1715 The Council of Castile writes that “in schools there mustn't be books in Catalan, and nobody will speak or write in that language, and the Christian doctrine will be taught and learned in Spanish.” They add that “no weak or less effective means must be chosen, but the strongest and the most secure, erasing from the Catalans' memory everything that could be made up with their abolished constitutions, uses, laws and customs.”

• 1716 Order to enforce that religious services in Perpignan be only in French.

• 1755 All the priests in the order of the Piarists (religious order of poor clerics), are demanded to speak only in Spanish and Latin among them and to the rest of the population. The punishment for speaking in Catalan was to be fed only bread and water.

• 1768 The Count of Aranda promotes a royal decree by which teaching Catalan in elementary school is banned. Speaking or writing in Catalan is forbidden in courts and it's recommended that this be applied in religious councils as well.

• June 23rd 1768 Royal decree enforcing the teaching of Spanish in the territories of the Crown of Aragon.

• 1772 Royal decree by which all merchants and traders (wholesalers and retailers) are to have their account books in Spanish.

• 1776 The bishop of Majorca imposes the use of Spanish in the parishes and in the teaching of the Catechism.

• 1780 The Count of Floridablanca makes public a Royal Provision by which all schools have to teach the grammar of the Royal Spanish Academy.

• 1794 The French National Convention orders that French (spoken by the 10% of the population) be taught exclusively in order to "to annihilate the patois and make French the only language spoken.” The big linguistic genocide in France begins.

• 1799 Spanish Royal decree banning “all plays not spoken in Spanish."

• 1776 The bishop of Majorca imposes the use of Spanish in the parishes and in the teaching of the Catechism.

• 1780 The Count of Floridablanca makes public a Royal Provision by which all schools have to teach the grammar of the Royal Spanish Academy.

• 1794 The French National Convention orders that French (spoken by the 10% of the population) be taught exclusively in order to "to annihilate the patois and make French the only language spoken.” The big linguistic genocide in France begins.

• 1799 Spanish Royal decree banning “all plays not spoken in Spanish."