Valencian Community (Comunitat Valenciana)
According to Valencia's Statute of Autonomy, the Valencian people are a nationality. Their origins date back to the 1238 Aragonese conquest of the Taifa of Valencia. The newly-founded Kingdom of Valencia enjoyed its own legal entity and administrative institutions as a component of the Crown of Aragon, under the purview of the Furs of Valencia. Valencia experienced its Golden Age in the 15th century, as it became the Crown's economic capital. Local institutions and laws continued during the dynastic union of the early modern Spanish Monarchy, but were suspended in 1707 as a result of the Spanish War of Succession. Valencian nationalism emerged towards the end of the 19th century, leading to the modern conception of the Valencian Country. The current autonomous community under the Generalitat Valenciana self-government institution was established in 1982 after the Spanish Transition.
Official languages are Spanish and Valencian (the official and traditional name used in the Valencian Community to refer to what is commonly known as the Catalan language). As of 2020, the population of the Valencian Community comprised 10.63% of the Spanish population.
Valencia was founded by the Romans under the name of Valentia Edetanorum, or simply Valentia, which translates to "strength" or "valour", in full "strength of the Edetani" (note that the centre of Edetania was Edeta, an important old Iberian settlement 25 km north of Valencia, in what is now modern day Llíria, other important nearby settlements included Arse–Saguntum, Saetabis and Dianium).
With the establishment of the Muslim Taifa of Valencia, during the Al-Andalus period, the name developed to بلنسية (Balansīyya), which eventually became Valencia (Spanish) and València (Valencian) after the Christian conquests. The older spellings Valençia, Ualençia and Ualència are also found in pre-reform Spanish and Valencian texts.
Map - Valencian Community (Comunitat Valenciana)
Map
Country - Spain
Flag of Spain |
Anatomically modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 42,000 years ago. The ancient Iberian and Celtic tribes, along with other pre-Roman peoples, dwelled the territory maintaining contacts with foreign Mediterranean cultures. The Roman conquest and colonization of the peninsula (Hispania) ensued, bringing the Romanization of the population. Receding of Western Roman imperial authority ushered in the migration of different non-Roman peoples from Central and Northern Europe with the Visigoths as the dominant power in the peninsula by the fifth century. In the early eighth century, most of the peninsula was conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate, and during early Islamic rule, Al-Andalus became a dominant peninsular power centered in Córdoba. Several Christian kingdoms emerged in Northern Iberia, chief among them León, Castile, Aragon, Portugal, and Navarre made an intermittent southward military expansion, known as Reconquista, repelling the Islamic rule in Iberia, which culminated with the Christian seizure of the Emirate of Granada in 1492. Jews and Muslims were forced to choose between conversion to Catholicism or expulsion, and eventually the converts were expelled through different royal decrees.
Currency / Language
ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
---|---|---|---|
EUR | Euro | € | 2 |
ISO | Language |
---|---|
EU | Basque language |
CA | Catalan language |
GL | Galician language |
OC | Occitan language |
ES | Spanish language |