Catalan Diplomacy and pro-Catalan Iberism in 20th Century

Abstract

The Oficina d’Expansió Catalana (Catalan Expansion Office) was a pro-Catalan propaganda lobby created in Barcelona in 1919 with the aim of promoting Catalan Culture abroad and taking advantage of the hopes raised by Wilson’s points. The idea was to internationalize the early 20^th century Catalan conflict such that the Catalan middle-class could have more media power through the press in other European countries and show Catalan demands in a direct way without the mediation of the powers at the centre of the Iberian Peninsula. Together with these political intentions, there was also close international contact thanks to translations of political, historical and literary works. There was a constant flow from one area to the other of Catalan and Portuguese writers, politicians, and intellectuals who were linked to the Catalan cause. The most important contacts were those Catalonia had with great Portuguese thinkers and writers of the time. All of them collaborated enthusiastically to address the revitalization of the old Spain, which needed to be reborn as a new concept of Iberia. Other aspects such as the economy and the debate concerning cork duties and the possibility of obtaining profit from the Portuguese colonies, were decisive for Catalan diplomacy of that time in pursuance of their Lusitanian and Iberian dream.