[mezod]

Sorry, I now realize my answer could appear to be rude when it wasn't my intention.

The correct year to consider it fully a region of Spain would be 1714, when the Spanish army defeated the catalans and removed most of its state structures/institutions, etc. This article's intro might help: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Catalonia

I don't want to bore you with a history lesson that I myself might not know accurately, but I feel the need to say that different namings for the same levels of independence of state structures should be taken into consideration. So saying "Catalonia has always been a region of Spain" is far from the truth or at least it skips a lot of history.

[ruairidhwm]

Ah that's really interesting, thanks!

I didn't mean any offence by my statement, I understand that of course Catalan's case for independence is no less valid! I suppose it's really just legal wrangling :)

[mezod]

No offense at all! It's just that history is written by the winners and we have so little international visibility that it hurts :P