Editing Castile and León (section)

==History==
{{More citations needed section|date=April 2020}}

[[File:Homo heidelbergensis. Museo de Prehistoria de Valencia.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Miguelón|Skull number 5]]'' of ''[[Homo heidelbergensis]]''. It appeared in the 1992 campaign, extracted from the [[Atapuerca Mountains]].]]
Several archaeological findings show that in prehistoric times these lands were already inhabited. In the [[Atapuerca Mountains]] have been found many bones of the ancestors of ''Homo sapiens'', making these findings one of the most important to determine the history of human evolution. The most important discovery that catapulted the site to international fame was the remains of ''[[Homo heidelbergensis]]''.

Before the arrival of the Romans, it is known that the territories that make up Castile and León today were occupied by various [[Celts|Celtic peoples]], such as [[Vaccaei]], [[Autrigones]], [[Turmodigi]], the [[Vettones]], [[Astures]] or [[Celtiberians]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Prichard |first=James Cowles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dp9RAAAAcAAJ&dq=celts+and+iberia,+leon&pg=PA67 |title=The Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations Proved by a Comparison of Their Dialects with the Sanskrit, Greek, Latin Ant Teutonic Languages: Forming a Supplement to "Researches Into the Physical History of Mankind" |date=1857 |language=en}}</ref> The Roman conquest resulted in warring with the local tribes. One particularly famous episode was the siege of [[Numantia]], an old town located near the current city of [[Soria]].

The [[Romanization (cultural)|romanization]] was unstoppable, and to this day great Roman works of art have remained, mainly the [[Aqueduct of Segovia]] as well as many archaeological remains such as those of the ancient [[Clunia]], [[Salt mines of Poza de la Sal]] and the [[vía de la Plata]] pathway, which crosses the west of the community from [[Astorga, Spain|Astorga]] (''[[Asturica Augusta]]'') to the capital of modern [[Extremadura]], [[Mérida, Spain|Mérida]] (''[[Emerita Augusta]]'').

[[File:Toros de Guisando.jpg|thumb|left| [[Bulls of Guisando]], in [[El Tiemblo]], [[Province of Ávila|Ávila]]. These ''[[verraco]]s'', of [[Celts|Celtic]] origin, are found in many towns of the western half of Castile and León.]]
With the fall of Rome, the lands were occupied militarily by the [[Visigoths|Visigoth]] peoples of Germanic origin. The subsequent arrival of the Arabs was followed by a process known as the ''[[Reconquista]]'' (Reconquest). In the mountainous area of [[Asturias]], a small Christian kingdom was created that opposed the Islamic presence in the Peninsula. It proclaimed itself an heir of the last Visigoth kings, who in turn had been deeply romanized. This resistance of Visigoth-Roman heritage, supported by Christianity, was becoming increasingly strong and expanding to the south, eventually establishing its court in the city of [[León, Spain|León]], becoming the [[Kingdom of León]]. To encourage the repopulation of the newly reconquered lands, a number of [[fuero]]s ("letters of repopulation") were granted by the monarchs.

[[File:Castro de Ulaca 10 by-dpc.jpg|thumb|right|Celtiberian [[castro of Ulaca]].]]
In the [[Middle Ages]], Christian pilgrimages to [[Santiago de Compostela]] were popularized. The [[Camino de Santiago]], running along the northern part of the region, was a major part of the route of pilgrimage, so it contributed to the spread of European cultural innovations throughout the peninsula. Today the Camino is still an important touristic and cultural attraction.

In 1188, the [[Basílica de San Isidoro, León|basilica of San Isidoro of León]] was the setting of the first [[Cortes of León of 1188|parliamentary body]] in the history of Europe, with the participation of the [[Estates of the realm#Third Estate|Third Estate]]. The king who summoned it was [[Alfonso IX of León]].

The legal basis for the kingdom was the [[Roman law]], and because of this the kings increasingly wanted more power, like the Roman emperors. This is very clearly seen in the ''[[Siete Partidas]]'' of [[Alfonso X of Castile]], which shows the imperial monism that the king sought. The King did not want to be a ''[[primus inter pares]]'', but the source of the law.

[[File:AcueductoSegovia04.JPG|thumb|left| [[Aqueduct of Segovia]], [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] construction.]]
Simultaneously, a county of this Christian kingdom of León, began to acquire autonomy and to expand. This is the primitive [[County of Castile]], which would grow into a powerful kingdom among the Christian kingdoms of the Peninsula. The first Castilian count was [[Fernán González of Castile|Fernán González]].

[[File:Gormaz, Fortaleza califal pña.jpg|thumb|200px| [[Castle of Gormaz]]. It was the largest fortress in Europe after its expansion in 956, in the river Duero (Douro) defense line.]]
León and Castile continued to expand to the South, even beyond the [[Douro]] river, seeking to conquer lands under Islamic rule. That was the time of the [[Chanson de geste|''Cantares de gesta'']], poems which recount the great deeds of the Christian nobles who fought against the Muslim enemy. Despite this, Christian and Muslim kings maintained diplomatic relations. One clear example is [[El Cid|Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, ''El Cid'']], paradigm of the medieval Christian knight, who fought both for Christian and Muslim kings.

The origin of the definitive dynastic unification of the kingdoms of Castile and León, which had been separated for just seven decades, was in 1194. [[Alfonso VIII of Castile]] and [[Alfonso IX of León]] signed in [[Tordehumos]] the treaty that pacified the area of [[Tierra de Campos]] and laid the foundation for a future reunification of the kingdoms, consolidated in 1230 with [[Ferdinand III of Castile|Ferdinand III ''the Saint'']]. This agreement is called the [[Treaty of Tordehumos]].

[[File:Leon (San Isidoro, panteón).jpg|thumb| [[Pantheon of kings of the Basílica de San Isidoro of León|Pantheon of kings]] of the Romanesque [[Basílica de San Isidoro, León|Basilica of San Isidoro of León]] where [[Alfonso IX of León|Alfonso IX]] convened the [[Cortes of León of 1188]], the first parliamentary body of the history of Europe,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/memory-of-the-world/register/full-list-of-registered-heritage/registered-heritage-page-8/the-decreta-of-leon-of-1188-the-oldest-documentary-manifestation-of-the-european-parliamentary-system/ |title=The Decreta of León of 1188 - The oldest documentary manifestation of the European parliamentary system - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization |website=www.UNESCO.org |access-date=21 January 2018 |archive-date=24 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624133501/http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/memory-of-the-world/register/full-list-of-registered-heritage/registered-heritage-page-8/the-decreta-of-leon-of-1188-the-oldest-documentary-manifestation-of-the-european-parliamentary-system/ |url-status=live }}</ref> with presence of [[Estates of the realm#Third Estate|Third Estate]]. In the same [[Basílica de San Isidoro, León|basilica]] is the [[Chalice of Doña Urraca]], which some researchers assimilate with the [[Holy Grail]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.elnortedecastilla.es/leon/201408/13/santo-grial-eleva-visitas-20140813125836.html |title=El Santo Grial eleva un 30% las visitas a San Isidoro y genera nuevo empleo |date=13 August 2014 |website=ElNorteDeCastilla.es |access-date=21 January 2018 |archive-date=4 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180104132529/http://www.elnortedecastilla.es/leon/201408/13/santo-grial-eleva-visitas-20140813125836.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.abc.es/local-castilla-leon/20140326/abci-historiadores-concluyen-santo-grial-201403261750.html |title=¿Está el Santo Grial en León? |website=ABC.es |date=26 March 2014 |access-date=21 January 2018 |archive-date=30 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180130012354/http://www.abc.es/local-castilla-leon/20140326/abci-historiadores-concluyen-santo-grial-201403261750.html |url-status=live }}</ref>]]

During the [[Late Middle Ages]] there was an economic and political crisis produced by a series of bad harvests and by disputes between nobles and the Crown for power, as well as between different contenders for the throne. In the [[Cortes of Valladolid (1295)|Cortes of Valladolid of 1295]], [[Ferdinand IV of Castile|Ferdinand IV]] is recognized as king. The painting [[María de Molina presents her son Fernando IV in the Cortes of Valladolid of 1295]] presides today the Spanish Congress of Deputies along with a painting of the [[Cortes of Cádiz]], emphasizing the parliamentarian importance that has all the development of Cortes in Castile and León, despite its subsequent decline. The Crown was becoming more authoritarian and the nobility more dependent on it.

The ''[[Reconquista]]'' continued advancing from the thriving [[Crown of Castile]] to the south, and culminated with the [[Granada War]] against the last Muslim stronghold in the Iberian peninsula, the [[Emirate of Granada|Nasrid Kingdom of Granada]], which [[Treaty of Granada (1491)|surrendered]] on 2 January 1492.

[[File:Comuneros.jpg|thumb| [[Revolt of the Comuneros]]]]
[[File:Casas del Tratado de Tordesillas.jpg|thumb|In [[Tordesillas]] queen [[Isabella I of Castile]] signed the [[Treaty of Tordesillas]]. Her daughter queen [[Joanna of Castile]] was imprisoned in a convent of the city by her father first, by her son later, and was praised by the comuneros in their [[Revolt of the Comuneros|Revolt]].]]

===Antecedents of the autonomy===
In June 1978, Castile and León obtained the pre-autonomy, through the creation of [[General council of Castile and Leon|General council of Castile and León]] by [[Royal Decree-Law (Spain)|Royal Decree-Law]] 20/1978, of 13 June.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}

In times of the [[First Spanish Republic]] (1873–1874), the [[Federal Democratic Republican Party|federal republicans]] conceived the project to create a federated state of eleven provinces in the valley of the Spanish Douro, that would also have included the provinces of [[Cantabria|Santander]] and [[La Rioja (Spain)|Logroño]].{{citation needed|date=November 2020}} Very few years before, in 1869, as part of a manifesto, federal republicans representatives of the 17 provinces of Albacete, Ávila, Burgos, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara, León, Logroño, Madrid, Palencia, Salamanca, Santander, Segovia, Soria, Toledo, Valladolid and Zamora proposed in the so-called [[Castilian Federal Pact]] the conformation of an entity formed by two different "states": the state of Old Castile -that is presently built for the current Castilian-Leonese provinces and the provinces of Logroño and Santander-, and the state of New Castile -which conforms to the current provinces of [[Castile-La Mancha]] plus the [[province of Madrid]]-. The end of the Republic, at the beginning of 1874, thwarted the initiative.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}
[[File:Minutos de Historia. Por la Autonomía de Castilla y León, 1978.jpg|thumb|right|Manifestation of 1978 in Valladolid that sued a Statute of Autonomy for the region.]]

In 1921, on the occasion of the fourth centenary of the [[Battle of Villalar]], the [[City Council of Santader|Santander City Council]] advocated the creation of a Castilian and Leonese Commonwealth of eleven provinces, an idea that would be maintained in later years. At the end of 1931 and beginning of 1932, from León, [[Eugenio Merino]] elaborated a text in which the base of a [[Castilian-Leonese regionalism]] was put. The text was published in the Diario de León newspaper.<ref name="catechism">Juan-Miguel Álvarez Domínguez.[http://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/fichero_articulo?codigo=2381262&orden=0 ''The Regionalist Catechism of Don Eugenio, an example of Castilian-Leonese regionalism sponsored by León''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719235215/http://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/fichero_articulo?codigo=2381262&orden=0 |date=19 July 2011 }}. 1931, Argutorio, No. 19 (2nd semester 2007), pp. 32-36.</ref>

During the [[Second Spanish Republic]], especially in 1936, there was a great regionalist activity favorable to a region of eleven provinces, and even bases for the Statute of Autonomy were elaborated. The ''Diario de León'' advocated for the formalization of this initiative and the constitution of an autonomous region with these words:
{{Blockquote|Join in a personality León and Old Castile around the great basin of the Douro, without to fall now into provincial rivalries.|''Diario de León'', 22 May 1936.}}
The end of the [[Spanish Civil War]] and the beginning of [[Francoist Spain|Franco regime]] ended the aspirations of the autonomy for the region. The philosopher [[José Ortega y Gasset]] collected this scheme in his publications.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://biblioteca2.uclm.es/biblioteca/ceclm/websCECLM/transici%C3%B3n/PDF/03-02.%20Texto.pdf |title=La propuesta autonomista de Ortega y Gasset: un claro antecedente de la configuración autonómica del Estado español de 1978 |author=Alejandro De Haro Honrubia |publisher=University of Castilla-La Mancha |access-date=5 January 2018 |archive-date=8 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308075425/http://biblioteca2.uclm.es/biblioteca/ceclm/websCECLM/transici%C3%B3n/PDF/03-02.%20Texto.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>

After the death of Francisco Franco, regionalist, autonomist and nationalist organizations ([[Castilian-Leonese regionalism]] and [[Castilian nationalism]]) as [[Regional Alliance of Castile and León]] (1975), [[Regional Institute of Castile and León]] (1976) or the [[Autonomous Nationalist Party of Castile and León]] (1977). Later after the extinction of these formations arose in 1993 [[Regionalist Unity of Castile and León]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/ESPANA/CASTILLA_Y_LEON/UNIDAD_REGIONALISTA_DE_CASTILLA_Y_LEON/PARTIDO_NACIONALISTA_DE_CASTILLA_Y_LEON/grupos/politicos/fusionan/partido/regionalista/Castilla/Leon/elpepiesp/19920427elpepinac_6/Tes |title=Seis grupos políticos se fusionan en un partido regionalista en Castilla y León |author=El País (newspaper) |newspaper=El País |date=26 April 1992 |access-date=29 November 2009 |archive-date=5 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111105094656/http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/ESPANA/CASTILLA_Y_LEON/UNIDAD_REGIONALISTA_DE_CASTILLA_Y_LEON/PARTIDO_NACIONALISTA_DE_CASTILLA_Y_LEON/grupos/politicos/fusionan/partido/regionalista/Castilla/Leon/elpepiesp/19920427elpepinac_6/Tes |url-status=live }}</ref>

At the same time, others of [[Leonesism|Leonesist]] character arose, such as the [[Leonese Autonomous Group]] (1978) or [[Regionalist Party of the Leonese Country]] (1980), which advocated the creation of a Leonese autonomous community, composed of provinces of [[Province of León|León]], [[Province of Salamanca|Salamanca]] and [[Province of Zamora|Zamora]]. The popular and political support that maintained the uniprovincial autonomy in [[Province of León|León]] became very important in that city.

===Autonomy===
The autonomous community of Castile and León is the result of the union in 1983 of nine provinces: the three that, after the territorial division of 1833, by which the provinces were created, were ascribed to the [[León (historical region)|Region of León]], and six ascribed to [[Old Castile]]; however 2 provinces of Old Castile were not included: Santander (current community of [[Cantabria]]) and Logroño (current [[La Rioja (Spain)|La Rioja]]).
[[File:Villalar de los Comuneros 1977.jpg|thumb|Villalar de los Comuneros, 23 April 1977]]
[[File:Villalar de los Comuneros 1977 02.jpg|thumb|Villalar de los Comuneros, 23 April 1977]]
In the case of [[Cantabria]] the creation of an [[autonomous community]] was advocated for historical, cultural and geographical reasons, while in [[La Rioja (Spain)|La Rioja]] the process was more complex due to the existence of three alternatives, all based on historical and socio-economic reasons: union with Castile and León (advocated by the [[Union of the Democratic Centre (Spain)|Union of the Democratic Centre]] political party), union to a Basque-Navarrese community (supported by the [[Spanish Socialist Workers' Party|Socialist Party]] and [[Communist Party of Spain|Communist Party]]) or creation of an uniprovincial autonomy; the latter option was chosen because it had more support among the population.

After the creation of the Castilian-Leonese pre-autonomous body, which was supported by the Provincial Council of León in its agreement of April 16, 1980, this institution revoked its original agreement on January 13, 1983, just as the draft of the Organic Law entered the Spanish parliament. The Constitutional Court determined which of those contradictory agreements was valid in the ''Sentence 89/1984 of September 28''; it declares that the subject of the process is no longer, as in its preliminary phase, the councils and municipalities, but the new body.

After the sentence, there were several demonstrations in León in favor of the ''León alone'' option (see [[Leonesism]]), one of them according to some sources brought together a number close to 90&nbsp;000 people,<ref>''Diario de León'' (newspaper), 5 May 1984.</ref> This was the highest concentration held in the city in the Democratic period until the demonstrations rejecting the [[2004 Madrid train bombings]].<ref>''Diario de León'', 13 March 2004.</ref>

In an agreement adopted on 31 July 1981, the Provincial Council of Segovia decided to exercise the initiative so that [[Segovia]] could be constituted as a uniprovincial autonomous community, but in the municipalities of the province the situation was equal between the supporters of the uniprovincial autonomy and the supporters of the union.

[[File:Celebración del día de Villalar, 1985.jpg|thumb|Celebration of the [[Castile and León Day|Villalar Day]] in 1985.]]
The City Council of [[Cuéllar]] initially adhered to this autonomic initiative in agreement adopted by the corporation on October 5, 1981. However, another agreement adopted by the same corporation dated December 3 of the same year revoked the previous one and the process was paralyzed pending the processing of an appeal filed by the provincial council against this last agreement; this change of opinion of the city council of Cuéllar tipped the scales in the province towards the autonomy with the rest of Castile and León, but it was an agreement that arrived out of time. Finally the province of Segovia was incorporated into Castile and León along with the other eight provinces and legal coverage was given through the ''Organic Law 5/1983'' for "reasons of national interest", as provided for in article 144 c of the [[Spanish Constitution of 1978|Spanish Constitution]] for those provinces that have not exercised their right on time.

Since 2019, the ''[[Ayuntamiento (Spain)|ayuntamientos]]'' of several municipalities of the province of León (including the capital's) have passed motions to propose the split of the provinces of the region of León from Castile and León and become a standalone autonomous community.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://revistaseug.ugr.es/index.php/polygob/article/view/26056/27183|last=Castro Ruiz|first=José Ángel|year=2023|title=El movimiento leonesista desde el proceso autonómico hasta la actualidad|journal=Política y Gobernanza. Revista de Investigaciones y Análisis Político|volume=7|doi=10.30827/polygob.i7.2605667|issn=2531-0062|pages=88–91|doi-broken-date=2024-11-03 }}</ref> As leonesism has traditionally been a fringe movement in the provinces of Zamora and Salamanca, some of these motions have limited to the prospect of a single-province autonomous community exclusively for León ('{{lang|es|León solo}}').{{Sfn|Castro Ruiz|2023|pp=89–91}}