After the union of the States of Spain in the person of Charles I, Catalonia mantained its own institutions until the end of the War of Succession (1716), when Philip V abolished its centuries old constitutional regime and, by applying right of conquest, brought into Catalonia a regime based on a state of exception and the harshest repression, which abolished all the autonomous institutions.
The coming of the 2nd Republic, 1931, brought with it the recognition of an autonomous government, which has has an ephemeral but singnificant precedent in March 1873 when a Catalan State had been proclaimed within the Spanish federal Republic. A Statute of Autonomy was immediately drafted, which was ratified by the Spanish Cortes in September 1932. In April 1938, the entry of general Franco s troops into Catalonia put an end to the Catalan Statute and led to a new situation.
With the coming of democracy, Catalonia swiftly joined in the regional autonomy policy of the new regime which, after the temporary restoration of the Generalitat, culminated in the drafting of the present Autonomy Statute, ratified on October 25th, 1979.