Draft Constitution of the Catalan Republic of 1928

The Draft Constitution of the Catalan Republic of 1928, commonly known as the Constitution of Havana (the place where it was written), was born as one of several attempts to raise the Catalan community to the status of an independent state.

In the period between the First World War and 1931, a number of factors contributed to the rise of nationalist activity in Catalonia: the birth of the Irish state, the creation of several European countries from the disintegration of the European Empires, the admission of the right of self-determination by both the Americans (Woodrow Wilson) and the Soviets (Lenin), and the decline of the Spanish Empire (which lost its colonies of Cuba and The Philippines), against the backdrop of the growth of the Catalan economy.

This resulted in the creation of the separatist Constituent Assembly of Catalonia in Havana, Cuba, chaired by Francesc Macià. This assembly approved the Constitution of Havana on 30 September and 1 and 2 October 1928, as their project of giving a Provisional Constitution for a Catalan Republic.

The Draft Constitution was written by Josep Conangla i Fontanilles (Montblanc 1875 – Havana 1965), a Catalan essayist and poet living in Havana, and the leading Catalan separatist in the Americas during the 20th Century.

In 1931 the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed, but the lack of a strong leader and mature separatist party extinguished the aspirations to independence embodied in this text. Therefore, the constitution never came into effect, and instead the Catalan authorities presented the Draft Statute of Catalonia of 1932 to the Spanish Government. This statute (regional constitution), however, was also rejected, and finally the governments of Spain and Catalonia approved the Statute of Catalonia of 1932.

In spite of never having entered into force, the Draft Constitution is a very important text in regards to the political ideas and ideals of the Catalan separatist movement before Francisco Franco's dictatorship.

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