Toma nota.../Take note...

Hasta la llegada al trono de Alfonso II de Aragón en 1163 no había existido diferencia entre Corona y Reino de Aragón. La diferencia entre ambos se produce con el surgimiento de territorios autónomos, administrativa y legalmente bajo la tutela de la nobleza, pero dentro de la Corona, como sería el caso de los reinos de Valencia y Mallorca, que estaban unidos y eran súbditos del reino de Aragón. Entre los territorios autónomos, había varios condados, uno de ellos el Condado de Barcelona.

Al final de este reportaje vea un video sobre la realidad actual en la región de Cataluña.

Barcelona, Jul.30 (DP.net).– El fin de las guerras de la Reconquista trajo consigo una consecuencia inesperada: la nobleza había podido consolidar su poder e independencia en cuestiones legislativas y fiscales. Además, la corona se había visto obligada a apoyarse en los diversos condados catalanes. Pese a todo, y con un desarrollo asimétrico de sus regiones, Aragón consolidaba un entramado político común que mantenía unido gracias a la religión, la moneda y la legislación. 

Las primeras referencias a un Principado de Cataluña las encontramos en el siglo XI, con un propósito descriptivo destinado a definir el territorio de los condados de Barcelona, Girona y Osona que controlaba Ramón Berenguer, luego se trataba de limites territoriales que no identificaban a un Principado reconocido. Incluía también otros territorios, como los condados de Lerida o Urgel, pero desde Jaime I y su Real Pragmática de 1243, los limites se reducían al condado de Barcelona, derogándose el título de marqueses, que habían tomado sin consentimiento regio, aprovechando la minoría de edad del monarca aragonés.

Además, el término de "Condados Catalanes" es una invención de la historiografía moderna que ha tratado de ofrecer una unidad a los territorios que hoy componen Cataluña, un nombre que no tiene antecedentes históricos en la época de la Reconquista. Lo que hoy se denomina "Cataluña" era un territorio compuesto por diversos condados bajo la corona de Aragón que se habían consolidado a partir de la Marca Hispánica del Imperio Carolingio.

The Republic of China retreated to Taiwan in 1949 maintaining its de facto, if not de jure, independence, but Beijing has consistently refused formally to abandon the idea of reunifying Taiwan with China. As well as growing military pressure, the Peoples Republica of China (PRC) irredentist policy is premised on encouraging cross-Strait economic integration. Responding to preferential measures, Taiwanese industrialists have invested massively in the PRC, often relocating their businesses there. Fragments of a nation torn apart by contradictory claims, these entrepreneurs are vectors of a new form of unification imposed by the Chinese Communist Party, promoted but postponed on the island by the Nationalist Party, and rejected by a majority of the Taiwanese population.Within what can be described as an unfinished civil war, socio-economic dynamics remain embedded in conflicts over sovereignty.

Taiwan and Neutrality

A way forward for Asia’s direct democratic tiger

by Bruno Kaufmann

Neutrality, combined with participatory democracy, is not a guaranteed recipe for a country’s lasting stability. But history suggests it is better insurance than the most sophisticated weapons systems.

Taipei, Jul.3.– How can a small country like Taiwan best defend its democracy against the explicit threats of its stronger neighbours? How can it withstand the pressures of geopolitical aggression between great powers?

Neutrality might be the answer.

Contrary to what is usually reflected in the mass media, Christian thought has been highly relevant in the evolution from absolutism to democracy and its eventual struggle against totalitarianism. Alexis de Tocqueville in the 19th Century and Jacques Maritain in the 20th Century, through Leo XIII from the Holy See and the resulting Church Social Doctrine are notable exponents of the relevance of Christian teachings and their influence on democratic ideas. The following article offers an excellent analysis of this topic. 

Frenchmen in America: How Alexis de Tocqueville and Jacques Maritain Discovered America

Introduction
(...)

At first glance, Alexis de Tocqueville and Jacques Maritain would appear to have little in common. An aristocrat from one of France’s oldest families, Tocqueville had many doubts about the truth claims of Christianity, though we have good reason to believe that he returned to the Catholic faith on his deathbed. Tocqueville also wrote very much as what we would call political sociologist, even a type of political scientist. Though obviously familiar with Christian sources and thought – indeed, he never stopped attending Mass – it’s clear that he was as much influenced by reading Rousseau, Voltaire, and especially Montesquieu as he was by reading Augustine.

By contrast, our second figure, Jacques Maritain, was raised as a Protestant. For a time, he was an agnostic before converting to Catholicism in 1906. Aristotle and Aquinas were Maritain’s lodestones, and his thought forms part of that great revival of Thomas Aquinas’ thought occasioned by Leo XIII’s 1879 encyclical Aeterni Patris. A fierce critic of Voltaire and even more so of Rousseau, Maritain authored over 60 books, which focused on subjects ranging from metaphysics to the nature and role of the state. Maritain was also viewed as a type of representative of 20th century Catholic intellectuals. It was not a coincidence that Pope Paul VI presented his “Message to Men of Thought and of Science” at the end of Vatican II to Maritain.

Russian meddling failed in Moldova and their annexation did not crystallize thanks to Ukraine's independence creating a buffer zone between this small country and their powerful Eastern neighbor. Nevertheless, an artificial geographic belt baptized as Transdniester Republic was snatched from the moldovans and is controlled by Russia since 1992, well before the Russian anexation of Crimea.  

Republic of Moldova: Transition from communism to democracy

Chişinău, May 16.– The Moldovan Democratic Republic was established in 1917, but was incorporated by the Kingdom of Romania in 1918. After the Second World War, the country was part of the Soviet Union. In 1990, the Pridnestrovian Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic proclaimed its independence from Moldova, because they wanted to remain in the Soviet Union and feared a reunification with Romania. It was neither recognised by Moscow or Chişinău.

Moldova became itself independent in 1991. Since then, and until 2009, Moldova was under a more or less disguised communist government. On the 5th of April 2009, the Communist Party won the parliamentary elections with 60 seats out of a possible 101. It became contested after people claimed that there had been some manipulation with the votes and their counting. The electoral campaign was marked by numerous accusations against the Communists (harassment of opposition political parties, misuse of administrative funds, and interference in the editorial policy of public mass media).