a historical region in northeastern Spain in the Ebro River valley. Aragón comprises the administrative provinces of Zaragoza, Teruel, and Huesca. Area, 47,700 sq km. Population in 1968, 1,100,000. Capital, Zaragoza.
Aragón occupies most of the Aragón plain and the central regions of the Pyrenees (the highest mountain is Aneto, 3,404 m) and the eastern part of the Iberian Mountains, which enclose it. The plain (except for the fertile valley of the Ebro) is covered mainly with dry steppes and the mountains with deciduous and coniferous forests. Aragón is an agricultural region; more than 65 percent of its population was engaged in agriculture in 1965. It is characterized by large-scale landownership and small and tiny peasant holdings. In the valleys and mountain foothills, olives, grapes, and sugar beets are grown on irrigated lands (by the Imperial and Aragón canals and so on); grain crops are grown on unirrigated lands (chief region, Cincovillas); part of the lands usable for cultivation lie idle for lack of irrigation.
Aragón is a big producer of electric power; its hydroelectric stations (including Fortunada on the Cinca River and Barasona on the Esera River) serve Aragón as well as neighboring provinces. The heat and power plants in Escatrón and Aliaga use lignite; Aragón is the biggest producer of lignite in Spain (about 1 million tons a year; deposits in Utrillas and Miraflores). The iron ore basin of Ojos Negros holds an important place in the economy of Aragón. It supplies the metallurgical complex in Sagunto, Valencia Province. Industry is also represented by sugar refining, butter production, flour milling, viticulture, metalworking, and chemical and aluminum production (Sabiñánigo). Zaragoza is the main industrial center of the province.
The county of Aragón was established in the ninth century during the Reconquista in the basin of the Aragón River, a tributary of the Ebro. In the early 11th century Aragón became part of the kingdom of Navarre and an independent kingdom in 1035. In 1118, King Alfonsol (1104–34) conquered Zaragoza, which became the capital of Aragón, and extended the frontiers of his estate beyond the Ebro. In 1137 the county of Barcelona was united with Aragón through a personal union; other lands of Catalonia later became also part of Aragón, and the counts of Barcelona became kings of Aragón. In 1172 the county of Roussillon was added to Aragón and the Balearic Islands were won from the Moors during 1229–35; in 1276 the sovereign kingdom of Mallorca was established there but was reconquered by Aragón during 1344–49; in 1238, Valencia was added to Aragón. The Aragonese kings became masters of Sicily in 1282–1302, of Sardinia in 1326, and of the kingdom of Naples (where they had viceroys) in 1442. Economically the most developed parts of the kingdom of Aragón were Catalonia and Valencia, which retained considerable degrees of independence (their own cortes, legislation, and administration); Aragón proper was the poorest part, but it retained political dominance.
The closely knit nobility of Aragón had secured enormous privileges for itself in exploiting the population of Aragón and its subject provinces. In 1281 the cortes of Zaragoza legally sanctioned oppressive forms of peasant serfdom. Serfdom was intensified in Aragón and Catalonia in the 13th and 14th centuries; it survived in Aragón until the 17th century, while it was abolished in Catalonia in 1486. The policy of the Aragonese kings was determined by the cortes (established in Aragón in 1071), which reflected the interests of the higher nobility. The General Privilege of Peterlll (1276–85) in 1283 and the Privileges of the Union of Alfonso III (1285–91) in 1287 granted the nobility the right to defend its interests with arms in hand (including the deposition of the king). The abrogation of the Privileges of the Union in the middle of the 14th century Restricted Somewhat The Intervention Of The Nobility In The Administration Of The State, But The Power Of The Feudal Class Over The Peasantry Was Fully Retained. In 1479, AragÓN And Castile Became A Unified State—Spain.
L. T. MIl’Skaia