AragonSpanish Aragón, comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) and historical region of northeastern destroyed numerous vineyards there. Meanwhile, the population of the province and city of Zaragoza has grown at the expense of Huesca and Teruel. One-half of Aragon’s population lives in Zaragoza city.

Most of the land is cultivated by , producing crops of , , olives, and grapes. The land, however, is far more productive and accounts for the better part of Aragon’s agricultural output. The principal crops of the irrigated zones are corn (maize), fodder, and fruit.

The government sponsored various projects to expand the land under irrigation, beginning with the Imperial Canal alongside the Ebro River, which was completed in 1783. By 1904 the Canal of Aragon and Catalonia had brought wide stretches of land in the province of Huesca under irrigation, and the Plan Bardenas and the Plan Monegros, both initiated after 1945, brought many additional acres under irrigation. The Bardenas Canal channels the Arba and Aragon rivers and centres around the town of Ejea de los Caballeros, while the Monegros Canal draws on rivers south of Huesca town. Livestock farming, especially and raising, is important in Huesca.

Aragon’s manufacturing sector is heavily concentrated in greater Zaragoza. The introduction of sugar beets in the late 19th century hastened the industrialization of the city; seven sugar refineries were established there between 1900 and 1905. Metalworking is now Zaragoza’s leading industry, however. Electric appliances, machinery, railway equipment, and automobiles are the leading manufactures. Textiles, footwear, and clothing are also produced.

Aragon’s primary source of energy is hydroelectricity, generated by the damming of the Ebro River and its northern affluents in Huesca. Historically, Teruel province was a lignite and iron-ore mining region; today its dominant economic activity is the production of thermoelectric power. A railroad reached Zaragoza in 1864, and highways now connect that city with Spain’s major industrial centres.

History

Test Your Knowledge

Beer and Brewing

The modern autonomous community of Aragon is roughly coextensive with the historical . This principality had its origins in 1035, when (the Great) of Navarre left to his third son, , the small Pyrenean county of Aragon and established it as an independent kingdom. To this mountain domain Ramiro added the counties of Sobrarbe and Ribagorza to the east. By 1104 Aragon’s kings had doubled its size by conquests southward toward the Ebro River. Zaragoza, a major city controlled by the Almoravids, fell to of Aragon (1104–34) in 1118, and it soon became the capital of the kingdom of Aragon. The reconquest of present-day Aragon from the Muslims had been completed by the late 12th century. In 1179 Aragon reached an agreement with the neighbouring Christian kingdom of Castile under which those parts of Spain remaining in Muslim hands were divided into two zones—one for each kingdom to reconquer.

In 1137 the ruler of , , count of , married the heiress of the kingdom of Aragon. The union of Aragon and Catalonia principally benefited the Catalans, who dominated the state until 1412. The union enabled the Catalans to devote themselves to commerce and maritime expansion, knowing that the financial and military responsibility of defending them from would fall largely on the inhabitants of the Aragonese hinterland.

The Aragonese kings meanwhile continued to expand their domains, reconquering the rich kingdom of Valencia from the Muslims in 1238. Having thus completed the occupation of the Muslim territories allotted to it by the treaty of 1179, Aragon began expanding into the Mediterranean area, a move made possible by the of the Catalans. In 1282, after the incident of the , of Aragon (1276–85) was received by the Sicilians as their king, and thenceforth was ruled either directly by the kings of Aragon or by their relatives. was incorporated into the Aragonese empire in 1320, and in 1442 Alfonso V of Aragon (1416–58) successfully concluded his long struggle to conquer the . Navarre, which had been ruled by Aragon from 1076 to 1134, came under its rule again in 1425.

Source: www.britannica.com