The loss of the Cuban and Philippine colonial markets finally pushed the Catalan industrial middle class into political action. The Lliga Regionalista (Regionalist League) was set up in 1901. In 1903 the Lliga controlled the Barcelona City Council and used it to set about modernising the city. In 1906, the Lliga joined a broad coalition that was nationalist in outlook and which brought together diverse, even contradictory, political forces in the Solidaritat Catalana (Catalan Solidarity). The new coalition was overwhelmingly successful throughout Catalonia and overpowered the Diputació de Barcelona (provincial council). The Lliga’s pragmatic politics combined nationalist feeling with the firm decision to intervene in the governing of the Spanish state. The Catalan electoral map changed dramatically: the dynastic parties were pushed aside and the political field was divided up between the Lliga Regionalista and the republican parties.
