Rexurdimento
The Rexurdimento (Galician for Resurgence) was a period in the History of Galicia during the 19th century. Its central feature was the revitalization of the Galician language as a vehicle of social and cultural expression after the so-called séculos escuros ("dark centuries") in which the dominance of Castilian Spanish was nearly complete. The Galician Rexurdimento coincides with the Catalan Renaixença. Romanticism led to a revival of regionalism in the Iberian Peninsula. Languages besides the official Castilian Spanish were reevaluated. In contrast to the universalizing Age of Enlightenment, a positive value was placed on regional traditions, languages, and dialects. In Galicia, Castilian Spanish had become the language of the cities and of the bourgeoisie, while Galician had become a largely rural language without a live literary tradition. This created some degree of diglossia, with Castilian Spanish dominating literary and business use, and Galician being strictly a language of daily life. Road to the Rexurdimento The transitional phase from the to the Rexurdimento is referred to by literary historians as the Prerrexurdimento. Within the Prerrexurdimento, two phases can be roughly distinguished, before and after the unsuccessful Solís Uprising of 1846. The first phase involved a rather diffuse revival of the Galician language;