Plausibility Check: Catalonia

Catalan is considered by most linguists to be closer to French than Spanish. In addition Catalan is incredibly close to Occitan, which was the dominant language of Southern France before the 20th century. So here's the question:

How plausible would it be for France to annex Catalonia from Spain in the late 18th / early 19th century? How would the people who live in Catalonia react?

I do have a feeling this would cause a revanchist Spain...
 
Those Crazy Bonapartes™, perhaps. Of course the Spaniards wouldn't stand for it, and it's doubtless to remain a permanent arrangement unless Napoleon emerges victorious against his European enemies.
 
Catalonia was indeed turned into four French départements from January 1812 to March 1814.

Indeed the historical relationships between Catalonia and France have a long standing of attraction / repulsion, for a part because traditionally Catalonia perceived Castile even more foreign than France. There was a real possibility of annexation, or at least of creation of a 'double crown', when during the Guerra dels Segadors the Catalans in rebellion against Madrid made Louis XIII count Louis I of Barcelona. Instead by the Treaty of the Pyrenees France struggling for 'natural borders' kept the Catalan territories North of the Pyrenees (mostly Roussillon) and abandoned Catalonia to Philip IV of Spain. Of course the Catalans felt betrayed.

Anti-French feelings worsened with the War of Spanish Succession when French troops fought for Philip V on Spanish territory under the Duke of Vendome (who had already taken Barcelona during the Nine Years War!). Catalonia fought stubbornly for the Hapsburg, Catalan resistance was desperate and the repression fierce. Nonetheless, had Louis XIV show some displeasure to the way the Catalans (rebel but good Catholics) were treated, Catalonia could have wished to become French rather than remaining Spanish during the War of the Quadruple Alliance?
 
Catalonia was indeed turned into four French départements from January 1812 to March 1814.

Indeed the historical relationships between Catalonia and France have a long standing of attraction / repulsion, for a part because traditionally Catalonia perceived Castile even more foreign than France. There was a real possibility of annexation, or at least of creation of a 'double crown', when during the Guerra dels Segadors the Catalans in rebellion against Madrid made Louis XIII count Louis I of Barcelona. Instead by the Treaty of the Pyrenees France struggling for 'natural borders' kept the Catalan territories North of the Pyrenees (mostly Roussillon) and abandoned Catalonia to Philip IV of Spain. Of course the Catalans felt betrayed.

Anti-French feelings worsened with the War of Spanish Succession when French troops fought for Philip V on Spanish territory under the Duke of Vendome (who had already taken Barcelona during the Nine Years War!). Catalonia fought stubbornly for the Hapsburg, Catalan resistance was desperate and the repression fierce. Nonetheless, had Louis XIV show some displeasure to the way the Catalans (rebel but good Catholics) were treated, Catalonia could have wished to become French rather than remaining Spanish during the War of the Quadruple Alliance?

I guess if Napoleon did not attack Russia in 1812, Catalonia would have become an "ordinary" French province. France was quite successfull assimilating other "foreign" provinces (Corse, Alsace, Bretagne etc.). So probably most of the catalan would speak and feel French today, only a minority would wish to have some kind of autonomy.
 
stop the Castille/Aragon personal union from happening, merging Aragon with the French crown at some point ...
 
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