Thanks to its cotton industry, 19th century Barcelona enjoyed a revival and became the seat of an autonomous Catalan government. Between 1890 and 1915, the bourgeoisie, growing rich on a tide of industrial production and keen to maximise influence within Spain, financed an adventurous plan of urban growth beyond the old city walls. Called L’Eixample (The Expansion), it was much-needed, as the old city was over-populated and suffering from unhealthy living conditions. Eixample became the playground for a generation of unusually gifted architects who pioneered the modernista movement. They included Lluís Domènech i Muntaner, Josep Puig i Cadafalch, Josep Maria Jujol and Antoni Gaudí. Barcelona’s renaixenca, or renaissance, also saw the resurrection of the Catalan language and the emergence of poets such as Jacint Verdaguer. Enric de Prat de la Riba, meanwhile, became the first president of the Commonwealth of Catalonia, comprising the four provinces of Barcelona, Girona, Tarragona and Lleida.