It’s not very widely known that the language of the south of France before widely adopting the French language was Occitan and now only very few people actually speak the language. Standard German is very different to varieties of German spoken all throughout Germany and even Switzerland, so I was wondering when all the areas of what is now Germany decided to speak and learn Hochdeutsch. Castilian Spanish was also most likely limited to the Kingdom of Castile and even during the dynastic Union, I’m not sure if Aragonese folk also adopted Castilian right away or if it took them centuries to speak Spanish.
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People adopted the language when education became mandatory (around the 20th century). Educated elites in local areas are a different thing.
Clarification: “Castilian Spanish” is not a thing. People wrongfully call it Spanish outside, but it’s just “Castellano” (the language of Castile) in the same way you say English, not British. No debate about it unless you have a political agenda behind.
Castilian is roughly the Romance spoken by the Basque area (lacks initial F same as Basque). The kings of Aragon adopted it, but as the center pivoted to Catalan spoken areas it became more prominent.
The West is more problematic due to two countries trying to mask the past. The Christian holdings when Arabs invade were reduced to the province of Gallaecia. In fact Arabs referred to European Christians as Franks (ferengi) and Iberian Christians, even Basques, as Galicians (galisi). The court moved to Leon and as western Warlords (Castille) became more powerful a shift towards the East started.
After several wars the Galician nobles were defeated, except the count of Portugal (southern half of Galicia), who remained independent and claimant to the title of king of Galicia. Since the status quo didn’t change, Portugal became a kingdom of its own and “hence forward our language shall be called Portuguese”. The “Galician” part under now Castilian rule saw their nobles evicted and substituted by Castillians, the language forbidden, under a law called “domination and castration of the kingdom of Galicia”. Despite this, the language survived and it wouldn’t be in danger of disappearance as much as in late 20th century and today, due to education and media in Castillian. Spain was since the Bourbons came very much into french centralism, even after the monarchy fell there. French “egalité” means exactly that: everyone is equal, erase the minorities that are different.