The province of Madrid was also separated from New Castile and constituted as an autonomous community. This was partly in recognition of Madrid's status as the capital of the nation, but also because it was originally excluded from the pre-autonomic agreements that created the community of Castile-La Mancha, to which it naturally belonged. Some peripheral nationalists still complain that the creation of many regions was an attempt to break down their own 'national unity' by a sort of gerrymandering, thus blurring the distinctiveness of their own nationalities.