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The past year was an important one for Basque national ism. In 1995, the Basque Nationalist Party celebrated its centenary, while Basques also observed the twentieth anniversary of the death of the Spanish dictator, General Franco. Apart from celebrations of historic events, 1995 unfolded as a year of scandal for the central government in Madrid, as several top officials were implicated in the perpetration of a "dirty war" against members of ETA, the armed Basque separatist group. Against this backdrop of commemoration and crisis, ETA continued its armed struggle for Basque independence, while other segments of the Basque population attempted to find a peaceful way out of the violence that has afflicted the Basque Country for almost thirty years. These celebrations, scandals and internal divisions all form part of the Basques' collective search for ways to carry their nation and its distinct identity into the 21st century. This article seeks to place the events of 1995 within the larger political and social context of the Basque question.
While the origins of the Basque people remain a mystery, they are generally considered to be descendants of preindoeuropean people who have inhabited the Pyrenees since the Stone Age. The origin of their ancient non-indoeuropean language, Euskera, is also a mystery. Throughout their history, the Basques have had to fight to preserve their cultural identity and political autonomy. They had to defend themselves against Romans, Franks and Visigoths, long before they faced the Spanish and the French.
The Basques have never formed a unified nation-state incorporating all seven of their provinces.1 Historically, they have constituted a loose confederation united in defense of the Basque race, culture, language, customs, and fuerosthe Basque system of common law. When the Basques entered into the consolidating French and Spanish states, each province did so with the agreement that it would maintain control over its traditional cultural and political organization. The Basques understood that they had binding legal contracts that regulated common interests with the crown.2 At the heart of these agreements was the all-important issue of preserving the fueros.
The fuero system endured more or less untouched for centuries, until the French revolution of 1789 and the end of the second Spanish Carlist War in 1876. As both France and Spain attempted to forge unitary states within their territorial boundaries (a goal that remains incomplete today in both countries), they abolished the fueros. Abolition provoked limited resistance in France, but in Spain it engendered the Basque nationalist movement. Over a century later, this movement still challenges the imposition of a centralized Spanish government.
The Basques suffered deep cultural, political and economic crises following their defeat in the second Carlist War of 1876. The subsequent industrialization of Spain was fueled with iron extracted from Basque mines. The resulting economic boom in the Basque Country was accompanied by a great influx of Spanish immigrants, which changed the social composition of traditional Basque society. As modernization proceeded according to the Spanish government's plan, Basque language and culture came under attack. Euskera was forbidden in the schools and labeled a "backward" language. In addition, any vestiges of the fuero system were wiped out and those who called for its restoration were persecuted. In response to these threats against Basque identity, Sabino Arana founded the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) in 1895, with the specific goal of creating Euskadi, an independent Basque state.3
Joseba I. Arregi is a Ph.D. Candidate in International Relations, at the University of the Basque Country, in Bilbo, Bizkaia. Andra Crull is a Masters Candidate in Political Science, at the University of Colorado at Denver, who has done extensive field research in the Basque Country.
Fourth World Bulletin • Spring/Summer 1996
Copyright © 1996 by the Fourth World Center
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