Basques

This article is about the Basque people. For other meanings, see Basque.

Basques

Jeanne IIIMaurice Ravel
Regions with significant populations
Spain –   Araba/Álava: 279,000   Biscay: 1,160,000   Guipuscoa: 684,000   Navarre: 560,000 France (Northern Basque Country): 250,000 (1993) Argentina: 3,600,000 have Basque origin (2004, est.) Chile: 1,200,000 have Basque origin (2004, est.) United States: 57,793 (2000) Uruguay: 35,000 have Basque origin (2004, est.)
Languages
Basque monoglots: Few. Spanish monoglots: 1,525,000 (est.) French monoglots: 150,000 (est.) Basque + Spanish: 600,000 (est.) Basque + French: 76,200 (1991) other: ?
Religion
Traditionally Roman Catholic
Related ethnic groups
Old Castillians Northern Aragonese Gascons may also have significant cultural and historic relationship with:  • Western Europeans  • Latin Americans

The Basques are an indigenous people who inhabit parts of both Spain and France. Basques, first known to history as natives of modern-day Navarre and Aragon in the first century BC, are now predominantly found in an area known as the Basque Country, consisting of four provinces in Spain and three in France, located around the western edge of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay. The Basques are known in local languages as:

• euskaldunak ("Basque speakers") or euskotarrak ("ethnically Basque people") in Basque
• Vascos in Spanish (or the older term Vascongados, which strictly speaking applies only to those Basques who live in the three provincias Vascongadas)
• Basques in French
• Bascos in Gascon

This article discusses the Basques as an ethnic group or, as some view them, a nation, rather than other ethnic groups living in the Basque areas. The coverage here of the history of the Basque region focuses on how it bears on the Basques as a people.

Etymology of the word Basque

The English word Basque comes from French Basque (pronounced /bask/), which itself comes from Gascon Basco (pronounced /ˈbasku/) and Spanish Vasco (pronounced /ˈbasko/). These, in turn, come from Latin Vasco (pronounced /wasko/), plural Vascones (see History section below). The Latin labial-velar approximant /enwiki/w/ typically evolved into the voiced bilabial plosive /b/ in Gascon and Spanish, probably under the influence of Basque and Aquitanian, a language related to old Basque and spoken in Gascony in Antiquity. This explains the Roman pun at the expense of the Aquitanians (ancestors of the Gascons): "Beati Hispani quibus vivere bibere est", which translates as "Blessed (are the) Iberians, for whom living is drinking". The Romans considered the Aquitanians akin to the Iberians.

One frequent theory about the origin of Latin Vasco is that it derives from Latin boscus or buscus meaning "wooded area" (cf. Spanish bosque, forest). Thus Vascones would mean "those living in the wooded land". However, this etymology is now discounted, as Latin boscus/buscus only appeared in the Middle Ages, and is probably a corruption of classical Latin arbustus (meaning "planted with tree", from arbor, "tree"), possibly under the influence of Germanic busk or bosk (cf. English bush, German Busch), whose origin is itself unknown.

Another side of that theory sees Latin Vasco still meaning "of the wooded land", but this time coming from modern Basque basoko where baso- means forest, and -ko is the ending denoting possession/genitive. Besides the fact that basoko is a modern Basque word, this etymology once popular among Basque people is now discredited by researchers.

To add to the mystery, several coins from the 1st and 2nd centuries BC were found in the north of Spain, bearing the inscription barscunes written in the Iberian alphabet. The place where they were minted is not certain but has been identified as Pamplona or Rocafort, the area where historians think the Vascones lived.

Today, it is thought that Latin Vasco comes from a Basque and Aquitanian root used by these people to refer to themselves. This root is eusk-, pronounced /ewsk/, which is indeed close from Latin /wasko/. There was also an Aquitanian people whose name the Romans recorded as Ausci (pronounced /awski/ in Latin), and which also seems to come from the same root.

In modern Basque, Basques call themselves euskaldunak, singular euskaldun, formed from euskal- (i.e. "Basque (language)") and -dun (i.e. "one who has"), so euskaldun literally means a Basque speaker. It should be noted that not all Basques are Basque speakers (euskaldunak), and not all Basque speakers are Basque. Foreigners who learnt Basque are also euskaldunak. To remedy this inconvenience, a neologism was coined in the nineteenth century, the word euskotar, plural euskotarrak, which means an ethnically Basque person, whether a Basque speaker or not.

These Basque words all originate from the name the Basques use to call their language: euskara. Modern researchers have reconstructed the pronunciation and vocabulary of ancient Basque, and Alfonso Irigoyen proposes that the word euskara comes from the verb "to say" in ancient Basque, which was pronounced enautsi (modern Basque esan), and from the suffix -(k)ara ("way (of doing something)"). Thus euskara would literally mean "way of saying", "way of speaking". Evidence of this theory is found in the Spanish book Compendio Historial written in 1571 by the Basque writer Esteban de Garibay, who recorded the native name of the Basque language as "enusquera". However, as with most things related to Basque history, this hypothesis is not certain.

In the nineteenth century, the Basque nationalist activist Sabino Arana thought that there was an original root euzko from eguzkiko ("of the sun" presuming a solar religion). From it he created the neologism Euzkadi for his purported independent Basque Country. This theory is discredited today, the only serious etymology being from enautsi and -(k)ara, but the neologism Euzkadi, in the regularized spelling Euskadi, is still widely used in Basque and Spanish.

History

Origin of the Basques

Map showing the approximate extension of ancient Basque tribes (as described by Roman geographers)

The key sources for the early history of the Basques are the classical writers, especially Strabo, who in the 1st century AD reported that the north of modern-day Navarre and Aragon (the area immediately east of the modern-day autonomous community of the Basque Country) was inhabited by a people known as the Vascones. Although the word Vascones is clearly related to the modern word "Basque", it is not known if the Vascones were indeed the ancestors of the modern Basques, or whether they spoke an old form of the Basque language. Nevertheless historically consistent toponymy and a few personal names found in funerary slabs of the Roman period strongly suggest they spoke old Basque.

On the territory of the present Autonmous Community of Basque Country lived three different peoples: the Varduli, the Caristii, and the Autrigones. There is no historical mention on whether these tribes were related to the Vascones and/or Aquitani but recent archaeological research in Iruña-Veleia, in Araba, has found aboundant texts in what is clearly Basque language [1] [2].

Before this recent finding, the area where a Basque-related language is the best attested is Gascony, in the southwest of France, where the local Aquitani spoke a language which may be related to Basque (this extinct Aquitanian language should not be confused with Gascon, a Romance language spoken in Aquitaine since the Middle Ages).

In the Middle Ages the name Vascones and variations of it expanded to mean all Basque-speaking peoples, replacing the tribal names documented by Romans.

The prehistory of Basques before Roman occupation is somehow obscure because they can hardly be identified with any specific separate culture. Still the mainstream perception is that the area shows clear archaeological continuity since Aurignacian times.

What follows are some of the theories that have been proposed in different times:

Basques as remnant of the first colonization of Europe by modern humans

Many Basque archaeological sites like Santimamiñe cave show a continuous record from Aurignacian times to the Iron Age, just before Roman occupation, suggesting continuity by at least some of the same people for more than thirty millennia.

However, recent research in genetics has called into question past assumptions regarding the Basques as the best representatives of Paleolithic Europeans. The report, Temporal Mitochondrial DNA Variation in the Basque Country: Influence of Post-Neolithic Events (Alzualde, et al; November 2005), [3], revealed "a discontinuity between prehistoric and present-day [Basque] populations."

An even more recent report, The Mitochondrial Lineage U8a Reveals a Paleolithic Settlement in the Basque Country (Gonzalez, et al; May 2006) [4], reached the following conclusions (p. 4) concerning the Basques:

In summary, the analysis of U8a lineages supports the idea that Basques have lived in their country since the Paleolithic, and that they could have participated in demographic re-expansions to re-populate central Europe in the last interglacial periods. Furthermore, these primitive U8a founders most probably reached the Basque area from the East through Europe and not through North Africa. However, the fact that we can trace some Basque lineages back to the Paleolithic does not support the generalized supposition that the present day Basque population is the best representative of Paleolithic Europeans. First of all, U8a haplotypes only represent 1% of the present day Basque maternal pool, therefore, a complex set of different mtDNA lineages with possible different histories are left unstudied. In addition, there is empiric evidence that Basques have received recent male gene flow from adjacent areas, and even possible maternal North African influences predating the Muslim Iberian invasion. Furthermore, ancient DNA studies on Basque historic and prehistoric samples have detected important mtDNA haplogroup frequency fluctuations along different periods. Definitively, Basques have suffered migration and genetic drift effects throughout its long history.

(The bolding above does not appear in the original and has been added for emphasis.)

For some authors, the Basque language also shows signs of dating back to the stone age, such as by having words for knife and axe that may come from the root word for stone- suggesting that the language developed when knives and axes were made of stone.

Alternatives to the idea that the Basques represent a remnant of the Paleolithic European population are as follows:

Basques as Neolithic colonists

Another possibility is that a precursor of the Basque language may have arrived with the advance of agriculture, some 6,000 years ago. Archaeological evidence could partly support this only for the Ebro valley area of the Basque Country. Genetics doesn't seem to support this.

Basques as arrived with Indo-Europeans

One hypothesis on the origins of the Basques has them arriving along with the Indo-Europeans. This proposal is linked to a linguistic hypothesis that would join Basque and Caucasian languages in a single super-family. But the proposed Basco-Caucasian connection, if existent, would be too distant in time to relate well with Indo-European migrations.

Celts were indeed present for some time in the Ebro valley (Urnfield culture) but that seems all archaeology can offer to cement this hypothesis. Basque language lacks of any Celtic loans or any other Indo-European influence, except for Latin or Romance ones, incorporated in historic times.

Basques as related to Berbers

This hypothesis is linked to defunct suppositions of similarities between Berber and Basque languages.

Basques as a subgroup of Iberians

This hypothesis is based in the occasional use by Basques of the Iberian alphabet and the fact that Julius Caesar described Aquitanians as Iberians. Apparent similarities of Iberian language and Basque have also been used to support this hypothesis. But all attempts to decipher Iberian using Basque as reference have failed so far.

Paleolithic

Modern Basque Country, as well as areas that may have been of Basque culture in the past (like Aquitaine and the Pyrenees) were colonized by Homo sapiens c. 35,000 years ago, gradually replacing earlier Neanderthal inhabitants. These colonists coming from Central Europe carried with them the Aurignacian culture.

At this stage the Basque Country can't be separated from the archaeological Franco-Cantabrian province, stretching from Asturias to Provence. The whole region experienced similar cultural changes, with some local variations: Aurignacian gave way to Gravettian, this one to Solutrean and this one to Magdalenian. All these cultures, except Aurignacian, seem original from the Franco-Cantabrian region, what implies that there was no further immigration in the Paleolithic period.

In the Basque Country itself, settlement was limited almost exclusively to the Atlantic area, probably because of climatic reasons. Some of the most important sites of the Basque Country are the following:

• Santimamiñe (Biscay): with Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian remains, including mural art
• Bolinkoba (Biscay): Gravettian and Solutrean
• Ermitia (Gipuzkoa): Solutrean and Magdalenian
• Amalda (Gipuzkoa): Gravettian and Solutrean
• Koskobilo (Gipuzkoa): Aurignacian and Solutrean
• Aitzbitarte (Gipuzkoa): Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian
• Isturitz (Lower Navarre): Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian, including mural art
• Gatzarria (Soule): Aurignacian and Gravettian

Epi-Paleolithic and Neolithic

At the end of the Ice Age, in all the Franco-Cantabrian province Magdalenian culture was transformed into Azilian. The big hunt was replaced by smaller prey, while fishing and seafood gathering became a major part of the economic activity.

In this period, the southern areas of the Basque Country were first colonized.

Neolithic technology arrived from the Mediterranean coasts, first in form of isolated pottery items (Zatoia, Marizulo) and then as sepherdry. The transition was very slow and gradual, as in most of Atlantic Europe.

The more clearly Neolithic sites are found in the Ebro valley, where there could be some Mediterranean colonization, based on anthropometric classification of the remains.

A similar situation can be seen in Aquitaine where the Garonne plays the connective role the Ebro has in the South.

In the second half of the 4th millennium BC, Megalithic culture is adopted in all the area. Burials become collective (possibly by families or clans) and are done mostly in dolmens, though caves are also used in some places. The Mediterranean basin shows preference for dolmens with corridor, while in the Atlantic one they are invariably simple dolmens.

Chalcolithic and Bronze Age

The use of metals (copper and gold first) arrives late to the Basque Country, c. 2500 BC, and with it the first towns, being particularly noticeable for its size and continuty La Hoya in southern Araba, that may have played a connective (commercial?) role between Portugal(culture of Vila Nova de São Pedro) and Languedoc (group of Treilles). But caves and natural shelters are still used, specially in the Atlantic basin.

Pottery (not decorated) shows continuity with the Neolithic period, until the arrival of the Bell Beaker phenomenon with its typical vases, found specially near the Ebro.

Megalithism also shows clear continuity until the Late Bronze Age.

In Aquitaine it is particualrly noticeable the Artenacian culture of bowmen that, from its homeland near the Garonne, expanded rapidly by all Western France and Belgium c. 2400 BC.

In the Late Bronze Age, parts of the southern Basque country come under the influence of the pastoralist culture of Cogotas I, of the Iberian plateau.

Iron Age

In this period, the most noticeable event is the arrival and influence of Indo-European peoples (Celts most likely) to the margins of the Basque area. The people of the late Urnfield culture culture move upstream along the Ebro and reach the southern fringes of the Basque Country, incorporating then the Hallstatt culture.

The settlements now seem to be mainly in points of difficult access, probably for defensive reasons, showing often elaborated defenses.

It is in this phase when agriculture seems to become more important than animal husbandry.

It may be in this period too when new megalithic structures appear: the cromlech (stone circle) and the menhir (standing stone).

Roman rule

The north-west of Spain, including the Basque regions, was first reached by the Romans under Pompey in the 1st century BC, but not consolidated until the time of the Emperor Augustus. The looseness of Roman rule well suited the Basques, who retained their traditional laws and leadership. This poor region was little developed by the Romans and there is not much evidence of Romanization; this certainly contributed to the survival of the separate Basque language.

A large Roman presence was situated in the garrison of Pompaelo (now Pamplona), a city founded by Pompey on the south side of the Pyrenees. The area to the north was conquered after a fierce campaign in which the Romans fought against the Cantabrians (see Cantabrian Wars). There are archaeological remains from this period of garrisons situated to protect the commercial routes all along the Ebro river and along a Roman causeway between Asturica and Burdigala.

The Basques were used by the Romans to guard their empire. For example, a unit of Vardulli was stationed on Hadrian's Wall in the north of Britain for many years, and at some time earned the title fida (faithful) for some now forgotten service to the emperor. Even today, nationalist Basques look back on the Roman Empire as an ideal time, claiming that even though there was no Basque independence, the Basques still had almost total internal control. As well as their lack of exposure to Roman garrisons, the survival of Basque culture was aided by the fact that the Basque Country was a poor region. It had no unused cropland that could be used to settle Roman colonists and it had few commodities that would interest the Romans. Only a small number of Roman traders would have come there. This isolation is no doubt what allowed Basque to survive and not be overwhelmed by Latin as other languages were.

Middle Ages

Main articles: Duchy of Vasconia, Kingdom of Navarre.

The history of the Basque Country darkens, however, with the arrival of the Germanic peoples and the collapse of the Roman Empire. Rather than being an isolated area in the centre of a large empire, the Basques were placed at the border between the warring Visigothic and Frankish kingdoms. The Basque Country became a strategically important territory desired by both sides.

At the same time, the Basques lost their way of life, which was dependent on trade with the Roman Empire. These two changes transformed the Basques from being one of the most docile people in Europe into a group of dedicated warriors bent on survival. An important Basque king of approximately this time was Iñigo Arista (Iñigo (Eneko) the Oak) (c.781–852) first King of Pamplona. There are scattered reports from this period of presumed Basque brigands (in Latin, bagaudae) in Aquitaine and Spain stealing those things which they used to be able to trade for. Most of the confrontations with the Basques were, however, instigated by outsiders. Both the Franks and Visigoths sent armies through the Basque Country repeatedly.

The rugged Basque territory is ideal for banditry and it is not surprising that the Basques could still survive despite oppressive neighbours. Just as in every time of persecution in their history, the Basques simply moved to the hills and held out there until the threat had gone.

The Basques also proved during this period that despite the lack of central authority, they could protect their homeland when the need arose. After Charlemagne's Franks invaded northern Spain, they returned home and en route pillaged the Basque Country. The Basques, however, intercepted the Frankish army while it made its way through a mountain pass. Despite poor weaponry and fewer fighters the Basques destroyed much of the Frankish force. The Battle of the Roncesvalles Pass was the only major defeat Charlemagne suffered in his long career. These events were immortalized in the French-language Chanson de Roland (Song of Roland), an important piece of medieval verse.

The Basques did not similarly mobilise against the Islamic invaders who, just a few years earlier, had seized most of the Iberian peninsula. Although Christians, Basques did not resist the Muslim advance; it was stopped only by Frankish troops in Poitiers. Later, the Christian kingdom of Pamplona (later the Kingdom of Navarre) and the short-lived Muslim kingdom of the Banu-Qasi Muladis (indigenous converts), with its capital in Tudela, had an alliance with cross-marriages. However. the Basques did take part in the Reconquista. The frontier land of Alava was secured and the neighboring kingdoms called Basques to colonize the new territories, mainly in La Rioja and parts of Castile. At one point, the kingdom of Navarre extended southwards beyond the Ebro river. In a later age, Basque mariners were to take part in the sea battles of the Castilian conquest of Andalusia.

Most of the western part of the present Basque Country (Guipúzcoa, Vizcaya and Álava) became from time to time part of the Kingdom of Navarre or the Kingdom of Castile, in each case so long as the king pledged allegiance to their local laws or fueros.

Basques began hunting whales in the Bay of Biscay as early as the 9th century. At least six Basque towns incorporated whales or whaling into their coat of arms.

During the Late Middle Ages, the Basque towns were divided in clashes among families, later polarized in two bands (Agramont and Beaumont in Navarre, Oñaz and Gamboa in Biscay). Local nobility built towerhouses, nowadays razed by fires and kingly decrees. (Compare with the earlier Italian Guelphs and Ghibellines).

From the Renaissance Era to the nineteenth century

The Gernika oak is a symbol of Basque freedoms.

As the Middle Ages came to an end, the Basque lands came to be divided between France and Spain. Most of the Basque population ended up in Spain, a situation which persists to this day. The Navarrese and the Basques from Guipúzcoa, Vizcaya and Álava were able to keep a large degree of self-government of their provinces in Spain and France, functioning practically as separate nation-states: the fueros gave each Basque province separate local laws, taxes and law courts. The Basques, serving under the Spanish flag, were renowned mariners, and at the end of the 16th century, taught Dutch sailors how to use the harpoon for whaling. Spanish ships with many Basque sailors were some of the first Europeans to reach North America, and many early European settlers in Canada and the United States were of Basque origin.

The Protestant Reformation made some inroads, supported by Jeanne d'Albret, queen of Lower Navarre. In the 16th century, around Bayonne, a Basque-speaking bourgeoisie induced the printing of Basque-language books, mostly with Christian themes. Protestantism was however persecuted by the Spanish Inquisition, and, in the Northeast, the Protestant Navarrese king converted to Roman Catholicism and became king Henry IV of France.

The self-government of the northern Basque provinces came to an end with the French Revolution, which centralized government and abolished all of the various local privileges granted by the ancien régime. Some Basques were pushed to counter-revolutionary positions while others actively participated, even writing a Basque constitutional project by Basque revolutionary Garat. It brought the Basque Country to the Convention War (1793), with all Basque territories being nominally French for a time. Later on, when the Napoleonic Army invaded Spain, it had almost no trouble in keeping the southern Basque provinces loyal to the occupier, and the southern Basque Country was the last part of Spain kept by the French because of this lack of resistance (see Battle of Vitoria). It all ended with the August 31, 1813 burning of San Sebastian;

Political Spain in 1854, after the first Carlist War

In Spain, with some irony, through the various civil wars of the 19th century the fueros were upheld by the traditionalist and nominally absolutist Carlists and opposed by the victorious constitutional forces. The southern Basque provinces and Navarre made up the backbone of the (Carlist) upheavals, which sought to give the crown of Spain to the male heir Carlos (and, later, to the heirs of his line), who promised to defend the Basque foral System.

Fearing that under modern liberal uniformizing constitutions they would lose their self-government or Fueros, Spanish Basques massively joined the traditionalist army, which was mostly paid by the provincial governments of the Basque provinces. The forces of the Isabeline Army on the other hand had a vital participation of British (whose Irish legion (Tercio) was virtually annihilated by the Basques on the Battle of Oriamendi), French (also with an important Algerian legion), and Portuguese legions and those governments' support against the Basques. During the First Carlist War, as the differences between the Apostolic (official) and the Navarrese (Basque basis) parties inside the Carlist rebel band grew, the latter signed an armistice which included the promise by the Spaniards of keeping Basque self-government. As this promise was not accomplished fully, there was a further upheaval, the Second Carlist War, which ended in a similar way. Ultimately, the Basque provinces and Navarre lost most of their autonomous power, but retained control over fiscal laws and collections with Ley Paccionada, a power they still retain in modern day Spain in the form of fiscal conciertos with the national government in Madrid.

Thus the same wars that brought relative liberty to most of Spain abolished most (but not all) of the traditional liberties of the Basques. The Spanish Basque provinces still retained the widest autonomy in peninsular Spain, but far less than they had previously experienced.

However, the advance of Spanish customs from the Basque borders to the French border formed a new protected market in Spain for the incipient Basque industry.

• Braudel, Fernand, The Perspective of the World, 1984

Modern history

The new markets encouraged the replacement of the old forges by modern blast furnaces, that processed the local iron ore instead of sending it to Britain. The mining and the iron industry required workers, first among Basque peasants, later from the surrounding Navarre, Castile, Rioja, and farther away in Galicia and Andalusia. The awful conditions of these workers (Biscay had one of the highest mortality rates in Europe) prompted the diffusion of leftist ideologies.

The end of the 19th century witnessed the appearance of the new Basque nationalism which came with the foundation of the Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ-PNV), in which Christian-Democratic ideas were mixed with racism against Spanish immigrant workers who were seen as perverting the purity of the mythical Basque race. The party asked for independence or at least autonomy.

In 1931 Spain became a Republic and soon Catalonia (the next most ethnically distinct region inside Spain, also with a strong independence movement) was given self-government. However, the Basques had to wait until the Spanish Civil War was already under way to be granted the same rights.

Basques fought on both sides in the Spanish Civil War, with Basque nationalists and leftists from Biscay and Guipúzcoa siding with the Second Spanish Republic, and the Navarrese Carlists siding with General Francisco Franco's insurgent forces (who were known in the rest of Spain as "Nacionales"—literally "Nationals", usually rendered in English as "Nationalists"—a very misleading phrase in Basque terms). Today, some Basque nationalists claim that the Spanish Civil War was a war of Spain against the Basques, despite there having been Basques on both sides. There is no question, though, that one of the greatest atrocities of this war was the bombing of Guernica, the traditional Biscayne capital, by German planes. Much of the city was destroyed and a great deal of Basque history was erased.

In 1937, roughly halfway through the war, the troops of the Autonomous Basque Government surrendered in Santoña to the Italian allies of General Franco on condition that the Basque heavy industry and economy was left untouched, beginning one of the hardest periods of Basque history in Spain. For many leftists in Spain this event is known as the Treason of Santoña, as many of the Basque soldiers were pardoned to join the Francoist army in the rest of the Northern front. After the war, Franco began a dedicated effort to consolidate Spain as a uniform nation-state. Franco's regime introduced severe laws against all Spanish minorities, not least the Basques, in an effort to suppress their cultures and languages. Considering Biscay and Guipúzcoa as "traitor provinces", he abolished the remains of their autonomy, but Navarre and Alava maintained small local police forces and some tax self-government.

The backlash against these actions created a violent Basque separatist movement. The armed group responsible for most of the attacks is known as Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), meaning "Basque land and Liberty". Franco's death and the end of his regime saw an end to Franco's repression and the creation of an autonomous Basque region in Spain, but peace wouldn't arrive from one day to another, neither Spanish Government repression and neither to separatist activism. A result of that situation as of 2005 was about 1,000 deaths in the intervening 30 years. Between 1979 and 1983, the Basque Country and surrounding areas were granted considerable autonomy by the Spanish government. This autonomy includes an elected parliament, police force, a largely independent educational system, and tax system, but so far some promised competences have yet to be transferred. Spain still enjoys extensive influence, and some spheres of life are entirely under Spanish jurisiction - Ports and Harbours, Customs, National Employment Institute, Army, among others.

Navarre was never offered the opportunity to join the autonomous Basque region (CAPV in Spanish), and so it was set to the status of a separate autonomous region. Neither at the 30's nor at the transition towards the so called democracy.

The Basque diaspora

Main article: Basque diaspora

The Basque diaspora is a name given to describe the dispersion of the Basque people throughout the world. The Basques do not have an independent country to call their own, being divided between the Spanish and French states. Many Basques have left the Basque Country for other parts of the globe for economical or political reasons.

Large number of Basques have immigrated mostly to Argentina (where they are about 10% of the national population) Important waves have emigrated to Chile, Venezuela, Mexico and the United States. In these last countries places were named after Basque names such as New Biscay, now Durango in Mexico and Biscayne Bay in the United States. In Mexico most groups concentrated in the Monterrey area and the region of Durango.

The largest Basque community in the United States is in the Boise, Idaho area. Boise is home of the Basque Museum and Cultural Center and hosts a large Basque festival known as Jaialdi every five years. Reno, Nevada, home of the Basque Studies Department at the University of Nevada, also has a significant Basque population.

Geography and distribution

The current autonomous Basque area of Spain, known as "Euskadi" in Basque, "País Vasco" in Spanish, "Pays Basque" in French and the "Basque Country" in English, is composed of three provinces or territories: Araba/Álava, Bizkaia/Vizcaya and Gipuzkoa/Guipúzcoa (in each case, this is the Basque name followed by the Spanish name). There are 2,123,000 people living in the Basque Country: Araba, 279,000; Bizkaia, 1,160,000; and Gipuzkoa, 684,000. The most important cities are: Bilbo/Bilbao (in Bizkaia), Donostia/San Sebastián (in Gipuzkoa) and Gasteiz/Vitoria (in Araba). Both Basque and Spanish are official languages. Knowledge of Spanish is virtually universal; 27 per cent of the people speak the Basque language, but this number is increasing for the first time in many centuries, due to official promotion and popular sympathy.

There is also a substantial Basque feeling among the population of the adjacent Spanish autonomous community and province of Navarre, and in nearby parts of France — see Basque Country for more information. Parts of La Rioja were repopulated with Basques in the Middle-Ages. Today only surnames and placenames remain, however towns like Ezcaray have become a popular second residence for Basques. East Cantabria is also the residence for many Biscayans who prefer the safer political climate or the cheaper housing.

There is at least some ethnic Basque presence in many countries of the Americas, including Bolivia, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Peru [5], Uruguay, Venezuela and a community in Idaho, eastern Nevada, south Texas, and throughout California who first came over to herd sheep. It was said California is home to 15,000 of Basque descent, perhaps more than the states of Idaho and Nevada.

The destination of the majority of Basque emigrants was Argentina, with Basque culture contributing much to Argentine culture. There are Basque cultural centres in most large cities, as well as pelota courts and Basque language schools. Many places have been given Basque names, including the main international airport, Ezeiza. Several of Argentina's Presidents have been of Basque descent, including Irigoyen, Aramburu and Urquiza, not to mention other figures, notably Che Guevara. There are an estimated 15,000 surnames in Argentina of Basque descent.

Chile also received many Basque emigrants. For example, Augusto Pinochet is of Basque descent (via his mother's maiden surname, Ugarte).

The largest community of Basques in North America exists in the greater Boise area. Boise is home to the Basque Museum & Cultural Center. The area around the center includes a variety of stores and restaurants featuring Basque culture in a so-called "Basque block." The current mayor of Boise, David H. Bieter is Basque. Another large community of Basques live in the Central Valley of California, primarily in the city of Bakersfield. In Bakersfield you will find several Basque restaurants and the Basque hall, which annually holds a major Basque picnic. Many early immigrants went to Bakersfield for the agricultural and sheep herding opportunities. Another area is in the deep of South Texas along the Rio Grande River. The area surrounding the Rio Grande River near the current Texas Starr County, Zapata County, and Hidalgo County as well as areas within the Mexican states of Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, Spanish surnames of Basque descent show up as Spanish Land Grant owners in historical documents. Most of these grants were used for ranching and agriculture in much the same way sheep herding was used in the Basque land. This part of Texas boasts some of the largest ranches in Texas today. Some of these surnames, such as the surname Garza, show up in many political ballots as well as hold high offices in politics. One of the richest families in the world and of Mexico carries this Basque surname. One city with a Basque name in Mexico, San Pedro Garza García, has the highest income per capita in all of Latin America and Mexico. In the Caribbean, Basque descendants exist in the hills of Esperón in the province of Habana, where many originally settled during the Spanish colonial period.

Non-Basque minorities in the Basque Country

Populations of Spanish stock in the Basque Country: The maketos.

José Aranda Aznar writes that 30% of the population of the Basque Country Autonomous Community were born in other regions of Spain and that a 40% of the people living in that territory had not a single Basque parent.

Aranda Aznar's study found that only 55% of the Navarrese had a Basque surname, and that percentage was still lower in Biscay (40%) and Álava (37%). The rest of the populations had overwhelmingly Spanish/Castilian surnames: they are the descendants of Castilian-speaking peasants and workers who migrated to the Basque Country in the 19th and the 20th centuries and whose mother tongue was Spanish or Galician. They were despised by Sabino Arana, who nicknamed them maketos and described them as a race inferior to the Basques.

Other minorities

As in the rest of Spain, the roads of the Basque Country were travelled by nomadic Gitanos (Roma people or Gypsies) and Mercheros (Quinqui-speakers), who related to the peasant society as travelling cattle merchants and artisans. After industrialization, they settled in slums near the big cities. The French Basque Country and Guipuzcoa were also visited by another branch of Romas of Balkan origin (known in the Basque Country as buhameak, equivalent to the English Bohemians).

Both sides of the Pyrenees were home to a despised minority, the Agotes (also cagots). They were not a people apart, but lived as untouchables in Basque villages and were allowed to marry only among themselves. Their origin is hidden by legends and superstitions. In the modern society, they have mostly assimilated into the general society.

Political conflicts

Language

Both Spanish and French governments have, at times, tried to suppress Basque linguistic and cultural identity. The French Republics, the epitome of the nation-state, have a long history of attempting the complete cultural absorption of ethnic minority groups. Spain has, at most points in its history, granted some degree of linguistic, cultural, and even political autonomy to its Basques, but under the regime of Francisco Franco, The Spanish government reversed the advances of Basque nationalism, as it had fought in the opposite side of the Spanish Civil War: cultural activity in Basque was limited to folkloric issues and the Catholic Church.

Today, the Basque Country within Spain enjoys an extensive cultural and political autonomy. The majority of schools under the jurisdiction of the Basque education system use Basque as the primary medium of teaching. According to the BBC "over 90% of Basque children are now enrolled in Basque-language schools". However, in Navarre, Basque has been declared an endangered language, since the conservative government of Unión del Pueblo Navarro opposes Basque nationalism and symbols of Basqueness, highlighting Navarre's own autonomy.

The promotion of Basque has caused protests by those who fear that monolingual Spanish speakers could be left as second-class citizens. However, Spanish is today essential for everyday life, with few or none monolingual Basque speakers.

Political status and violence

Basque nationalism has pleaded for greater power of Basque institutions. Some Basque nationalists claim that the Basque Country has the right of self-determination, including eventual independence. The desire for independence is particularly common among leftist Basque nationalists. The right of self-determination was claimed by the Basque Parliament. Since self-determination is not recognized in the Spanish Constitution of 1978, many Basques abstained or voted against in the referendum of December 6 of that year. However, it was approved by a majority at the Spanish, Navarrese and Basque levels, and the derived autonomous regimes for the Basque Country and Navarre were approved in later referenda by the respective populations.

Basque nationalist activity has a violent form in Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), an armed organization that uses murder, bombs and kidnappings against what they hold as "Spanish interests". ETA is considered a terrorist organization by both the European Union and the United States of America. During the last 40 years, ETA has killed over 900 people and injured thousands.

In the fight against ETA, the Spanish government and courts have taken controversial measures like:

• Banning of the electoral coalition HB-Batasuna in 2002 (and successive coalitions) as well as other political organisations, as the judges considered they were part of ETA, sharing goals and resources. The candidature of the new Herritarren Zerrenda (HZ) in the European Parliament election, 2004 has been banned in Spain, although it is legal in France. Despite the banning, 120,000 Basques voted for HZ with illegal ballot papers in the last EU elections (15% of Basques in Spain and 7% in France voted to HZ).
• Closure of the only newspaper fully in Basque language, Egunkaria, in 2003. Many personalities associated to this paper have reported being tortured by the Spanish authorities while under detention (although it is claimed that reporting torture when arrested is a common practise of the terrorists to slow the practice of justice, and that suggestions to do so have been found in internal newsletters of ETA). Several other publications and organisations have also been banned, such as the bilingual nationalist newspaper Egin and the radio station Egin Irratia. The newspapers Berria and Gara have taken their niches.

GAL

From 1983 to 1987, the Spanish State funded and controlled GAL, which was a right-wing paramilitary force that attacked and killed Basque citizens in both the Spain and France. The GAL murdered over 23 citizens. In the 1990s several high-profile investigations were conducted in Spain, which led to the imprisonment of high-ranking police officials and a former government minister. There is evidence to suggest that control of the GAL went to the highest levels within the Spanish State Government.

Culture

There are interesting social differences between the Basques and their neighbours. The Basque people have an unusually close attachment with their homes. A person's home is their family in the Basque Country. Even if one does not still live there and has not for generations a Basque family is still known by the house in which it once lived. Common Basque surnames could translate as "top of the hill", or "by the river" all relating to the location of their ancestral home. This is interesting evidence for considering the Basques to be the only people who have always had a fixed and stable abode.

Though matriarchality has been sometimes attributed to Basque society, today it seems clear that the actually known family structure is patrilinear, being the top position given to the father, as in neighbouring cultures. Nevertheless there are some signs that this may not have always been that way. Also it must be said that the social position of women has always been rather better than in neighbouring countries. They participated in magical ceremonies and enjoyed rich folklore.

The fueros on inheritance favoured the unity of the inherited land (in contrast to Galician minifundia) so, until the Industrial Age, poor Basques (usually the younger sons) emigrated to the rest of Spain or France and the Americas. Saint Francis Xavier and Conquistadores like Lope de Aguirre were Basque.

Despite ETA and the crisis of heavy industries, the Basques have been doing remarkably well in recent years, emerging from persecution during the Franco regime with a strong and vibrant language and culture. For the first time in centuries, the Basque language is expanding geographically led by large increases in the major urban centres of Pamplona, Bilbao, and Bayonne, where only a few decades ago the Basque language had all but disappeared. Legislation and abundant public funding have helped this increase. The establishment of bilingual and mostly Basque teaching has led to the controversial firing of those teachers who could not achieve the required command of Basque language.

The opening of the new Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is widely seen as a symbol of a linguistic and cultural revival.

Basque cuisine is at the heart of Basque culture, influenced by the neighbouring communities and the excellent produce from the sea and the land. A twentieth-century feature of Basque culture is the phenomenon of gastronomical societies (txoko, "corner" in Biscay), food clubs where men gather to cook and enjoy their own food. Until recently, women were only allowed one day in the year. Sagardotegiak or cider houses are popular restaurants in Gipuzkoa open for a few months while the cider is in season.

See also: Basque music

Language

Main article: Basque language.

As of 2005, virtually all Basques speak the dominant language of their respective countries. Besides Spanish or French, about a quarter of Basques speak their own ethnic Basque language, referred to, in that tongue, as Euskara, which is not only distinct from French and Spanish, but apparently unrelated to every other language, both modern and historical, in Europe and the world.

The Basque language is thus a language isolate, although the Spanish language has greatly influenced it, particularly in the vowel set. An alternative theory states that it was actually Basque's simplified vowel set that influenced the development of Spanish from Vulgar Latin.

This unique and isolated language has attracted the interest of a great many linguists trying to discover its history and origin.

The first time we find Basque in writing is the late Middle Ages, which is not, however, evidence of their late arrival, for the Basques were already very well established by this point. Around the same time and place, Castilian and Navarrese-Aragonese Romance languages start to differentiate from Medieval Latin.

Religion

Most Basques are Roman Catholics. In the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, Basques as a group remained notably devout and churchgoing. In recent years church attendance has fallen off, as in most of Western Europe. The region has been a source of missionaries like Francis Xavier and Michel Garicoïts. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, was a Basque.

A sprout of Protestantism in the continental Basque Country produced the first translation of the new Testament into Basque by Joannes Leyçarraga. After the king of Navarre converted to Catholicism to be king of France, Protestantism almost disappeared.

Bayonne held a Jewish community composed mainly of Sephardi Jews fleeing from the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions.

Pre-Christian religion and mythology

Main article: Basque mythology

There is strong evidence of a previous religion, reflected in countless legends and some enduring traditions. This pre-Christian religion was apparently centered on a superior female genie: Mari. Her consort Sugaar also seems to bear some importance. This chthonic couple seem to bear the superior ethical power and also the power of creation and destruction. It's said that when they gathered in the high caves of the sacred peaks, they engendered the storms. These meetings typically happened on Friday nights, the day of historical akelarre or coven. Mari was said to reside in mount Anboto, periodically she crossed the skies as a bright light to reach her other home at mount Txindoki.

Another divinity seems to be Urtzi (also Ost, Ortzi: sky) but it seems to have been imported, as legends do not speak of him. Nevertheless his name appears in weekdays, months names and metereological events. In medieval times, Aymeric Picaud, a French pilgrim, wrote on the Basques, saying: et Deus vocant Urcia ("and they name God as Urci-a"; the -a being the Basque nominative or suffixed article).

There is also Anbotoko Mari, a goddess whose movements affected the weather. According to one tradition, she travelled every seven years between a cave on mount Anboto and one on another mountain (the stories vary); the weather would be wet when she was in Anboto, dry when she was in Aloña, or Supelegor, or Gorbea. It is hard to say how old this legend is; despite the pagan elements, one of her names, Mari Urraca, ties her to a possibly historical Navarrese princess of the 11th and 12th century and other legends give her a brother or cousin who was a Roman Catholic priest.

Legends also speak of many and abundant genies, like jentilak (equivalent to giants), lamiak (equivalent to nymphs), mairuak (builders of the cromlechs or stone circles, literally Moors), iratxoak (imps), sorginak (witches, priestess of Mari), etc. Basajaun is a Basque version of the wild man. There is a trickster named San Martin Txiki ("St Martin the Lesser"). It has been shown that some of these stories have entered Basque culture in recent centuries or as part of Roman superstitio. It is unclear whether neolithic stone structures called dolmens have a religious significance or were built to house animals or resting shepherds. Some of the dolmens and cromlechs are burial sites serving as well as border markers.

The jentilak ('Giants'), on the other hand, are a legendary people which explains the disappearance of a people of Stone Age culture that used to live in the high lands and with no knowledge of the iron. Many legends about them tell that they were bigger and taller, with a great force, but were displaced by the ferrons, or workers of ironworks foundries, until their total fade-out. They were pagans, but one of them, Olentzero, accepted Christianity and became a sort of Basque Santa Claus. They gave name to several toponyms, as Jentilbaratza.

Sports

Liverpool FC's star midfielder Xabi Alonso

The Basque Country has also contributed many great sportsmen, primarily in football (soccer), cycling, jai-alai, and rugby.

The main sport in the Basque Country, as in the rest of Spain and France, is soccer. The top teams Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad, Osasuna and Alavés are a fixture in the Spanish national league. Athletic Bilbao has a policy of hiring only Basque, Riojan and Navarrese players. This policy has been applied with variable flexibility.

Cycling as a sport is very popular in the Basque Country. Cycling races often see Basque fans lining the roads wearing orange, the corporate color of the telco Euskaltel, coining the term the orange crush during the Pyrenees stages of the Tour de France. Of course, this is not to be mistaken with the orange of the fans from the Netherlands.

The Navarrese cyclist Miguel Indurain (now retired) was the first to win the Tour de France five consecutive times, and has also won the Giro d'Italia and the World Cycling Championship in the discipline of individual time trial. Fellow Basque cyclist Abraham Olano has won the Vuelta a España and the World Cycling Championship.

The Euskaltel-Euskadi cycling team is a commercial team, but also works as an unofficial Basque national team and is partly funded by the Basque Government. They are emerging as a strong contender in the Tour de France, with riders such as Iban Mayo, Haimar Zubeldia and David Etxebarria leading the charge.

In France, rugby union is another popular sport with the Basque community. In Biarritz, the local club is Biarritz Olympique Pays Basque, the name referencing the club's Basque heritage. They wear red, white and green, and supporters are known to wave the Basque flag in the stands. They also recognize 16 other clubs as "Basque-friendly". The most famous Biarritz & Basque player is the legendary French fullback Serge Blanco, whose mother was Basque. Michel Celaya captained both Biarritz and France. French number 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, currently battling injury problems, is also a Biarritz & Basque player. Before the banning of Rugby League in 1940, a Basque club was the last to celebrate winning the cup.

Aviron Bayonnais is another top club with some Basque ties, but Biarritz is by far the most prominent.

Pelota and Jai Alai are Basque versions of the European game family that includes real tennis and squash. Basque players, playing for either the Spanish or the French teams, dominate international competititions.

Mountaineering is favoured by the mountainous character of Basque terrain and nearness of the Pyrenees. Juanito Oiarzabal (from Vitoria), holds the world record for number of climbs above 8,000 meters with 21. There are, also, great sport climbers in the Basque Country, such as, Josune Bereziartu, the only female to have climbed the grade 9a/5.14d; and Iker Pou, one of the most versatile climbers in the world.

One of the top basketball clubs in Europe, TAU Baskonia, is located in the Basque city of Vítoria/Gasteiz.

In recent years surfing has taken root in the Basque shores in spite of the cold Atlantic waters, and Mundaka and Biarritz have become spots on the world surf circuit.

Traditional Basque sports

There are several sports derived by Basques from everyday chores. Heavy workers were challenged and bets placed upon them. Examples are:

• trainera (oar boat) regattas: from fishermen rowing to market with their catch.
• sokatira: tug-of-war.
• harri jasoketa: stone-lifting, from quarry works.
• aizkolaritza and trontzalaritza: tree hacking and log sawing.
• segalaritza: grass mowing with scythes.
• dema or stone block pulling, from construction works:
  • idi probak with couples of oxen.
  • asto probak with donkeys.
  • zaldi probak with horses.
  • gizon probak with couples of sportsmen.
• txinga erute: carrying of weights, one in each hand, representing milk canisters.
• ram fights.
• zipota, a French Basque martial art, similar to savate.
• barrenador competitions: drilling stone blocks with a metal bar, only in the former mining areas of West Biscay.
• shepherd dog competitions.

The world-famous encierro (run of the bulls) in Pamplona's fiestas Sanfermines started as a transport of bulls to the ring. These encierros, as well as other bull and bullock related activities are not exclussive of Pamplona but they are actually traditional in many towns and villages of the Basque Country.

Politics

While there is no independent Basque state, Spain's autonomous community of the Basque Country, made up of the provinces of Araba/Álava, Bizkaia/Vizcaya and Gipuzkoa/Guipúzcoa, is primarily Basque in character and has a great deal of automony..

The political party EAJ/PNV - "Eusko Alderdi Jeltzalea" in Euskara, "Partido Nacionalista Vasco" in Spanish, "Basque Nationalist Party" in English is a moderate nationalist political party from the Basque region of Spain.

The political party Batasuna ("Unity"), based mainly in Spain but with a French presence, was declared illegal by a 2003 decision of the Spanish Supreme Court, which ruled that it was an integral part of the operations of the armed Basque separatist group ETA.

The Socialist Party of the Basque Country is the local branch of PSOE. The mining and industrial areas of Biscay were one of the birthplaces of Spanish socialism.

The earliest university in the Basque Country was the University of Oñate, founded 1540 in Hernani and moved to Oñate in 1548. It lasted in various forms until 1901. [6] In 1868 there was an unsuccessful effort to establish a Basque-Navarrese University, thwarted by the hostility of the Spanish Central government. The Jesuits founded the University of Deusto in Bilbao by the turn of the century. The first modern Basque public university was the Basque University, founded November 18 1936 in Bilbao in the midst of the Spanish Civil War. It operated only briefly before the defeat by Franco's forces. [7].

Several universities, originally teaching only in Spanish, were founded in the Basque region in the Franco era. One of those, the University of Bilbao, has now evolved into the University of the Basque Country.

There are numerous other significant Basque institutions in the Basque Country and elsewhere. Most Basque organizations in the United States are affiliated with NABO (North American Basque Organizations, Inc.).

Classification

As with the Basque language, the Basques are generally considered to be an isolated ethnic group.

The Basques are clearly a distinct ethnic group in their native region. They are culturally and especially linguistically distinct from their surrounding neighbors, and the controversial claim has often been made that they are comparably genetically distinct as well. Many Basques, especially in Spain, are strongly, even violently, nationalist, identifying far more firmly as Basques than as citizens of any existing state. Indeed, the only question would seem to be whether the term "ethnic group" is too weak, and whether one should favor the term "nation."

In modern times, as a European people living in a highly industrialized area, cultural differences from the rest of Europe are inevitably blurred, although a conscious cultural identity as a people or nation remains very strong, as does an identification with their homeland, even among many Basques who have emigrated to other parts of Spain or France, or to other parts of the world.

The strongest distinction between the Basques and their traditional neighbors is linguistic. Surrounded by Romance-language speakers, the Basques traditionally spoke (and many still speak) a language that was not only non-Romance but non-Indo-European. Although the evidence is open to question, the prevailing belief among Basques, and forming part of their national identity, is that their language has continuity to the people who were in this region not merely in pre-Roman times, but in pre-Celtic times, quite possibly before the great invasions of Europe by Asian tribes.

Famous Basques

See List of Basques

Among the most famous Basque people are Juan Sebastian Elkano, the first person ever to circumnavigate Earth, Sancho III of Navarre, and founders of the Jesuits, Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier.

Genetics

Basques, along with Irish, show the highest percentage of Y DNA haplogroup R1b, the most frequent in Western Europe, that includes c.95% of Basques. The rest is basically I and a minimal presence of E3b.

Before the developement of modern Genetics, Basques were already outstanding by having the highest global apportion of Rh- blood type (35% phenetically, 60% genetically). Additionally Basques also have virtually no B blood type (nor the related AB group).

See also

• List of Basques
• Basque Country (historical territory)
• Basque language
• Basque Country (autonomous community)
• Navarre
• Northern Basque Country
• Duchy of Vasconia
• Kingdom of Navarre
• Red Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador which is the site of a former Basque whaling station, 1550-1600.
• Jai-Alai

References

• The Basque History of the World, Mark Kurlansky, 1999, ISBN 0-8027-1349-1

• Ethnologue report for France for population statistics in France.
• Euskal Herria en la Prehistoria, Xabier Peñalver Iribarren, 1996, ISBN 84-89077-58-4

External links

• History since the last Ice Age: National and International DNA Projects mentions genetic studies over the Basques' origin.
• NABO (North American Basque Organizations, Inc.) official web site
• Basque Heritage in North America and Basque diaspora today.
• Basque heritage in Argentina.
• Basque Studies Society-Eusko Ikaskuntza.
• A Basque Encyclopedia and other cultural and historical funds.
• Euskonews, Magazine edited by the Basque Studies Society.
• Basque Autonomous Government.
• Brief history of Basque whaling
• Euskal Herria Info (in Basque)
• Basta ya! (Enough Already!), association against any terrorism. Supports victims of terorism and defends the state, statutes and constitution. (in Spanish)
• Center for Basque Studies, University of Nevada, Reno
• Buber's Basque Page