Basque Nationalism: History and Ideology

Basque Nationalism

Throughout the nineteenth century, the successive defeats in the Carlist Wars affected the Basque Country. The Fueros were phased out in a complicated process, initiated by the Act of October 25, 1839, on Reform of the Basque Privileges, culminating in the Law of July 21, 1876, which resulted in the final settlement of the Regional Order.

Defending Basque privileges remained linked to the Carlist cause in the nineteenth century. The successive defeats of the absolutists led to the abolition of the charters in 1876. In Biscay, the bourgeoisie, enriched by the emerging Industrial Revolution, was not the social field in which Basque nationalism was born.

The Basque Nationalist Party, PNV (Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea, EAJ), was founded by Sabino Arana Goiri in 1895. This man, born into an ultra-Catholic Carlist family, formulated the ideological foundations of Basque nationalism:

• Independence of Euskadi and creation of an independent Basque state that would include seven territories: four Spanish (Biscay, Gipuzkoa, Álava, Navarre) and three French (Labourd, Lower Navarre, and Soule).
• Radical anti-Spanish sentiment.
• Exaltation of the Basque ethnicity and a search for the maintenance of racial purity. This racist attitude implied opposition to marriage between Basques and Maketos (people from other parts of Spain), and rejection and contempt for these immigrants, mostly industrial workers.
• Religious fundamentalism: Arana said, "Euskadi will be established on a complete and unconditional release of political subordination to the religious, the Church to the State." The PNV motto is "God and Old Laws," a clear element of continuity with Carlism.

Social and Geographical Influence

Basque nationalism had mixed social and geographical influence. It spread especially among the small and middle bourgeoisie, and in the countryside. The great industrial and financial bourgeoisie distanced itself from nationalism, and the proletariat, mostly from other regions of Spain, largely embraced socialism. It spread in Biscay and Gipuzkoa. Its influence on Álava and Navarre was much smaller. Galician and Valencian nationalism were, finally, very minor phenomena.