What is the Basque Country?
The Basque Country, Euskal Herria in the Basque language, can be seen as a nation without a State in Western Europe, between Spain and France, at the western end of the Pyrenees. Others would say it’s an ethnic group with very old roots, some of which are Spanish citizens (some would even say Spaniards), and some of which are French citizens (some would even say French). Many people have a preconceived idea that the lines in the maps divide not just “countries” (that is, states), but also peoples, languages, and cultures. Actually, the lines on the map show divisions of states (not in the American sense of states, but in the sense of “a politically unified people occupying a definite territory; nation” (Random House Webster’s). But those states are a very recent development in the history of the world. By and large those states, the 185 states represented at the United Nations (as of 1995), are multi-ethnic, multilingual, and multinational political entities. The idea of the homogeneou
There are three core counties in northern Spain that make up what the Basques call Euskadi, the autonomous Basque region of Spain. Navarra and parts of southwestern France fall under what is known as Euskalerria, the wider Basque homeland that nationalists claim as their own. The core Basque region already has a great deal of independence from the Spanish state. A statute of autonomy was approved and ratified by referedum in 1979 – establishing a parliament which elects a president. In 1980, the Basque police force was created. The region is now one of the most heavily policed in the world, with a local force, national police and the Civil Guard all working alongside their Basque counterparts. Nationalists consider their language an essential part of their cultural identity. A unique and ancient tongue, Basque, or Euskera, is obligatory in public schools and officially carries the same weight as Castillian Spanish. The administration of the Basque Country also has a list of other areas
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The Basque Country, or Euskadi in the Basque language, is one of 17 autonomous Spanish communities, as stated in the current constitution in force in Spain. The Basque Country is made up of three provinces: Álava, Guipúzcoa and Vizcaya. Since the creation of the Spanish state, back in the times of the Catholic kings, the Basque Country has belonged to Spain. In fact, never in the history of this people has it been an independent state, or has it even had a historic reign like that of the Foral Community of Navarra. Nonetheless, despite having never been a separate country, in Basque Country there exist several nationalist parties that want total independence of this region, together with other historic territories. And according to the nationalists there are seven, not three, Basque provinces. To the three provinces that make up the Basque Country currently, the nationalists add Navarra and three French provinces: Lapurdi, Zuberoa and Lower Navarra. That is, the concept of a complete E
