Basque Nationalism and the Spanish State

André Lecours

• Publisher: University of Nevada Press
• Year: 2007
• ISBN:
  9780874177312
• Topic: Geschichte
• Subtopic: Weltgeschichte

An examination of Basque nationalism from a historical perspective. Basque nationalism has been extensively examined from the perspectives of Basque culture and internal conditions in the Basque Country, but André Lecours is among the first to demonstrate how Basque nationalism was shaped by the many forms and historical phases of the Spanish state. His discussion employs one of the most debated approaches in the social sciences—historical institutionalism—and it includes an up-to-date examination of the circumstances for, and consequences of, recent events such as ETA's announcement in 2006 of a permanent cease-fire. Lecours also analyzes other aspects of Basque nationalism, including the international relations of the Basque Autonomous Government, as well as the responses of the contemporary Spanish state and how it deploys its own brand of nationalism. Finally, the book offers a comparative discussion of Basque, Catalan, Scottish, Flemish, and Quebecois nationalist movements, suggesting that nationalism in the Basque Country, despite the historical presence of violence, is in many ways similar to nationalism in other industrialized democracies. Basque Nationalism and the Spanish State is an original and provocative discussion that is essential reading for anyone interested in the Basques or in the development of modern nationalist movements.

Chapter One

The Early Spanish State

Basque nationalism can be understood only in the context of a particular historical process: the construction, transformation, and evolution of the Spanish state and its relationship with Spanish nation-building. The erection of the Spanish state began in the fifteenth century with the dynastic alliance leading to the creation of Spain, although the roots of the territorial structuring of the Iberian Peninsula date back to the Reconquista that unfolded in the previous seven hundred years or so. The crucial consideration here is that the creation of the Spanish state was not followed by efforts at nation-building. Differently put, the timing of the erection of the Spanish state (in the sixteenth century) in relation to the first nation-building efforts (in the nineteenth century) is very important for understanding the emergence of Basque nationalism. Juan Linz has argued that part of the explanation for the fact that Spain is “not a nation for important minorities” is that “Spanish state-building went on before the age of nationalism.”¹

Explaining the development of Basque nationalism necessitates an appreciation for early forms of political and territorial organization in the Iberian Peninsula. The seeds of the Basque identity underpinning contemporary nationalist politics were planted during this period by institutional arrangements that formalized the existence of Basque territories and gave certain qualities to their populations. There was a strong path-dependency effect to the relationship between the early Spanish state and the political status of the three Basque provinces of Araba, Bizkaia, and Gipuzkoa: the longer the Spanish state allowed these provinces to remain relatively self-governing, the more autonomy became a central feature of their politics. As a result, integrating the Basque provinces within a centralized Spanish state was an option that grew to present very high political costs and that would be favored only when circumstances left little choice.

At the broadest level, the beginning of this path-dependency process of identity construction was the Reconquista by Christian forces of Iberian territories controlled by the Moors. The Reconquista led to the creation of various kingdoms whose integrity was guaranteed by a series of political arrangements that fostered traditions of autonomy and exceptionalism. It therefore represents the historical basis for Spain’s contemporary plurality of identity. More crucial is the fact that Spain remained a loose arrangement of semiautonomous territories several centuries after it was created because the state was, at times, unwilling and, at others, unable to alter this status quo. Spain was, in other words, a confederal-like state. Historian José Ortega y Gasset put it best when he said that particularism had historically been at the center of the Spanish state and constituted a universal feature of Spain.² The approach to territorial management of the early Spanish state emphasizing autonomy and asymmetry, and the state’s later failure to impose a different model, represents the first critical juncture in the development of Basque nationalism. However, all states have been built from a variety of territories; what is important for their contemporary territorial politics is their subsequent approach to territorial management. In Spain, it was the continuing use of autonomy and other accommodation strategies toward the Basque provinces that set up the formal articulation of nationalism later on.

From this perspective, this critical juncture precedes the outcome to be explained. Indeed, nationalism actually takes form in the Basque Country during the late nineteenth century. The argument, however, is that the structure of the early Spanish state is central to the later emergence and continued strength of Basque nationalism insofar as the building of the Spanish state was not accompanied by a comprehensive effort to build a Spanish nation that would include all of the Crown’s subjects in the Iberian Peninsula. The complex political makeup of the territories of present-day Spain before unification discouraged the imposition of centralized and symmetrical structures, and made difficult an effective integration of all the kingdoms. The practice of the fueros used by the early Spanish state in lieu of such an integration served as a unifying force for the three Basque provinces. Still today, these fueros underpin Basque identity (as well as the individuality of the provinces) and claims for self-determination. The early choices made by the governing dynasties of Spain do indeed loom large in contemporary Spanish politics.

This chapter explains how the territorial configuration generated by the Reconquista was maintained following unification by practices that constructed a tradition of Basque autonomy above and beyond provincial borders. It delves into medieval and early modern Spanish history because, in the words of Ortega y Gasset: “The secrets of Spain’s great problems are to be found in the Middle Ages.”³ It is important to notice that the chapter does not focus exclusively on the Basque provinces: what is central to this period for understanding contemporary Basque nationalism is the development of the Spanish state and the (non)development of a Spanish nation.

As mentioned in the previous chapter, the historical nature of the inquiry strategy should not be misunderstood as meaning that nationalism and national identity are ancient. This is clearly not the case for Basque nationalism and the Basque identity, as will be demonstrated in the next chapters. Nevertheless, premodern and early modern history must be taken seriously in the Basque case because the construction of the Spanish state is grounded in these periods.⁴ History is not merely context for the emergence of Basque nationalism; rather, it represents a causal chain for its development.

The Reconquest and Territorial Structuring in the Iberian Peninsula

The roots of Spain’s plurality of identities may be traced back to the efforts of Christian principalities to regain the territories taken by the Moors in the eighth century.⁵ This event, known as the Reconquista, lasted almost eight centuries and targeted the whole of the Iberian Peninsula. At the broadest level, the Reconquista was a struggle whose objective was not only to destroy Arabo-Muslim power in the Iberian Peninsula, but also to unify its territory under Christianity. The wars of the Reconquista were not coherent and integrated military actions, nor did they occur simultaneously. They were launched from different regions that had escaped the invasion, mostly in the north. These offensives followed different patterns in different areas, and experienced various degrees of success. They also generated a territorial restructuring in the Iberian Peninsula. The political units created during the Reconquista had little to do with the Roman and Visigoth influence that dominated before the Arabo-Muslim presence. Because the waves of the Reconquista were asynchronic and differentiated, the territorial organization of the peninsula came to feature multiple independent kingdoms.⁶ Many of these kingdoms, albeit often in altered forms, have been an enduring feature of Spanish history. They constituted the political landscape that future Spanish kings had to confront.

In the northeast, for example, the Moors were chased in the early 800s, leaving the territories of present-day Cataluña isolated from the rest of the peninsula and exposed to European-Mediterranean influences. These territories gradually came under the influence of Barcelona and its powerful counts. Ramón Berenguer I was the central figure in their eleventh-century unification. He developed the Codi dels Usatges, a codified set of rules surrounding the exercise of political power, which underpins much of the Catalan tradition of autonomy. Other kingdoms created during this period include Asturias (739), León (866), Navarre (905), Aragón (1035), Castile (1037), and Galicia (1065).⁷

The scenario played out differently in the territories of the present-day Basque Country, which were inhabited by a population later assumed to have distinct social, cultural, and even biological characteristics. In early Roman times, the Basque population was limited to the modern province of Navarre as well as parts of Araba and Gipuzkoa, but an expansion around the sixth century led to Basques populating Bizkaia and the southwestern corner of what is now France.

The Basques have long intrigued various types of scholars and experts. Linguists have puzzled over the origins of a language, Basque (or Euskara), which does not resemble any Indo-European tongues. The Basque language has been often presumed to have some type of connection to the languages of the Caucasus, but linguists are overall skeptical toward this hypothesis. Another link has been established with Aquitaine, although this language might simply have been an early form of Basque.⁸ Basque may also be close to Iberian, a pre-Christian-era language. Specialists have also highlighted the difficult syntax and morphology of the Basque language. In popular culture, these intricacies have translated into various narratives denoting Basque exceptionalism. In one story, for example, the devil came to the Basque country to learn the language but could get no further than bai (yes) and ez (no) and therefore had to leave.⁹

Physical anthropologists have found that type O blood is much more common among the Basques than among any other population, that the A and B types are almost nonexistent, and that the Rh-negative factor is unusually high.¹⁰ Starting in the nineteenth century, attention was also paid to the skulls of the Basques, which were said by some to be “built like that of no other men” and by others to resemble either those of Turks, Tartars, Magyars, Germans, or Laplanders.¹¹

From a cultural point of view, the Basques were historically known as expert whalers. Whale hunting was central to Basque commercial activity starting in the seventh century as whale meat became an alternative to “red-blooded” meat forbidden by the Catholic church on holy days.¹² Whaling as a socioeconomic activity can be situated within a larger picture of maritime culture. Throughout the centuries, and perhaps starting as early as the ninth century, the Basques became known for shipbuilding. As seamen, there is a good case to be made that they reached North America, more specifically what is now the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, before the better-known European explorers.

There is no doubt that the peculiarities of the Basques as put forward by sociologists, linguists, anthropologists, and cultural studies specialists have been central to the construction of a Basque sense of nationhood a posteriori.¹³ Perhaps most importantly, the Basque language has served to establish the boundaries of the nation. Territories considered Basque are those where Euskara is spoken: Bizkaia, Araba, Gipuzkoa, Navarre (in Spain); Lapurdi, Nafarroa Beherea, and Zuberoa (in France). This is the spatial conceptualization of the Basque nation underpinning Basque nationalism, and the territories that radical Basque nationalists seek to unite politically. Language has also been central to narratives that have contributed to the construction of Basque exceptionalism. Euskara was conceived by some intellectuals of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, most famously the Jesuit Manuel de Larramendi, as being a language of the Tower of Babel. Still today, the Basque language is central to the deeply engrained belief that the Basques are, much like the aboriginal populations of the Americas, an “original people.” Together with notions of physical and cultural distinctiveness, the uniqueness of the Basque language feeds the powerful idea that the Basques were the first Europeans. In turn, these images suggest homogeneity and unity among the Basques. However, the extent to which the common language, as well as other cultural and socioeconomic markers, created a common Basque identity in the Middle Ages (or before) is a matter of debate. For some, there is a social, cultural, and, at least in the loosest sense, political unity to the Basque Country that has existed from time immemorial.¹⁴ For others, there is no such thing as a historical Basque civilization.¹⁵

What is certain is that there was never a Basque kingdom, but rather three provinces in the territories of present-day Spain: Araba, Bizkaia, and Gipuzkoa. The historical record is sketchy with respect to when and how these provinces were formed. Araba was the first province to be created, most likely in the 700s; its name is mentioned in several texts written in eighth century.¹⁶ Bizkaia first appeared in the early ninth century. The first written reference to Bizkaia came in a text (Crónica de Alfonso III) written in 900.¹⁷ The territories of present-day Gipuzkoa were partly included in Bizkaia until the eleventh century when the province was formed.¹⁸ The Kingdom of Pamplona, which later evolved into the Kingdom of Navarre, was well established as a political entity in the ninth century. The status of Navarre as a Basque kingdom has always been ambiguous; Navarre was more exposed to population movements than the three provinces, which made its ethnic composition less clearly Basque.¹⁹

The Basques largely avoided being subjugated and assimilated by powerful groups such as the Romans, the Visigoths, and the Moors. Indeed, the Arabo-Muslim invasion of Spain did not fully extend to the territories of the present-day Basque Country. The Moors made no serious attempt to establish their authority over this area, and only a small fraction of the Basque population fell under Moorish control. This is significant for the later construction of the Basque nation because it fed the idea of a pure people untarnished by multiple waves of invasion in the Iberian Peninsula. This type of logic was not peculiar to the Basque provinces. Spain as a whole, especially its religious and clerical element, was very much preoccupied with the issue of “blood purity” in the sixteenth century.²⁰ There were two categories of Spaniards: pure-blooded old Christians and new Christians whose blood had been tarnished by the Moors (or the Jews).²¹ The Basques fell in the first category. In addition to theologians, everybody from writers to physical anthropologists held to the notion of the Basque as a pure race, perhaps the original European race, whose physical features and spiritual character remained unchanged and unblemished in virtue of centuries of isolation. As a consequence, the Basques were often considered the purest of Spaniards.

The Reconquista had no direct effect on the northeastern area of the peninsula. The Basque provinces were never merged into a single Basque entity, not even during the construction of the Spanish state. This serves to highlight that there is no ancestor to the Basque Country formed as an autonomous community in democratic Spain that can be found buried in the ancient history of the Iberian Peninsula. The three Basque provinces were indirectly affected by the Reconquista because they became targets for more powerful kingdoms. These provinces moved back and forth between autonomy and control by a major kingdom between the eighth and the fourteenth century. One of those kingdoms was Navarre, which was one of the most powerful Christian entities of the peninsula during the eleventh century. Navarre controlled Gipuzkoa for nearly two hundred years, and also included Araba and Bizkaia after they broke away from Asturias.²² The Basque provinces in present-day France also came under Navarrese control. During this period, Bizkaia developed a distinct form of political organization, the señorio (seigniory), and the Bizkaian señor became the interlocutor for whatever kingdom held sway in the province at any particular time. Only for a few years in the eleventh century were the three provinces controlled by Navarre. Therefore, the linkage made by some Basque nationalists between the three provinces currently forming the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country and Navarre has virtually no historical foundations, at least from a political and institutional perspective. Still from this point of view, the three provinces never formed a Basque Country in the Middle Ages. There was, of course, a population sharing a common language whose exact origins are unknown, but no formal unity.

The notion of a Basque political unit stretching into the territories of present-day France (more specifically in Aquitaine) has even weaker historical foundations. The Basques emigrated north of the Pyrenees starting in the sixth century until roughly the tenth century; the international border between France and Spain would therefore make any political relationship between the Basques from the south and the north very difficult. The Basque territories of France also came to be divided in provinces: Zuberoa and Lapurdi were created in the eleventh century, and Nafarroa Beherea was formed in the twelfth century.²³ Even between these three pro...