A lot of you have heard about the Basque region and the crimes of the cowards assassins of ETA (which stands for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna or Basque Homeland and Freedom in English), the criminal organization that has killed close to a 1.000 people since it started operating in the late sixties.
Some of you may have even heard about the “conflict” between a “Basque Nation and the oppressing States of France and Germany”.
The “Basques” live in the Region of Aquitaine in France and in the Basque Autonomous Region of Spain. They have never formed a state, nor an independent government of any kind. They always were a fundamental part of what we call today Spain. And that was the case until the beginning of the 20th century, where a racist, pre-nazi lunatic called Sabino Arana literally invented a set of myths which have been the foundation of today’s problems.
I plan to outline all of these myths and present the plain truth admitted by most Western historians during a series of articles, the first one being today:
False Myth #1: Spain and the Basque region have been separated and antagonistic entities trough history.
The “Vascones” were a tribe of pre-Roman Hispania. Together with the “Vardulos”, “Caristios” and “Autrigones” they conformed the ancient base of what today is known as Basque people. If we add the population of the pre-roman Hispania (“Iberians”, “Ligures” and “Celts”), the Visigoths and the continuous movements of population, produced by the Muslim invasion and the Christian re-conquest, we will finally configure not only the Basque people, but the people of what is known today as Spain.
After the fall of the Visigoth state, all the Spanish tribes without any exception took part of the common project of restoration of the 'lost Spain' and fought against Islam. As the rest of the Spanish, the Basques, always linked with Castille, made of the fight for their religion and the Hispanic project the foundation of their own identity.
The very origin of Castille has an essential Basque component. The most significant medievalist of the XX century, and president of the 2nd Spanish Republic in the exile, Claudio Sánchez Albornoz, said "Castille and the Castilians were the product of the racial and cultural symbiosis of the Cantabrian, the Basque and the Goth".
During centuries the Basque died for the re-conquest of Spain, participated in their government and flew in masses to repopulate where needed. In the Modern Era the Basque discovered, conquered and expanded into the New World, as Spaniards they were.
In 1808, during Napoleon's invasion, the Basque fought and died for Spain, its King and its Religion, combating with enthusiasm against their enemy, as well as did many of the French-Basques, like general Harispe.
As Miguel de Unamuno wrote "We the Basques don't have any feat, any historic labor of universal value, made with the abstention of Spain or against Spain". The Basque have always been part of what is known as Spain, and have constructed this reality from its ancient origins with the collaboration of the rest of the Spanish population.
7 Comments:
Nacho, you are bound to fail in your little anti-Basque campaign, I've been blogging for a long time and not one Spaniard was able to stand his ground.
So, you can expect my comments on your posts debunking each one of them.
Gora Euskal Herria Askatuta!
Alkesu, I am of course ready and looking forward to hear your comments, but please, don't start by saying that this is anti-Basque. I am anti-nothing. See, there goes your first prejudice "people are against us". I am only against individuals, many of which aren't precisely Basque. You cannot be against 2 million people at once.
Wait a moment, you deny the Basques even exist yet you are not anti-Basque?
Do you mind to explain that?
Hello, Nacho Serra,
I am a philosophy student living in Toronto, Canada. I agree with you, that there is'nt actually a basque people. Perhaps I call it an intuition. And what of the linguists who state that the Basque language, is a language-isolate, or others who have claimed it is Pre-Indo European. When did these constructions come about? I suspect that these, constructions have little to do with history, as we understand it. Thanks for you're blogging. Here's a link to my blog. http://phenomenology-and-buddhism.over-blog.com/
Thank you very much Nacho. Well documented article. It's neccesary to tell the truth to the basque people-by the way most of them are excellent people- as well as the rest of the world. I would recommend Aleksu to study a lot more about History and not to be a fanatic supporter of PNV, ETA and other nazis and terrorists organizations
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