The Basque conflict in a nutshell

So here it is in a nutshell- taking into account, as writer Roger Collins warns that “Few statements relating to the Basque people, their history and their language can be treated as politically neutral”:

The Basque people have lived on their land since the dawn of humanity. Up until the 19th century, the Basque language, Euskera, was used throughout the region and is considered by linguists to be the oldest language in the world. The Basques never established a unitary state, but did put in place certain laws (fueros) that included the control of their own taxation system and exemption from customs duties and military service to the Spanish State.

As Basque business boomed so did the State’s interest in the area’s wealth- land was forcibly annexed by the Spanish State and the Basque fueros were soon annulled. By the late 19th century, the founding father of Basque nationalism, Sabino Arana, created a separate Basque country, Euskadi, and began the fight for its independence. Under the authoritarian centralism of Franco’s dictatorship, the Basque people were politically, linguistically, and culturally oppressed. Young people were being arrested for speaking Basque on the street as late as the 1970s. Euskadi ta Askatasuna (ETA) was formed to defend the Basque country’s freedom and independence. Under Franco’s authoritarian regime, ETA was supported by a large majority of the Basque population who believed Franco’s dictatorship of the Basque country a foreign occupation. ETA’s support soon dwindled (to the minority of the Basque population) after Franco’s regime ended.

When Franco died a new constitution was written which enforced the ‘unity of the Spanish Nation’. Even though the Basques (like the Galicians and the Catalans) were recognized as separate nationalities they were not granted independence. In the Spanish Constitution’s 1978 referendum, 55% of Basques did not vote after the nationalist groups campaigned for abstention from the vote. It stands to reason that the Spanish Constitution, from its very inception, was not endorsed by the majority of Basque people. Basque nationalists played a central role in the 1980s creating a statute of autonomy for the Basque country, as well as its own parliament and autonomous police.