 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(July 2023) |
The Basque Republic was a project for an independent Basque Country proposed in 1941 by Manuel de Irujo, at that moment the main representative of the Basque Government in London.
During the Spanish Civil War, the Second Spanish Republic had allowed an autonomous government in those Basque areas of Spain that had not been taken by the Nationalist (later Francoist) side, i.e., Biscay and parts of Gipuzkoa. This government was formed by Basque nationalists (EAJ-PNV and Acción Nacionalista Vasca) and leftists (the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party and Communist Party).
In 1937, the Basque Army surrendered in Santoña to the Italian Corpo Truppe Volontari and the Basque leaders who managed to escape went to Catalonia or France. After the defeat of the Republican side (1 April 1939), the free Basque leaders were refuged in Europe and the Americas. Later in 1939, the German invasion of Poland unleashed the Second World War. France quickly fell before the Wehrmacht. Under a false identity, the Basque President José Antonio Aguirre traveled north from France trying to sail to the United States.
At this time, Irujo promoted a Basque National Council (Consejo Nacional de Euzkadi /Euzkadi'ko Batzar Nagusia, formally established on 11 July 1940) inspired by the exile governments and committees forming among European refugees in Britain. Expecting that Francoist Spain would join the Axis in the war, Irujo bet on an Allied victory and tried to establish a provisional authority capable of negotiating a new status for the Basque Country with the British government, the Free French and the eventual Spanish government. He established an alliance with Catalan nationalists in Britain who had formed their own Catalan National Council. He planned to have the south of the Pyrenees divided between a Basque state and a Catalan one and so presented a joint declaration on 18 January 1941 before the British Minister of State.
He redacted a "foreproject for a Constitution of the Basque Republic". It would be an independent state as a democratic republic. Its territory would cover that of the Kingdom of Navarre under Sancho the Greater, excluding the French Basque country to gain the support of Charles de Gaulle. Its limits would be:
This would include areas of Burgos, Cantabria, Rioja and Aragon whose Basqueness was at most historic and where Basque nationalism was inexistent.
The Basque state would be relatively interventionist, protectionist and paternalist, following the social doctrine of the Catholic Church as assumed by the Basque Nationalist Party. Article 52 of Title V marked the requirements for the President of the Republic:
An additional chapter opened a chance to join other territories:
Irujo would later try to negotiate with the Free French the creation of a Basque Battalion, dissolved formally on 23 May 1942.
In October 1942, the news of the safe arrival of Aguirre in Uruguay reached London. At the Basque World Congress of Paris (1956), he would thank the labour of the Basque National Council, but his politics would not follow Irujo's Constitution.
It would be the Socialist Indalecio Prieto who would harshly criticize Irujo's irredentism. [1] He remarks that the Cantabrian ports of Castro-Urdiales, Laredo, and Santoña, along with the industry of Reinosa, would be part of Euzkadi. He likens Irujo's map to Hitler's and shows his surprise because Laburdi and Zuberoa, areas of the French Basses Pyrenees where Basque is spoken, are left out of the new state. In the same Mexican newspaper, Julio Jauregui denies the accusations of separatism, interpreting Irujo's foreproject as a confederal blueprint. Jauregui remarks that the democratic will of the newly annexed citizens would be necessary, just as some people in Logroño are showing interest in the Basque autonomy projects.
After the dissolution of the BNC by Aguirre, Irujo would dedicate himself to literature and a project for an Iberian Community of Nations, including Portugal, that did not have much echo.
Basque nationalism is a form of nationalism that asserts that Basques, an ethnic group indigenous to the western Pyrenees, are a nation and promotes the political unity of the Basques, today scattered between Spain and France. Since its inception in the late 19th century, Basque nationalism has included Basque independence movements.
The Basque Nationalist Party, officially Basque National Party in English, is a Basque nationalist and regionalist political party. The party is located in the centre of the political spectrum.
Basque Workers' Solidarity is the most influential trade union in Basque Country, having been created, as Solidaridad de Obreros Vascos, by members of the Basque Nationalist Party on June 10, 1911, in Bilbao.
José Antonio Aguirre y Lecube was a Basque politician and activist in the Basque Nationalist Party. He was the first president of the Provisional Government of the Basque Country and the executive defense advisor during the Spanish Civil War. Under his mandate, the Provisional Government formed the Basque Army and fought for the Second Spanish Republic.
Before this period, the Nationalists had already become dominant, yet the outcome of the war was still not certain. This progressively changed as the Nationalist forces notched up several victories.
The Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country of 1979, widely known as the Statute of Gernika, is the legal document organizing the political system of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country' which includes the historical territories of Alava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa. It forms the region into one of the autonomous communities envisioned in the Spanish Constitution of 1978. The Statute was named "Statute of Gernika" after the city of Gernika, where its final form was approved on 29 December 1978. It was ratified by referendum on 25 October 1979, despite the abstention of more than 40% of the electorate. The statute was accepted by the lower house of the Spanish Parliament on November 29 and the Spanish Senate on December 12.
The Basques are an indigenous ethno-linguistic group mainly inhabiting Basque Country. Their history is therefore interconnected with Spanish and French history and also with the history of many other past and present countries, particularly in Europe and the Americas, where a large number of their descendants keep attached to their roots, clustering around Basque clubs which are centers for Basque people.
The Santoña Agreement, Pact of Santoña or Santoña Treason, was an agreement signed in the town of Guriezo, near Santoña, Cantabria, on 24 August 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, between politicians close to the Basque Nationalist Party, fighting for the Spanish Republicans, and Italian forces, fighting for Francisco Franco, treaty which, according to modern historiography, is considered a treason against the Spanish Republic.
The current Basque coat of arms is the official coat of arms of the Basque Country, Autonomous community of Spain. It consists of a party per cross representing the three historical territories of Álava, Gipuzkoa and Biscay, as well as a fourth, void quarter. The arms are ringed by a regal wreath of oak leaves, symbolic of the Gernikako Arbola. The fourth quarter constituted since the late 19th century the linked chains of Navarre; however, following a legal suit by the Navarre Government claiming that the usage of the arms of a region on the flag of another was illegal, the Constitutional Court of Spain ordered the removal of the chains of Navarre in a judgement of 1986.
The campaign of Gipuzkoa was part of the Spanish Civil War, where the Nationalist Army conquered the northern province of Gipuzkoa, held by the Republic.
The Basque Country, also called Basque Autonomous Community, is an autonomous community in northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay, and Gipuzkoa.
The ikurrina flag or ikurriña is a Basque symbol and the official flag of the Basque Country Autonomous Community of Spain. This flag consists of a white cross over a green saltire on a red field.
The Basque Auxiliary Navy was a section of the Spanish Republican Navy operating in the Bay of Biscay between 1936 and 1937. The naval force began their operations in October 1936 at the behest of the autonomous Basque Government. The main Basque Navy base was at Portugalete.
Club Deportivo Euzkadi was an association football team that played in the Primera Fuerza league in Mexico during the 1938–39 season. It was formed when the Basque Country national football team, which had been touring the world, was refused permission by the world governing body of association football FIFA, to play any more FIFA affiliated teams due to political issues arising from the ongoing Spanish Civil War. As a result of this ruling the team decided to stay in Mexico and participate in the Mexican domestic league under the name Club Deportivo Euzkadi, a move which FIFA allowed.
Jesus Larrañaga Churruca was a Basque communist union leader who became one of the military leaders during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). He went into exile after the fall of the Republic to the Francoist forces, but later returned to Portugal. He was arrested, handed over to the Spanish and executed by firing squad.
Manuel de Irujo Ollo was a lawyer and politician from Navarre, Spain, who became the leader of the Basque Nationalist Party during the Second Spanish Republic. He was a liberal democrat with a profound faith in Christianity. He was Minister of Justice in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). He went into exile after the Republican defeat. He returned from exile in 1977 and was elected to the Senate.
Women in the Basque Nationalist Party in Francoist Spain were involved in leadership positions from an early period. The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) was founded prior to the Second Spanish Republic in Bilbao, as a conservative Roman Catholic organization. They initially tried to be neutral during the Civil War, but later more openly opposed Nationalist forces. This led to repression and investigation after the war of women PNV members, and wives and daughters of male PNV members. Emakume Abertzale Batza, PNV's women political section, was operated in exile in this early period.
Florentino Goikoetxea (1898–1980) was a Basque who worked for the Comet Escape Line during World II. A smuggler by profession, he guided more than 200 Allied airmen shot down in occupied Belgium and France over the Pyrenees mountains to neutral Spain from where they could be repatriated to the United Kingdom. He was honored with the George Medal from the United Kingdom and the Legion of Honor from France.
Vicente Fatrás Neira was a Spanish politician. In his younger years he was also one of Spain's first racing cyclists.
Soledad Kasilda Hernáez Vargas (1914-1992) was a Basque anarchist militant that fought in the Spanish Civil War. An anarchist from an early age, during the time of the Spanish Republic, she was a prominent participant in the Basque anarchist movement, being imprisoned for her role in the Revolution of 1934. With the outbreak of civil war, she fought within the confederal militias, transferring to the Aragon front after the nationalists won the War in the North. After the Republic's defeat, she went into exile in France, where she supported the French Resistance, Spanish Maquis and eventually ETA.