Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The lands that form the Basque territory, known in the Basque language as Euskal Herria, have been, since the 1950s, the location of Europe's longest lasting violent conflict. In spite of periodic ceasefires, the radical Basque organization Euzkadi ta Askatasuna, more widely known as ETA, is Europe's last active home-grown terrorist organization. For its supporters, ETA is the latest in a long line of expressions of resistance to centralizing and homogenizing trends that have been led by Madrid. The historically formed discourse of resistance that prevails within the Basque nationalist movement evokes an ancient culture that has been preserved through the ages, citing the apparent failure of Roman, Visigoth, Arab, and other invaders to overcome them. The Basque people speak a language that is non-Indo European and are almost certainly the longest continuously remaining linguistic community on European soil. By the early modern period, the territory had come to form part of both the French and Spanish states, though the Basques managed to maintain a relative autonomy until the nineteenth century, though concomitant developments brought about by modernity became a major challenge. Basque alienation from Spanish liberalism, with its increasing centralizing trends, was expressed through support for the ultra-conservative and Catholic movement known as Carlism. Basque Carlists fought ... log in or subscribe to read full text