History of the Basque people

The Basque people have been living in the Pyrenees Mountains surrounding the Bay of Biscay for thousands and thousand of years. Historians and other scholars have neither determined the precise origins of the Basque people, nor have discovered all of the Basque history. The Basque might have been related to a group of people called the Vascones who lived in Northern Spain.

During the ages when the Romans were conquering many parts of Europe. The Basque were never conquered by the Romans, because the Romans had no interest in their mountainous land. Later on during the 1500s, the Spanish army conquered the Basque territory. The Spanish forces allowed the Basque to govern themselves as a community, but during the Carlist Wars in the 1800s the Basque were forced out of many of their rights.

During the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, the Basque people were treated very badly. Dictator Francisco Franco banned the Basque from speaking their native language (Euskara), and forced them to speak Spanish. During this time the Basque lost all their rights,  their governance rights and economic rights. Francisco Franco imprisoned and even killed many Basque people. In 1937 Francisco Franco told the Germans to bombed the Basque town of Guernica, this bombing killed hundreds of Basque people. In 1975 after Francisco Franco's death, the Basque people got back the right to govern themselves, but this did not fully heal their pain.

In 1979 the referendum passed the statue of Autonomy. From there Araba, Bizkaia, and Gipuzkoa joined to form the Autonomous Community of Basque Country (Euskadi). Later in 1982 the law on the reintegration and improvement of the autonomous regime in Navarre was passed,
and this established the Autonomous Community of Navarre.

In 1959, the ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) or ( Basque Homeland and Freedom) was founded. ETA is an armed Basque nationalist organization, their main goal is to gain independence for the Basque Country. By 1968 the Eta were responsible for the deaths of over 800 people, thousands of injuries, and over a handful of kidnappings. This organization is looked at by most of the European countries as a terrorist organization.

Today the Basque people are considered one of the oldest surviving ethnic groups in Europe.

references:

http://autocww.colorado.edu/~blackmon/E64ContentFiles/GeographicalRegions/BasqueCountry.htm

Homeland of the Basque Country: Physical landscape and climate

Basque Country regions:

As mentioned in my first blog, the Basque Country is divided into three communities. The Basque Autonomous Community and the Autonomous Community of Navarre which are in Spain. The third is the French Basque country which is in France. The provinces in Basque autonomous community are Araba, Bizkaia (Biscay) and Gipuzkoa. The one province in the Autonomous Community of Navarre is Nafarroa (Navarre). The provinces in the French Basque country include Lapurdi (Labourd) , Nafarroa Beherea (Lower Navarre) and Zuberoa (Soule).

Basque Country Geography and Landscapes:

The Basque Country stands in the Norther part of Spain and the Southern part of France. The Basque Country has a total land area of 8,088 sq. miles (20,947 km²). The Basque landscape consists mostly of coastal planes and mountainous chains. Basque Country's northern border is the Mediterranean sea, and it's western border is on the Pyrenees mountain chain. The largest river that flows throughout the Basque Country is the Ebro river. The Ebro river is 910 km long, and it flows along the southern boundary of the Basque Country before it joins the Mediterranean Sea. The main geographic regions in the Basque
Country are those that spread across the Pyrenees Mountains and
those that are along the coast of the Biscay Bay.

The most distinctive landscapes in the Basque Country are the Pyrenees Mountains. The Pyrenees Mountains are very old, they are about 100 to 150 million years old. They were first deposited during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras. The Pyrenees mountains cross over three countries Spain, France, and Andorra. The Pyrenees stretch about 435 kilometers long, from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean Sea. The peak of the Pyrenees is Aneto.


Basque Country Climate:

The Basque Country enjoys a mild climate, with colder winters with an average temperature of 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and a warm but not too hot summer with an average temperature of
70 degrees Fahrenheit. The Basque Country has a good amount
of rain all year long, especially in the more humid coastal zones.
There are a few different climates in the Basque Country.
The first is subalpine climate, this is in the area of the Pyrenees Mountains. The second is temperate humid climate, which is on the coast. The third is the Mediterranean climate, this climate is mostly in the southern part of Araba and the southern part of Navarre.


references:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_geography_of_the_Basque_Country