Guage Europe

GUAGE EUROPE : Races and Peo ples.) The combined area of the two northern provinces is little more than that of Alava, but their population is seven times as great. This concentration on the more fertile coastlands has been a feature of settlement in Spain from the earliest times. Inland, the boundary with Alava is clearly defined; it runs along the hill-lines which represent the local weakening of the great Tertiary mountain-building forces that produced the Pyrenees to the east and the Cantabrians to the west. To the north of this lies a very broken country of rounded gorse-covered hills, ending seawards in high cliffs, and deeply cut wooded valleys dotted with the large Basque homesteads, well watered throughout the year and having not less than 4oin. of rain per annum. Movement from east to west is extremely difficult, and this fact, together with the pres ence of excellent harbours, such as that of Pasajes, early brought coastwise communications into prominence. It resulted, further, in the preservation of the physical type and ancient culture of the Basques, for penetration into Spain until the i7th century was almost solely confined to the Pyrenean passes of Navarre, notably Roncevaux (q.v.).

The contrast with Alava is great. The climatic boundary cor responds to the physical, and lies along the edge of the high, tribu tary basin which slopes southwards to the Ebro and includes the fertile open plains of Vitoria. Alava is thus comparatively dry (though the rainfall is fairly evenly distributed) and exposed to the extremes of temperature which characterize the Spanish "meseta." The wooded valleys of the coastal strip are rare in Alava, and the vegetation takes on the character which belongs to regions of hot dry summers. The province has similarly lain open to human penetration, and it is interesting to note that the Basque language is here weakest. Its capital, Vitoria, is said to have been founded by the Gothic king, Leovigild (580. Throughout the middle ages, while the coast was comparatively unaffected by the great movements of men and culture, Alava was influenced in many ways, since it lay on the northern flank of the pilgrim route from Pamplona to Santiago through Logrono.

In

Biscay the counts of Haro were lords of Biscay from Io93 to 135o. There was a short union with Castile under Pedro the Cruel, but the definitive union did not take place till 13 7o. In Alava the ruling power was the confederation of Arriaga, which united the province to the crown of Castile in 1332. Guipuzcoa, which had been dependent sometimes on Navarre, sometimes on Castile, was definitively united to Castile in 1200. From the year 1425 the provinces were desolated by party wars among the lesser nobles (parientes snayores) but these came to an end in 146o-98, when Henry IV. and Ferdinand the Catholic strength ened the power of the towns and forbade the erection of any fortified house in the country. Though the three Basque Prov inces were thus united to the crown of Spain, they still remained a land apart (tierra apartada). Their juntas acted to some ex tent in common; and although no written federal pact is known to have existed, they employed, as the symbol of their unity, a seal with the word Iruracbat, "The Three One," engraved upon it. They preserved their own laws and customs, which the Spanish kings swore to observe and maintain. Unless countersigned by the juntas, the decrees of tortes and Spanish legislation or royal orders had no force in the provinces. In the junta of 1481 Guipuz coa alone proposed a treaty of friendship, peace and free trade for ten years with England, and this was signed in Westminster on March 9, 1482 (see Rymer, Foedera). The Basques are mentioned apart from Spain in the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), and long preserved in their municipal institutions the old style of republicas.

This kind of independence and autonomy lasted until the death of Ferdinand VII. in 1833, when, in default of male heirs, his brother, Don Carlos, claimed the throne, and raised the standard of revolt against his niece, Isabel II. The ensuing wars ended in 1876 in the utter defeat of the Carlist forces, and left the provinces at the mercy of the Government. In general govern ment and legislation the provinces were then assimilated to the rest of Spain, the provincial parliaments (diputaciones) being elected like the other provincial councils of Spain, and subjected to the ordinary interference of the civil governors. But their representatives, assisted by the senators and deputies of the Basque Provinces in the Cortes, negotiated successive pacts, each lasting several years, securing for the three provinces their munici pal and provincial self-government, and the assessment, distribu tion and collection of their principal taxes and octroi duties, on the understanding that an agreed sum should be paid annually to the State. In Dec. 1906, the contribution of the Basque Provinces to the State was fixed as follows: for 1906-16 at 8,500,00o pese tas; for 1917-26 at pts. 9,000,000. On Oct. 8, 1936, after the out break of civil war in Spain, an autonomous Basque government was set up at Guernica. In June 1937, after the insurgent forces had entered Bilbao, the capital of the province of Biscay, General Franco confirmed for the province of Alava, but annulled for the provinces of Guipuzcoa and Vizcaya, the financial autonomy granted them in 1925.

In agriculture the Basque Provinces are great cider countries and the apple is the characteristic fruit tree. During the 19th century, however, wine-growing increased ; it has long been famous in Alava. The chief industries are the sea fisheries and iron mining. Some of the mines round Bilbao have been worked from prehistoric times. In 1926 the Basque Provinces produced 1.36o, 00o metric tons of iron ore, for which Great Britain is the principal market. The swords of Mondragon in Guipuzcoa were renowned before those of Toledo. In the I 9th century Senor Zuloaga successfully revived at Eibar the artistic inlaying of gold and silver in steel and iron. In the loth century great strides have been made in harnessing streams to produce electric power for application to industry.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Of

older works, R. P. Henao's Averiguaciones de Bibliography.-Of older works, R. P. Henao's Averiguaciones de las Antigliedades de Cantabria (1688, new ed. 1894) , is valuable. For the manners and customs of the people see R. P. M. de Larramendi, S.J., Corografia de Guipzizcoa (written about 175o, it was first printed in Barcelona in 1882 ; later ed. 1896) . There are excellent chapters on the Basque Provinces in the Introduction a la Historia Natural, y a la Geografia Fisica de Espana, by D. Guillermo Bowles . El Gui puzcoano instruido (178o) , in the form of a dictionary, gives full de tails of the life, rights, duties and obligations of a Basque citizen of that date. The Diccionario Geografico-Historico de Espana, tome i., ii.

(1 802) is full of local information. The best works on the various edi tions of the fueros are: A. Marichalar, Marques de Montesa, and Caye tano Manrique, Historic de la Legislation . . . civil de Espana (1863) ; Fueros de Navarra Vizcaya, Guipuzcoa y Alava (Madrid, 2nd ed., i868) ; D. Pablo de Gorosabel Noticia de las cosas memorables de Guipdzcoa (1899-1901) , the last volume of which, by C. de Echegaray, gives the legislative acts down to May 1900 ; D. Carmelo de Echegaray, Las Provincias Vascongadas a Fines de la Edad Media (1895) ; Dr. E. de Labayru, Historia de Bizcaya (19o3) ; G. de Balparda, Historic critics de Vizcaya y de sus Fueros (1924). Several discoveries of im portant missing documents and mss. were made in the process of cataloguing and indexing the archives of the towns. The development of the Basque mining industry is described in Las Minas de hierro de la provincia de Vizcaya, progresos realizados en esta region desde 1870 hasta 1899 0900).