Geopolitical Imaginations of the Basque Homeland

Abstract

In this article the different territorial imaginations of Basqueness in Basque nationalist rhetoric and political practice are described. The seeming consensus on a greater Basque Country or Euskal Herria encompassing two administrative regions in Spain and three former provinces in France has become the hegemonic narrative at a rhetorical level. Euskal Herria as the imagined nation-state is the dominant myth compared to territorial allusions concerning the medieval Kingdom of Navarre. In contrast to the nationalist rhetoric, political practice of Basque nationalists varies according to the sub-state arenas in which they are active. Three concurrent practical goals of nationalists are discussed, namely the co-sovereignty claim for Euskadi, the demand for a separate Basque department within France and the establishment of an independent Basque state. The article addresses the following questions. Why Euskal Herria has become the winning myth to the detriment of territorial imaginations based on the mediaeval Kingdom of Navarre? Why does the political practice of Basque nationalism vary so strong according to its politico-institutional context? To what extent the geopolitical imaginations have become rooted in daily life experiences in the envisaged Basque homeland?

Acknowledgements

I owe many thanks to the editors of this special issue of Geopolitics Gert-Jan Dijkink and Virginie Mamadouh for their detailed and constructive criticism on earlier drafts. I am also grateful to David Newman for his concise advice in his role as editor of Geopolitics. Last but not least I would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers who took their job so seriously and helped my very much to improve the first draft.

Notes

1. See for federalisation L. Moreno, The Federalization of Spain (London/Portland, OR: Frank Cass 2000). ‘Euskadi’ is another name for the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country.

2. See for Euskadi as a proto-nation state J. Mansvelt Beck, Territory and Terror, Conflicting Nationalisms in the Basque Country (London/New York: Routledge 2005), chapter 6.

3. G. J Dijkink, National Identity and Geopolitical Visions (London/New York: Routledge 1996); B. Anderson, Imagined Communities, Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso 1991); M. Billig, Banal Nationalism (London: Sage 1995).

4. The shift of conventional geopolitical thinking into critical geopolitics is discussed in D. Atkinson and K. Dodds, ‘Introduction, Geopolitical Traditions: A Century of Geopolitical Thought’, in K. Dodds and D. Atkinson (eds.), Geopolitical Traditions: A Century of Geopolitical Thought (London/New York: Routledge) pp. 1–24; Counter-narratives as a subject of geopolitics, see: G. Ó Tuathail and S. Dalby, ‘1998 Introduction: Rethinking Geopolitics, Towards Critical Geopolitics,’ in G. Ó Tuathail and S. Dalby (eds.) Rethinking Geopolitics (London/New York: Routlegde) pp. 3–4. For critical geopolitics and social movements, which internally contest the state-centreed geopolitics, see also P. Routledge, ‘Critical Geopolitics ad Terrains of Resistance,’ Political Geography 15, 6/7 (1996) pp. 509–531.

5. G. Ó Tuathail and S. Dalby (note 4).

6. See Dijkink's conceptual framework (note 3) pp. 11–14. Dijkink's other dimensions are respectively ‘model’, ‘mission’, and ‘impersonal forces’, which will not be dealt with here.

7. J. L. Gaddis, Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security Policy (New York: Oxford University Press 1982).

8. ‘Formal geopolitics is created by security intellectuals and academic institutions producing geopolitical ‘knowledge’ [Atkinson and Dodds (note) p.10]. Although the scope of formal geopolitics is on security in a foreign-relations context, I will widen it to the academic legitimisation of borders.

9. See note 2.

10. This is particularly true for ‘udalbiltza’, the assembly of Basque municipalities.

11. J. Zeigler, ‘Post-communist Eastern Europe and the Cartography of Independence,’ Political Geography 21/5 (2002) pp. 671–686.

12. A. Paasi, ‘The Institutionalization of Regions: A Theoretical framework for Understanding the Emergence of Regions and the Constitution of Regional Identity’, Fennia 164 (1986) pp. 105–146.

13. Anderson (note 3). Maps as part of print nationalism are added in Anderson's second revised edition (1st edition: 1983). This penetration is part of a wider process of popularisation of geopolitical imaginations, which, according to Atkinson and Dodds (note 4) can result in ‘geopolitical cultures’.

14. (note 3) Anderson p. 175; see also further below.

15. For Israel, see D. Newman ‘Citizenship, Identity and Location: The Changing Discourse of Israeli Geopolitics’ in D. Atkinson and K. Dodds (note 4) pp. 302–331 and L. Nyroos, ‘Religeo politics: Dissident Geopolitics and the Fundamentalism of Hamas and Kach’ Geopolitics 6/2 (2001) pp. 135–157. For Bosnia, see C. Dahlman and G. Ó Tuathail, ‘Broken Bosnia: The Localized Geopolitics of Displacement and Return in Two Bosnian Places’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers 95/3 (2005) pp. 644–662.

16. Mansvelt Beck (note 2) chapters 2–6.

17. Parts of Euskal Herria are nearly homogeneously Castilian or French speaking while other parts are linguistically mixed. See: X. Aizpurua Telleria and J. Aizpurua Espin, ‘The Sociolinguistic Situation in the Basque Country According to the 2001 Sociolinguistic Survey’, International Journal of the Sociology of Language 174 (2005) pp. 39–54.

18. J. C. Larronde, El nacionalismo vasco su origen y su ideología en la obra de Sabino Arana-Goiri (San Sebastian: Editorial Txertoa 1977). According to Arana’ s historical mythification, Biscay of the ninth century was a small state and a confederation of free and independent republics; see: J. Corchera Atienza, La patria de los vascos. Orígenes, ideología y organización del nacionalismo vasco (1876–1903) (Madrid: Taurus 2001) pp. 210–211.

19. G. Jáuregui Beciartu, Ideología y estrategia de ETA. Análisis de su evolución entre 1959 y 1968 (Madrid: Siglo XI 1985) pp. 114–115.

20. Mansvelt Beck (note 2) pp. 78–80.

21. See http://www.euskonews.com/0115zbk/efem11501.html, accessed 5 August 2004.

22. See http://www.udalbiltza.net/espainola/conoce, accessed 5 August 2004.

23. See http://www.udalbiltzainfo.com/upresentacion.htm, accessed 5 August 2004.

24. F. Sarrailh de Ihartza, Vasconia: Estudio dialéctico de una nacionalidad (Buenos Aires: Narbit 1963.

25. El País (30 May 2004).

26. See http://www.udalbiltzainfo.com/sanchoinfo.htm, accessed 10 July 2004.

27. Diario de Noticicias de Navarra (regional newspaper) (22 May 2004).

28. J. Burgueño, Geografía política de la España constitucional. La división Provincial (Madrid: Centro de Estudios Constitucionales 1996) pp. 211–212.

29. J. Mansvelt Beck (note 2) chapter 6.

30. J. Mansvelt Beck (note 2).

31. See B. Loyer, Géopolitique du Pays Basque, nations et nationalismes en Espagne (Paris: L’Harmattan 1997); M. Onaindía, Guía para orientarse en el laberinto vasco (Madrid: Temas de Hoy 2000); J. M. Calleja, ¡Arriba Euskadi! La Vida Diaria en el País Vasco (Madrid: Espasa Calpe 2001).

32. See respectively: J. J. Ibarretxe, Una propuesta política para la convivencia. Extracto del Discurso del lehendakari en el Debate de Política General del Parlamento Vasco, 27 de septiembre de 2002 (Vitoria-Gasteiz: Gobierno Vasco 2002); Gobierno Vasco, Propuesta de estatuto politico de la Comunidad de Euskadi (Vitoria-Gasteiz: Gobierno Vasco 2003).

33. S. De Pablo, L. Mees and J. A. Rodríguez Ranz, El péndulo patriótico. Historia del Partido Nacionalista Vasco, I: 1895–1936, and II: 1936–1979 (Barcelona: Editorial Crítica Colección Contrastes 1999 and 2001).

34. Mansvelt Beck (note 3) pp. 162–164.

35. J. Markusse, ‘Transborder Regional Alliances in Europe: Changes for Ethnic Euroregions?’ Geopolitics 9/3 (2004) pp. 649–673.

36. J. D. Chaussier, Quel territoire pour le Pays Basque? Les cartes de l’identité (Paris: L’Harmattan 1996).

37. J. M. Izquierdo, Le Pays basque de France (Paris: L’Harmattan 2000) p. 102.

38. See http://www.lurraldea.net/,accessed 18 August 2004.

39. El País (24 August 2004).

40. L. Mees, Nationalism, Violence and Democracy, the Basque Clash of Identities (New York: Palgrave MacMillan 2003) pp. 52–56, 148–151.

41. Gobierno Vasco (note 32).

42. See respectively J. J. Linz, Conflicto en Euskadi (Madrid: Espasa Calpe 1986); F. J. Llera, Los Vascos y la Política (Bilbao: Universidad del País Vasco 1994).

43. B. Tejerina Montaña, Nacionalismo y lengua. Los procesos de cambio lingüístico en el País Vasco (Madrid: Siglo XXI 1992).

44. P. Raento and C. J. Watson, ‘Gernika, Guernica, Guernica? Contested Meanings of a Basque Place’, Political Geography 19 (2000) pp. 707–736.

45. J. Zeigler (note 11) p. 685.

46. D. Newman and A. Paasi, ‘Fences and Neighbours in the Postmodern Worlds: Boundary Narratives in Political Geography,’ Progress in Human Geography 22/2 (1998) pp. 186–207.

47. Anonymous, Euskadi. Guía socio-económica del País Vasco (Vitoria-Gasteiz: Gobierno Vasco 1997). An identical copy without the new EU borders is available at http://www.lehendakaritza.ejgv.euskadi.net/r48-448/en/contenidos/informacion/presentacion_pais/en_437/indice_i.html (accessed 27 August 2004).

48. C. Palmer, ‘Outside the Imagined Community: Basque Terrorism, Political Activism, and the Tour de France’, Sociology of Sport Journal 18 (2001) p. 150.

49. El País (20 June 2004).

50. Figures about TV and newspaper audiences 2004 are taken from Anuario [Yearbook] El País 2005 (Madrid: El País 2005).

51. R. Rogers, ‘Introduction to the Practice of Web Epistemology’, in R. Rogers (ed.), Preferred Placement (Maastricht: Jan van Eyk Academie Editions 2000) pp. 11–23; B. Warf and J. Grimes, ‘Counterhegemonic Disourses and the Internet’, Geographical Review 87/2 (1997) pp. 259–274.

52. For example the following Web sites connected with the patriotic left, in Spanish, French and Basque (some words in English): http://euskalherria.indymedia.org/eu/2002/08/727.shtml Some of the Web sites have an apolitical content as they provide tourist information, for example: http://iaeste.bi.ehu.es/html/en/about_bilbao.php or http://onfootinspain.com/13.htm

53. Several tourist sites for hotels, camping or golf links also include the southern part of Les landes. See for instance http://perso.wanadoo.fr/maison.marchand/loisirs/cartgolf.jpg

54. J. Markusse (note 35).

55. J. Agirreazkuenaga, Vizcaya en el siglo XIX (1914–1876), las finanzas públicas de un Estado emergente (Bilbao: Universidad del País Vasco 1987).

56. A. Leizaola, ‘Mugarik ez! Subverting the Border in the Basque Country’, Ethnologia Europaea 30/2 (2000) pp. 35–46.

57. J. L. Orella, Historia de Euskal Herria, los vascos de hoy y de ayer, Vol. 1 (Tafalla: Txalaparta: 1997). The text on the back cover is: A lo largo de toda la prehistoria e historia antigua y medieval, únicamente durante el reinado del navarro Sancho III el Mayor, estuvieron unidos políticamente los territorios que ocupaban vascones, caristios, bárdulos, berones, austrigones y más tarde, vascos o navarros. Por eso Sancho III se denominó a sí mismo rey Vascón. En este libro se nos presenta la historia de una tierra que tenía en común la misma lengua, el mismo derecho público y privado, similares instituciones y parecidos comportamientos y mentalidades. Unas tierras que, bajo distintos dominios políticos, constituían un único pueblo: Euskal Herria.

58. T. Del Valle Korrika, Basque Ritual for Ethnic Identity (Reno, NV: The Basque Series, University of Nevada 1993).

59. J. Urla has criticised the lack of Del Valle's attention to the contested nature of the ritual in the American Anthropologist, pp. 414–415. For the divisive effect of Korrika on people's beliefs, see: W. A. Douglass, ‘A Western Perspective on an Eastern Interpretation of Where North Meets South: Pyrenean Borderland Cultures,’ in: T. M. Wilson and H. Donnan (eds.), Border Identities, Nation and State at International Frontiers (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1998) p. 83.

60. A striking example can be found in: F. J. Gómez Piñeiro, Geografía de Euskal Herria (Barcelona: Oikos-Tau 1985). For a critical appraisal of the ‘Basque urban system’ conceptualiation, see J. Mansvelt Beck (note 3) pp. 86–87.

61. See Newman (note 15).

62. R. J. Kaiser, ‘Homeland Making and the Territorialization of National Identity’ in D. Conversi (ed.), Ethnonationalism in the Contemporary World, Walker Connor and the Study of Nationalism (London/New York: Routledge 2004) pp. 229–247.

63. See H. van Amersfoort and J. Mansvelt Beck, ‘Institutional Plurality: A Way Out of the Basque Conflict?’ Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 26/3 (2000) pp. 449–467.