The Basque Essay by JPWrite

This paper explains that, although the origins of the Basque people are unclear but possibly of Turkish, Magyar or Berber descent, the Basques may be the oldest indigenous race in Europe; their language Euskera has supposedly been traced back to Babel. The author points out that, for centuries, the region south of the Pyrenees was recognized as "una tierra apartada", a self-governing area, subject to an absolute monarchy and had its own code of laws and rights (fueros); in 1876, the Basque country was assimilated into the rest of Spain. The paper relates that the Spanish Civil War had a major impact on the Basque because the Franco regime, which exercised cultural repression over the whole nation, was particularly severe in those regions where a language other than Spanish was spoken.