Basque Nationalism - Sabino Arana

Sabino Arana

The concept of a Basque nationalism was born out of the Carlist question and the influences from the Romantic European view of nationalism in the nineteenth century.

The seminal ideologist of this process was Sabino Arana, founder of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV in its Spanish acronym). By the end of the 19th century Arana, coming from a Carlist background, created a xenophobic ideology centered on the purity of the Basque race and its so-called moral supremacy over other Spaniards (a derivation of the system of limpieza de sangre of Modern-Age Spain), anti-Liberal Catholic integrism, and deep opposition to the migration of other Spaniards to the Basque Country which had started at the first stages of the industrial revolution.

In the early 20th century, Basque nationalism, developed from a nucleus of enthusiasts (non-native Basque speakers themselves) in Bilbao to incorporate the agrarian Carlists in Biscay and Gipuzkoa. The movement survived without any problems the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera under the guise of cultural and athletic associations.

Basque nationalism managed to employ Carlism in support of the Catholic Church as a barrier against leftist anti-clericalism in most of the Basque provinces.