Precedents
During the Spanish Civil War, the Second Spanish Republic had allowed an autonomous government in those Basque areas of Spain that have not been taken by the Nationalist (later Francoist) side, i.e., Biscay and parts of Guipuscoa. This government was formed by Basque nationalists (EAJ-PNV and Acción Nacionalista Vasca) and leftists (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party and Communist Party).
In 1937 the Basque Army surrendered in Santoña to the Italian Corpo Truppe Volontari and the Basque leaders who managed to escape went to Catalonia or France. After the defeat of the Republican side (1 April 1939), the free Basque leaders were refuged in Europe and the Americas. Later in 1939, the German invasion of Poland unleashed the Second World War. France quickly fell before the Wehrmacht. Under a false identity, the Basque President José Antonio Aguirre traveled north from France trying to sail to the United States.
Read more about this topic: Basque Republic
Famous quotes containing the word precedents:
“The Crucifixion and other historical precedents notwithstanding, many of us still believe that outstanding goodness is a kind of armor, that virtue, seen plain and bare, gives pause to criminality. But perhaps it is the other way around.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)