Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Nationalism and the economic question in twentieth-century Ireland
- 2 Economic aspects of the nationality problem in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Belgium
- 3 The economy as a pushing or retarding force in the development of the German question during the second half of the twentieth century
- 4 Lusatian Sorbs in Germany before the Second World War: the influence of the economy on the national question
- 5 Unequal regional development in Switzerland: a question of nationality?
- 6 The Portuguese national question in the twentieth century: from Spanish threat to European bliss
- 7 From autarky to the European Union: nationalist economic policies in twentieth-century Spain
- 8 The economic background to the Basque question in Spain
- 9 Economic change and nationalism in Italy in the twentieth century
- 10 National integration and economic change in Greece during the twentieth century
- 11 National identity and economic conditions in twentieth-century Austria
- 12 Economic, social and political aspects of multinational interwar Czechoslovakia
- 13 Nationality and competition: Czechs and Germans in the economy of the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938)
- 14 Economic aspects of Slovak national development in the twentieth century
- 15 Economic change and national minorities: Hungary in the twentieth century
- 16 Economic background to national conflicts in Yugoslavia
- 17 Economic differentiation and the national question in Poland in the twentieth century
- 18 Economy and ethnicity in the hands of the state: economic change and the national question in twentieth-century Estonia
- 19 Changing structure and organisation of foreign trade in Finland after Russian rule
- 20 Economic change and the national question in twentieth–century USSR/Russia: the enterprise level
- Index
8 - The economic background to the Basque question in Spain
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Nationalism and the economic question in twentieth-century Ireland
- 2 Economic aspects of the nationality problem in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Belgium
- 3 The economy as a pushing or retarding force in the development of the German question during the second half of the twentieth century
- 4 Lusatian Sorbs in Germany before the Second World War: the influence of the economy on the national question
- 5 Unequal regional development in Switzerland: a question of nationality?
- 6 The Portuguese national question in the twentieth century: from Spanish threat to European bliss
- 7 From autarky to the European Union: nationalist economic policies in twentieth-century Spain
- 8 The economic background to the Basque question in Spain
- 9 Economic change and nationalism in Italy in the twentieth century
- 10 National integration and economic change in Greece during the twentieth century
- 11 National identity and economic conditions in twentieth-century Austria
- 12 Economic, social and political aspects of multinational interwar Czechoslovakia
- 13 Nationality and competition: Czechs and Germans in the economy of the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938)
- 14 Economic aspects of Slovak national development in the twentieth century
- 15 Economic change and national minorities: Hungary in the twentieth century
- 16 Economic background to national conflicts in Yugoslavia
- 17 Economic differentiation and the national question in Poland in the twentieth century
- 18 Economy and ethnicity in the hands of the state: economic change and the national question in twentieth-century Estonia
- 19 Changing structure and organisation of foreign trade in Finland after Russian rule
- 20 Economic change and the national question in twentieth–century USSR/Russia: the enterprise level
- Index
Summary
Perhaps more than any other one in the Peninsula, the Basque people has had to endure, from opposing factions, distorted interpretations of its history.
Julio Caro BarojaINTRODUCTION
The Basque autonomous community occupies an area of 7,235 square kilometres, which represents 1.43 per cent of the Spanish territory and its population, of slightly more than 2,100,000 inhabitants, comprises 5.41 per cent of the Spanish total. The Basque autonomous community is made up of three provinces, Alava, Guip?coa and Vizcaya, the first of which being historically the least densely inhabited – even today its population amounts to barely 13 per cent of the community's and it is far behind Vizcaya in industrial development.
The so-called ‘Basque question’ is generally understood abroad as the reflection of radical nationalism. An important manifestation of this nationalism is seen to be violence – the latter being the way to attain the Basque country's independence from Spain. Nevertheless, thus understood the phenomenon does not correspond with reality. The Basque question is something entirely different and far more complex, and its roots are to be found in the Basque people's own history.
Many scholars who have studied the different nationalist movements in Europe at the close of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century have pointed out the importance of economic factors in the development of nationalist feeling. Some of these authors have gone so far as to propose that economic changes stimulate the awakening of national feeling in certain countries.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000