The Making of the Basque Question: Experiencing Self-Government, 1793-1877

"The Making of the Basque Question" contextualizes Basque political and parliamentary development in the period of Spanish nation-state building, during the transoceanic monarchy of the "Spains", in the nineteenth century. This involved a particular transition and marked the emergence of the "foral question," becoming the "Basque question" as it was named in parliamentary terms and public debate from 1839-a political, legal, and administrative issue of whether or not the Basque Country was entitled in law to self-government. "In Spain the question of Basques is much more serious than in France...When the different criteria for the theory of nationalities are combined here, one would have to be in favor of the independence for the Basques. Will Spain consent to this?" Franco Pi i Margall, "Las nacionalidades" (1877). This book is based also on the research of its actors personal experiences and testimonies. Through the experiences of individual actors, this important period in the development of the Basque identity is explored.