The three provinces have been ruled by Spanish monarchs and patrolled by Spanish police.

2. The Basque country consists of seven provinces in a small part of northern Spain and the southwestern tip of France.

3. Considerable controversy has centered around who owns three of the four Spanish-based provinces, namely Álava, Guipúzcoa, and Vizcaya.

4. The Basques claim the land is theirs. They say they are the “original Europeans,” insisting that their language, Euskara, is far older than Spanish. (According to Basque mythology, Adam and Eve spoke Euskara in the Garden of Eden.)

5. But ever since 1469—when the marriage of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinando II of Aragon led to the creation of Spain— Álava, Guipúzcoa, and Vizcaya have been claimed by the Spanish.

6. The three provinces have been ruled by Spanish monarchs and patrolled by Spanish police.

7. The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) was founded in 1895 to push for independence from the Spanish government and from the Spanish king, Alfonso XIII (pictured here).

8. The efforts of the PNV and other Basque separatists were cut short by the Spanish civil war in 1936.

9. The war broke out when fascist rebels loyal to General Francisco Franco (pictured left) took up arms against Spain’s socialist government. Most Basques supported the government.

10. As a fascist, Franco believed deeply in the unity of the state and considered separatist movements treasonous. He ordered thousands of rebel forces into the Basque country, prompting the evacuation of many Basque children.

11. Franco then allowed German war planes to bomb Basque cities, including, notoriously, Guernica on April 26, 1937.

12. The fascists won the war. As dictator, Franco instigated a long and vicious persecution campaign against the Basques, whom he continued to view as traitors.

13. Franco kept Spain out of World War II (1939–1945). Nevertheless, the Basques hoped that after eliminating Hitler (left) and Mussolini (middle), the Allies would bring down Franco (right).

14. But Franco remained in power, and the Basques were left to continue their struggle for independence on their own.

15. In the years following World War II, the Basques had at least been able to count on the sympathy of the Western powers. But that changed with the spread of Communism and the rise of the Soviet Union.

16. To the disappointment of the Basques, Franco was recast in the West as a protector of Western values against Soviet Communism.

17. In the 1950s, pro-independence Basque students sought to counter Franco’s new power by forming Euskadi ta Askatasuna (Basque Fatherland and Liberty), or ETA.

18. Starting in 1968, ETA murdered security forces, politicians, academics, and journalists unsympathetic to their cause. Other civilians were sometimes killed by ETA’s bombs.

19. Franco responded harshly to each ETA attack, dramatically increasing the animosity felt by many Basques toward the Spanish state.

20. When Franco died in 1975, there was hope throughout Spain that Basque-related violence would end.

21. Spain was now a democratic state, and institutions were in place for the peaceful resolution of political differences.

22. The Spanish Constitution guaranteed some autonomy to the Basque provinces, but many Basques were unsatisfied and pushed for outright independence. Meanwhile, ETA kept killing.

23. ETA remained active until the start of the new millennium, when several al-Qa‘ida terrorist attacks—notably those in the United States (2001) and Spain (2004)—effectively ended Basque terrorism.

24. The al-Qa‘ida attacks put enormous pressure on terrorist groups everywhere to abandon violence. Many Basques joined Spaniards from other regions in calling on ETA to lay down its arms.

25. ETA responded to the calls on March 24, 2006, declaring a permanent cease-fire.

26. But the conflict isn’t over. Many Basques still want independence, and that is one issue the Spanish government—with the support of most of its people—has categorically refused to discuss.