Spanish Carlism and Basque Nationalism

Abstract

Unlike variants of Irish nationalism, Basque nationalism and modern Carlism, while historically related, mobilized movements that experienced roughly parallel, not sequential, development. In relation to the Spanish nation-state, they constitute different types, although both maintained, as a point of definition, a regional focus. Basque nationalism was a secessionist movement seeking to end or limit political domination of the four Basque provinces by Spain. In its maximalist manifestation, it was also an irredentist movement looking to engage the three French Basque provinces as well, but this was not acted on within the Spanish context of the early twentieth century. By that time Carlism was a state-oriented, but not centralized-state, nationalist movement. While condemning Spanish political centralization and calling for a large degree of regional autonomy, Carlists believed in maintaining, if not mildly expanding, Spain’s borders. Each movement, again unlike Irish nationalism, was headed largely by a single organization providing ideological and practical cohesion. Ideological differences among supporters existed, but were limited to minority factions, sidelined by schisms or eventually worked through resulting in a singular doctrine for each.KeywordsBasque CountryPopular SupportSpanish StateNationalist MovementSpanish NationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.