Howdy, this is going to be a thread about the Basque conflict, which was for independence of Basque Country. this is primarily to inform people who may not know about this which has spun over 52 years in Spain, Basque Country, and France only ending in 2011.

Some background information: The Basques are a ethnic group native to the Pyrenese on Bizkaia, spanning from northern Spain to southern France, and have stayed in the region for just about longer then most ethnic groups in europe with their own language, culture, and identity

Basque Nationalists are people who wish for independence of Basque Country, as for the most part in history Basque Country was its own thing till about 1620 in which France took the last bit of it, with Basque Country becoming split between Spain and France

the Basques however kept their identity nonetheless, with many still primarily speaking Euskara and keeping to traditional practices, though there was nonetheless some wars here and there (most notably the Carlist wars in the 1800s)

then in the late 1930s the Spanish civil war broke out, and the Basques were primarily on the Republican side, one of the most notable events was the bombing of Gernika, which killed hundreds of citizens and destroyed the area, and nearly destroying the Tree of Gernika.

The Tree of Gernika is pretty important with many Carlist and Castilian kings swore respect under it, representing the traditional freedoms of the Basque people.

In the end of the civil war, the Nationalists won, with Franco and his fascist dictatorship taking over, leading to heavy suppression and damage to the Basque identity, by wiping out plenty of Basque symbols and whatnot and heavily demonizing the Basque language.

In some areas, you couldnt even speak Basque with it possibly leading you a jail sentence and or being fined, the damages of it are still seen with the Basque language barely being spoken and unknown to most, only gaining a resurgence in recent times.

Eventually, this led to the founding of the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna/ETA in 1959, who originally wanted to preserve Basque traditions but quickly grew into the Marxist armed Separatist group its known for

The first attack we can confirm of being done by the ETA is the killing of Guardia Civil member Jose Arcay in 1968 in a roadstop inspection, for a few years after there was a few minor murders robberies and kidnappings until December 20th, 1973.

By this time, the Francoist regime was at the end, with the Falangists losing much political influence and had elected Luis Carreror Blanco to lead the government after Franco's death and the ETA caught wind of this and began to plan out the assasination of Luis.

On December 20th 1973 Luis Carrero Blanco was assasinated by a roadside bomb planted by the ETA, sending his car 60 ft up the air and essentially causing the end of Franco's dictatorship and subsequent lead to the democratization of Spain

Though even with this, attacks still continued as the demand of Basque independence had not been met yet, even with the newfound autonomy of Basque Country. And in the 80's, attacks begun to ramp up significantly in terms of destruction, causing support for the ETA to waver

this especially was the case in the Hipercor bombing, the deadliest attack carried out by the ETA, killing 21 people and injuring 45 people, sparking mass outrage and condemnation at the ETA.

one thing to note however is the mass "disappearances" and torturing of people who called for Basque independence, even after the end of Francos dictatorship that still goes on to this day, with the spanish government doing many illegal things against people who call for freedom.

Most notably in recent times in Catalonia, another thing is that there were plenty of neo-fascist paramilitary organizations in the Basque conflicts that killed and tortured many Basques, even those who had 0 connection to the ETA which were supported by the Spanish Government.

One thing to keep in mind is that this is primarily based of the ETA's actions, theres a few other groups but theyve not done much of particular note. In the 90s there were plenty of attacks done by the ETA, but were far less deadly then the ones carried out in the 80s in total.

There were also videos made by the ETA, I myself dont exactly know what they were for the most part but as far as I know they made plenty.

One notable attack done by the ETA in the 90s however was the kidnapping and murder of politician Miguel Angel Blanco (who shared no connection to Luis btw), his kidnapping was with the terms that unless the spanish government transferred all ETA prisoners to basque country

he would be shot, with a 48 hour deadline. However no prisoners were transferred and 50 minutes after the deadline Miguel was shot in the head, causing mass outrage and protests that had upwards of 6 million people participating.

In the 2000s, the ETA was shunned by just about everyone, as in the 90s and 2000s there were essentially bombings every week of varying damage, killing 74 people from 2000-2011. One notable bombing in this time was the 2006 Madrid airport bombing which killed 2 and injured 52.

and by 2011, the ETA had declared its final ceasefire and inturn, the end of the Basque Conflict, killing 853 people since its founding, and declaring a end in 2018, https://www.hdcentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/ETA-declaration-English.pdf Many Basques, including my family were affected by the actions & bombing done by the ETA

Basque independence is still something many Basques want, but the ETA and its actions are still highly controversial subjects in Spanish and Basque society.

I hope you enjoyed this thread, its something i've wanted to make for a long time and finally got the opportunity to do so, and please share it if you want too.