Basque Diaspora

What´s it?The Basque Diaspora is the name given to describe the Basque people who left their traditional homeland for different reasons. Nowadays, the main groups of The Basque Diaspora live in Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba, Chile, Mexico, Colombia and USA.

Often, Diaspora Basque people are called “The eighth province” by the natives to express their affection towards them.

Historical contextReferring to the economic context, along the XIX century the Basque economy changed absolutely. People left agricultural lands and moved to the cities to work in factories. The main reason was that iron was found in big amounts and it was one of the best quality besides of Swedish one.

There were deep changes in political and social areas .

Two important conflicts occurred:

• In the 1898, Spain lose last colonies in America (Cuba, Puerto Rico) and Filipinas, in the Independence wars.

• The second one was the Spanish civil war from 1936 to 1939. The fight was between two sides, Republicans and Nationals. The National leader was Francisco Franco, a military general who imposed a long dictatorial period of 36 years.

• On the other hand, the population growth along XIX century, was due to the medical advantages.

The Basque Diaspora

It´s possible to separate three different stages: From 1876 to theSpanish Civil war, then since 1936 to 2000 and the last one up today.

First stage Second stage Third stage

1876 1936 2000 2013

• During that period of time, The Basque majority emigrated to America: Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba, Chile, Mexico, Colombia and USA.

However, another big group emigrated to Europe: France, Russia, United kingdom and Belgium. The first part was massive, around five hundred and fifty thousand Basques left their homeland. Although, many of them came back after several years. They were called “Amerikanoak”.

First stage

Reasons:

1) Some of them were disagree with the political decisions of the new military government, for example, the obligatory military training.

2) America needed a lot of people to work the land. For example, the consulate of Uruguay in Vitoria offered good opportunities to them.

3) Gold fever in California.

4) An old law in Spain made the only owner of lands the first son of each family. That caused that the youngest son didn´t receive anything and they had to search different alternatives, such as moving to emergent countries like America.

Dictatorship

When Nationals won the Civil War, many Basques were sent to the exile, because they had fought with the Republican side.

Most people moved to the regions near to the France frontier with Basque Country. Other people, travelled to UK, Belgium and Russia. The people who had family in America went there and tried to find a job. At first, some people thought that they would return soon, but finally, they stayed there for the rest of their life.

America Europe

510.

000

170.

000

Basques emigrants percentages

The Basques that installed in America

Uruguay

Argentina

EU

Txile

Colombia

Mexiko

Nowadays

These days it´s also happening another type of Diaspora in

our country and in the whole state. However, reasons are absolutely different. Mainly for economic reasons.

A lot of people (young people especially) is moving to different countries to find a job and a better quality of life.

Nowadays, the countries who receive more emigrants are USA, Germany, UK, Belgium, Australia and France.

Mexico

Buenos Aires