Basques is who? Basques: a mysterious people

The Basques are a people that inhabit the so-called Basque lands, located in the north of Spain and in the south-west of France. The origin of it is one of the biggest mysteries not only for Europe, but for the whole world.

Who are the Basques? Where did they come from? If we consider these issues from the perspective of citizenship, then the Basques are Spanish and French, because they live in Spain and France. But why do these people speak in such an unusual language, quite unlike any other language? How did it happen that, for millennia of wars and incest, the Basque civilization retained its identity? There are a lot of questions concerning this ethnos, to which researchers still can not find answers. In the article we will try to understand who the Basques are, and also talk about how these European rebels and proud people live today.

Etymology of the name

To understand the meaning of the word "Basques", one must turn to history. This word goes back to the Latin vasco - the so-called ancient Vascoons, who lived in the pre-Roman and Roman periods in the territory where the Spanish Basques now live. However, this is not the only people who participated in their genesis. The ancestors of the Basques were also aquitans and, perhaps, cantabras, as a result of which they can now observe a significant dialectal fragmentation.

Origin

Genetic studies have established the uniqueness of the people we are considering. Basques are people who have the highest proportion of negative Rh factor (25 percent) among the Europeans and one of the highest proportion of blood related to type O (55 percent). There is a very sharp genetic difference between the representatives of this ethnos and other peoples, especially in Spain. Therefore, one can hardly say that Basques are Catalans.

The list of versions about the origin of the mysterious people is very wide. One time the hypothesis was discussed, that Basques are Armenians. Then opinions were expressed that they are ancient Georgians who, from time immemorial, migrated to the Iberian Peninsula from the territory of present-day Georgia .

Cro-Magnon among us?

It should be noted that the version that the Basques originated from Armenians or Georgians retains the chances of provability, but most scholars agree that these are indigenous people of Europe, directly descended from the Cro-Magnon people, who came to European lands from Africa 35,000 years ago And left there.

The Cro-Magnon people probably did not participate in any subsequent resettlement of the peoples, since archaeologists have not found any evidence to speak of a change in the population in this area throughout the time, until the appearance of the Romans. Hence, all those people who today call themselves Europeans, in comparison with the Basques, are just children. It's amazing, is not it?

Escouara

True Basques are those who, from birth, speak a language called "escuar." There are about a million such people, of which over 800,000 people live in Spain, more than 100,000 live in France, and the rest in the United States and Latin America.

The secret of the origin of the escuara linguists seek to unravel for a long time. Some researchers hypothesize that the Basque language is genetically related to the Iberian language, which has now disappeared; Others do not support this idea, but through the version of the construction of the escort on the Semitic-Hamitic basis, the assumption was born that the ancestors of the Basques were Jews. So, in 1900 the light was seen by the book of J. Espagnole, the French abbot, in which he proved the origin of the mysterious people from the Spartan colonists, who had Jewish roots.

The people are the language

At one time, the escuaries tried to breed also with the Arabic language, then - Japanese, and not so long ago it was assumed that the Basque language is associated with the languages of nomadic tribes living in West Africa. Nevertheless, all the hypotheses do not find their confirmation. Recently, French linguists conducted another study and proved that the escuara is an autonomous language and has been developing independently for eight thousand years, since the Paleolithic times. This is a unique Doric European language that has come down to our time from the depths of millennia.

Way of life

As already mentioned, the Basques are a mysterious people, living mainly on the territory of two countries - Spain and France. In the French provinces of the Basques, all the houses are white and contain wooden elements of red color. Traditional stone buildings were preserved only in mountainous areas. Basques in general are very sensitive to traditions. Both in cities and in villages, they - from small to large - play in the pelota, organize competitions of bulls, wear famous berets on their heads. This small nation has a unique ethnic identity.

The character of the Basques

Basques - for all their originality - are similar to other inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula with a penchant for irrepressible fun. However, along with this they are also very hot-tempered. But neither cheerful disposition, nor emotionality prevent them from adhering to the patriarchal way of life. This applies especially to those Basques who live far from industrial centers. The inhabitants of the mountainous areas are very religious (most of them are Orthodox Catholics) and lead a closed life.

Kitchen

One of the best in Europe is Basque cuisine, and it's not the use of sophisticated recipes, but the fact that this people uses mostly fresh products for creating dishes. For example, when fruits and vegetables ripen, the Basques eat them; When they slaughter a ram, they eat meat. Marinating, salting, freezing - all these and other similar preparations from this people are not accepted. Basques prefer to eat cooked or stewed foods, they practically do not eat fried foods, and do not use spices. The most famous dishes are cod in white sauce and stewed pike fins. They like mushrooms, truffles, rice, seafood. They make all kinds of desserts from nuts, berries, fruits, milk. This people produces wonderful cheeses and wines.

clothing

Very well- dressed look the national costumes of the Basques. The female consists of a lush blue or blue skirt and a black short jacket, decorated with lacing and shiny appliqués. The most popular materials for this outfit are velvet and chintz. A man's suit is a narrow black or brown breeches, black stockings, a belt of the same color, a dark vest and a leather or dense jacket with shiny buttons.

Up to our time, samples of Basque clothing dating back to the late Middle Ages (16th century) have reached us. It was a cloak of sheep skins, sewn with a coarse thread on the sides and had a cutout for the head.

Echoes of history

Attempts to separate the Basque-populated territories were made from the sixth to the eighth centuries. At different times, the lands on either side of the Pyrenees Mountains were owned by England, Aquitaine, Spain, France. And each time the owners wanted to subordinate themselves and completely "dissolve" the mysterious people. Eventually Basque sovereignty was replaced by local autonomy: for more than five centuries the Basques had a special status and privileges in taxation, trade, military service in both France and Spain.

All these provisions were contained in the traditional code of laws, which is known as "fueros". All the cities, village communities, villages, small towns had their own fueros, but at the end of the nineteenth century the Basque self-government institutions were abolished, private fueros destroyed, and the territories were included in the Spanish state and became part of the Spanish administrative and legal system.

Since that time, the inexhaustible, passionate, persevering and self-sacrificing desire of the Basques to become a separate state arose.

Freedom-loving and proud

After the liquidation of the Basque autonomy in 1937, the people's movement arose for national self-determination. In the fifties of the twentieth century, the terrorist organization "Euskadi and Askatasuna" was created (in the translation "Homeland and Freedom", abbreviated - ETA). For fifty years, with the terrorist attacks carried out, 800 people died.

Recently, ETA, following the Irish extremists, announced the cessation of terrorist activities. But for how long? After all, the budget of the Basque terror numbered more than a dozen million euros ... Of course, I would like to believe and hope that forever. And the Basques themselves, even those who live in remote communities, are tired of having a reputation as irrepressible, persistent and bloody in their claims to the people. In fact, they are not at all like that ...