Formation of the ETA

Basque autonomy had long been respected in the region for centuries prior to Franco. The fueros system allowed the people in the Basque Country to protect the devolution it had achieved in Spain for many centuries, entrenching the culture and allowing its prosperity almost like a separate country within Spain. Despite Arana’s focus on the Christian elements of Basque nationalist ideology, the ideas slowly became more and more rooted to socialist principle.

During the Spanish Civil War, there were forces within the Republican faction that worked within it to strive for Basque self-government and autonomy. The uneasy alliance with Spanish democratic forces came as a result of a need to defend the Basque nation from encroachment by Francoists. As a result, a short-lived Basque government in the north was tolerated. It cobbled together people all across the political spectrum by the unified desire for Basque autonomy in the wake of Republican sentiment against the Falangist forces. Despite being short-lived, their defiance expressed not only the sentiment of reservation about the Falangist government, but it also served as a personal statement of betrayal to Franco.

As a result, this Basque government was forced to go into exile in France to avoid Franco and the Basque population was punished. This narrative of repression, in combination with the rise of socialist elements in the underground of Spanish society and the history of working-class movements in the Basque regions, created an atmosphere for independence movements built on socialist principles, which the ETA wished to catalyze into full-on independence. As a result, the ETA formed in 1959 as a study group in response to these other independent forces in exile on the nature of Basque oppression, and it grew into a terrorist organization that fought for the liberation of the Basque people from Spanish control.

Image caption: This was the logo of the ETA organization while it was in operation. It was stamped on letters and statements released by the organization alongside a second symbol of an axe with a snake crawling alongside it.