page_title: Southern Basque Country
section_title: Provinces of Spain
hierarchical_section_title: Southern Basque Country / History / Provinces of Spain
caption_attribution_description: English: Rally held at Estella (June 1932) in support of the Basque Statute Euskara: Euskal Estatutuaren aldeko manifestazioa Lizarran (Nafarroa), 1932ko ekainean.
context_page_description: The Southern Basque Country is a term used to refer to the Basque territories within Spain as a unified whole.
context_section_description: Since 1866, the four chartered provincial governments made a move towards coordination and cooperation by designing a number of common projects. At San Sebastián, the Spanish General Prim ratified in 1869 his position in favour of the distinct status held by the Southern Basque Country (the Sister Provinces) conditioned on their unambiguous attachment to Spain. However, the general was assassinated in the midst of political instability (1870), and soon on the 2nd Carlist War broke out again centred in the Basque Country (1872–76). At the end of it, the fueros were definitely abolished in the Basque Provinces (Álava, Biscay, and Gipuzkoa), while Navarre's legal status was less affected.
  The 1876 definite abolition of the charters (fueros) was followed by a political stir leading to the popular uprising Gamazada centred in Navarre (1893–94), echoed in Biscay (Gernika) by the Sanrocada, and attempts started to be made to re-establish a single political status for the Basque territories in Spain, with the most significant being the Statute of Estella, 1932 in the early period of the 2nd Spanish Republic. In 1918, the Society of Basque Studies was established at Oñati under the auspices of the four provincial governments in a ceremony presided over by King Alfonso XIII; the Society longed for "the re-establishment of Basque personality" and promoted culture as well as academic studies, including a Basque-Navarrese university. It was followed by other unofficial cultural/sport institutions (Basque-Navarrese Mountain Federation, etc.), or the Federation of Basque-Navarrese Savings Banks (1924).
caption: Rally held at Lizarra-Estella in support of the Basque Statute (June 1932)
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