AH challenge: Basque state in Spain/France

[Melvin Loh]

Beginning at some point around the end of the RECONQUISTA, design a POD which facilitates the creation of a Basque homeland state within Spain and possibly extending into France over the Pyrenees.

[aktarian]

It should belong to althist becasuse they sure as hell woun't get it now....

[cow defender]

damn that eta or whatever its called. i've always been a basque nationalist they should have their own country. One thing that you could do is have a Spanish King at least allow them some sort of self autonomy that could eventually grow into them having their own state by the 20th century at least. They had the money for it and the resources if i remember correctly. i don't know enough about the history to help other than that.

[Xen]

I support the secessionists movements all over the world, funnily enough only the CSA is hard for me to support, that slavery thing was a real kick in the pants.

Perhaps the Carlists never join the Nationalists and declare independence in the Spanish Civil War. After the fall of France in 1940, it is invaded by Nazi Germany, but liberated by the United States/United Kingdom/Canada in 1944, and due to the Cold War (Perhaps Spain is communist) it becomes a key ally for the US and NATO.

[Anthony Appleyard]

damn that eta or whatever its called ...

It should belong to althist becasuse they sure as hell woun't get it now....

It is now reasonably certain that the recent bombs in Madrid were work of Al Qaeda and not ETA.

[carlton_bach]

Maybe you could fiddle something with the Dukes of the Vascones in Carolingian times? Charlemagne is a major historical legend underpinning the Reconquista (though most Spanish kingdoms hark back to Visigothic royalty), but the image of the Franks is hardy untarnished. If the Chanson de Roland is turned on its head, making Charlemagne an aggressor who uses the weakness of his Christian brethren facing the infidel foe to his own advantage by stabbing them in the back... Would make the Basques look a bit better.
The Basque princes, tracing their ancestry back to the Duces Vasconum, claim the oldest blood in Spain and their fighting men carve out their territory along the Ebro valley. Aragon is stunted, and while the majority of Spain's territory still falls to Castile and Leon (and Portugal), the Ebro valley and the coast down to Valencia is now part of the Duchy (from 1176 kingdom) of Vasconia (Navarra, roughly). The Duchy of Barcelona (with most of Catalonia) falls to France. It would very likely still be a multilingual country with a Romance-speaking upper class and a large Basque-speaking rural population (interspersed with Arabic- and Berber-speaking enclaves), but Basque would be regarded as a noble heritage of the nation rather than heathen yokel talk.
But the wars with Castile and Leon will be awful...