AHC: Basque Dominant?

Is it possible to get Basque to be a dominant language in Iberia/Southern Aquitaine? Something like Castilian or Portuguese? Could it also be a large culture group?

Preferably a Basque nation, but keeping it alive and larger than OTL works too.
 
I think that you might need pre-Roman POD. For me it is bit wonder that Basque has even survived until nowadays.
 
You should butterfly away all the process of Romanization during the Roman times.
At Middle Ages it was just too overwhelmed by Latin/Romanic languages for suggesting any realistic expansion.
 
That's more of what I was thinking.

It might have to involve a very very bloody reconquista in which a good portion of the local populace is killed in the fighting, resulting in Basque men/women intermarrying and bringing their cultural traditions into the conquered land. Even if they get a small portion of Iberia, the butterflies from there are endless. If you have a semi-large basque state, it lays the groundwork for a larger one down the road via diplomacy, military, et cetera
 
It might have to involve a very very bloody reconquista in which a good portion of the local populace is killed in the fighting, resulting in Basque men/women intermarrying and bringing their cultural traditions into the conquered land. Even if they get a small portion of Iberia, the butterflies from there are endless. If you have a semi-large basque state, it lays the groundwork for a larger one down the road via diplomacy, military, et cetera

Exactly. I don't think basques in the reconquista is far fetched, not in the slightest. The aragonese where in a worse position at the start, yet they became a dominant power on the peninsula.


If they even only had the area around like, Zaragoza, and de jure Navarre, I think they would be set for further expansion, north into Aquitaine and east into Aragon.
 
A powerful Basque state would have very interesting implications going forward, especially if they hold Aquitaine. It would be interesting to see how events such as the Hundred Year's War would unfold.
 
Im also thinking on the Reconquista. It seems possible, especially if a more aggressive Ummayad caliphate manages to conquer the other Christian peninsular kingdoms, probably even going into France. Say if our POD is the defeat of Charles Martell at tours, we are left with an isolated Christian kingdom in the Pyrenees, in a privileged position to exploit the imminent breakdown of the caliphate. Then we can have a Basque Spain and a Basque new world, even. Since they would be more isolated than a indo-european speaking Spain due to language barriers.
That would be colorful to say the least.
 
Im also thinking on the Reconquista. It seems possible, especially if a more aggressive Ummayad caliphate manages to conquer the other Christian peninsular kingdoms, probably even going into France. Say if our POD is the defeat of Charles Martell at tours, we are left with an isolated Christian kingdom in the Pyrenees, in a privileged position to exploit the imminent breakdown of the caliphate. Then we can have a Basque Spain and a Basque new world, even. Since they would be more isolated than a indo-european speaking Spain due to language barriers.
That would be colorful to say the least.

That works and was pretty much along the lines of what I was thinking, but still it doesn't even have to be that extreme. Asturias could still survive, but would be weakened. Navarre could own the basque region of Europe. I'm looking for a map of what I think they could own, and if I can't find on, I'll draw up a rough one.
 
I guess it doesn’t need to be that extreme.
I was thinking of the extreme case since I figured they are likely to be absorbed by either France or a Spanish kingdom akin to what happened to OT Aragon, sicne by the middle ages Basques are a minority. Then again if they do relatively well they could resurface as independent during a crisis as Portugal did…
 
If they own more land then OTL, I doubt they'll be abdorbed. Of course they're could be royal marraiges and such, but thats besude thr point.
 

katchen

Banned
There is no reason why a Basque state could not include Asturias and Cantabria up to and including Galicia, which is isolated as it is. Either that, or securing either an independent or a Portuguese Galicia.
And a Basque Western Pyrenees might encourage the independence of a stable Catalonian Eastern Pyrenees. As well as a stable Lang'd'Oc -Occitania with France held to somewhere along the Anjou-Poitou Valence border. Catharism might persist as well.
 
You could get a more cultrally diverse europe this way. Aore divrrse colonization maybe too.

Spain wouldn't be abl to dominate the same way it did otl.
 
As has been already said, you would need a pre-roman POD or the latest a POD during the cantabrian wars, when the vascones got part of today's basque speaking territory due to their support to the romans.

It might have to involve a very very bloody reconquista in which a good portion of the local populace is killed in the fighting, resulting in Basque men/women intermarrying and bringing their cultural traditions into the conquered land. Even if they get a small portion of Iberia, the butterflies from there are endless. If you have a semi-large basque state, it lays the groundwork for a larger one down the road via diplomacy, military, et cetera

Only for the record, basques played an important role during the Reconquista. There was a noticeable basque influence in early Castile (for example, the first known written documents in castilian appear mixed with documents in euskara, and medieval castilian had a lot of basque lexicon), the Haro dinasty, lords of Biscay, were a major actor in castilian politics and you have basque settlers repopulating conquered territories for example as far south as Guadalajara. In fact, you can find basque surnames in most of Spain, though they don't come all necessarily from the Reconquista, of course.
 
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