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Biscay (Basque Bizkaia, Spanish: Vizcaya) is a province of northern Spain, in the northwestern part of the autonomous community of the Basque Country.
The name "Biscay" also forms the root of the name "Biscayne" in wide use throughout Miami, Florida in the US, as a common part of street names, parks, and buildings. Miami also features a historical site "Viscaya" with Spanish / mediterranean architecture that was built during the early 1900's and is now a museum. See also http://www.vizcayamuseum.org/ and http://www.miamiandthebeaches.com/matb.index.features.viscaya.html .
Population
Of the 1,133,444 people who live in Biscay, about 35% live in the capital, Bilbao (Basque: Bilbo) and 88% in its metropolitan area. Population density is 512.34 /km². Guernica (Basque: Gernika-Lumo), a town regarded as the spiritual centre of the traditional Basque Country, is located in Biscay.
Other important towns include Barakaldo, Getxo, Portugalete, Durango, and Balmaseda. See List of municipalities in Biscay.
Biscayan is a dialect of the Basque language spoken in the region.
Geography
Biscay is bordered by the provinces of Cantabria and Burgos to the west, Guipúzcoa to the east, and Álava to the south, and by the Cantabrian Sea (Bay of Biscay) to the north. Orduña is a Biscayan enclave inside Álava. Area: 2,217 km². Shore: 80 km.
The climate is oceanic, with high precipitation all year round and moderate temperatures, which allow the lush vegetation to grow.
The main features of the province are:
- The southern mountain ranges that form a continuous barrier with passes not lower than 600 m AMSL, forming the water divide of the Atlantic and Mediterranean bassins. These ranges are divided from west to east in Ordunte (Zalama, 1390 m), Orduña (1100 m), Gorbea (1481 m) and Urkiola (Anboto, 1331 m).
- The middle section which is occupied by the main river's valleys: Nervion, Ibaizabal and Kadagua. Kadagua runs west to east from Ordunte, Nervion south to north from Orduña and Ibaizabal east to west from Urkiola. Arratia river runs northwards from Gorbea and joins Ibaizabal.
- The coast: the main features are the estuary of Bilbao where the main rivers meet the sea and the estuary of Gernika (Urdaibai). The coast is usually high, with cliffs and small inlets and coves.
History
Biscay has been inhabited since prehistory, as evidenced by the Santimamiñe cave paintings, near Guernica. The Romans left little impact in the province's culture—the fierce dwellers and difficult terrain were not easy to civilize and the primitive Basque language and traditions have survived to this day.
Middle Ages
In 905 Leonese chronicles mention for the first time the extension of the Kingdom of Pamplona as including all the western Basque provinces, as well as La Rioja and the nuclear Aragon. The territories that later would constitute Biscay was then part of that state.
In the conflicts that the newly sovereign Kingdom of Castile and Pamplona/Navarre had in the 11th and 12th century, the Castilians were supported by many landowners from La Rioja, who sought to consolidate their holdings under Castilian feudal law. These pro-Castilian lords were led by the house of Haro, who were eventually granted the rule of newly created Biscay, initially made up of the valleys of Uribe, Busturia, Markina, Zornotza and Arratia, plus several towns and the city of Urduina. It is unclear when this happened exactly but it is claimed that Iñigo López was the first one to be granted the title of Lord of Biscay in 1043.
Yet, as the western territories were soon reincorporated to Navarre, the actual constitition of Biscay as Lordship could not be consolidated before the Castilian invasion 1199-1200.
The title is inherited by Iñigo López's descendants until, by inheritance, in 1370 falls in the Infant Juan of Castile, and passes to be one of the titles of the king of Castile, remaining since then connected with the crown, first to that of Castile and then, from Carlos I, to that of Spain, always with the condition that the Lord swore to defend and to maintain the fuero (Biscayan law, derived from Navarrese right) that affirmed that the possessors of the sovereignty of the Lordship were the own biscayans and that, al less in theory, they could refute the Lord.
The Lords, and later the kings, came to swear the Statutes to the oak of Gernika, where the assembly of the Lordship was reunited.
Modern age
In the following centuries the commerce took great importance, specially for the Port of Bilbao, to which the kings granted privileges on trade with the ports of the Spanish Empire in 1511. Bilbao was already then the main Castilian harbour, from where wool was shipped to Flanders and other goods were imported.
In 1628 the separate territory of Durango was incorporated to Biscay. In the same century the so-called chartered municpalities west of Biscay were also incorporated in different dates, becoming another subdivision of Biscay: Encartaciones (Enkarterriak).
The coastal towns had a sizeable fleet of their own, mostly dedicated to fishing and trade. Along with other Basque towns of Gipuzkoa and Labourd, they were largely responsible for the partial extintion of whales in the Bay of Biscay and of the first unstable settlement by Europeans in Newfoundland. They also were able to sign separate treaties with other powers, particularly England. After the Napoleonic wars, Biscay, along with the other Basque provinces were threatened to have their self-rule cut by the now Liberal Spanish Cortes. This caused the successive Carlist Wars, where the Biscayan government, along with the other Basque provinces supported the reactionary faction.
Many of the towns though, notably Bilbao, were alligned with the Liberal government of Madrid. In the end the wars resulted in successive cuts of the wide autonomy of Biscay and the other provinces.
In the 1850s extensive prime quality iron resources were discovered in Biscay. This brought a lot of foreign investment mainly from England and France, which made it one of Spain's richest and most industrialized provinces. Together with the industrialisation appeared important bourgeois families such as Ybarra, Chávarri and Lezama-Leguizamón. The great industrial (Iberdrola) and financial (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria) groups were created.
20th century
During the Second Spanish Republic, the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) governed the province. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, Biscay supported the Republican side against the army of Francisco Franco, of fascist ideology.
Soon after, the Republic aknowledged an statute of autonomy for the Basque Country but, due to fascist control of large parts of it, the first short-lived Basque Autonomous Community had power only over Biscay and a few nearby villages.
As the fascist army advanced westward from Navarre, defenses were planned and erected around Bilbao, called the Iron Belt. But the engineer in charge, José Goicoechea, defected to the fascists, causing the unfinished defenses to be of little value. In 1937, German airplanes under Franco's control destroyed the historic city of Gernika, not before having bombed Durango with some less severity few weeks before. Some months later, Bilbao fell to the fascists. The Basque army (Eusko Gudarostea) retreated to Santoña, beyond the limits of Biscay. There they pacted their surrender with the Italian forces, but these gave them away to Franco. This surrender was seen negatively by the rest of Republican forces, who felt that the Basques had betrayed them.
Under the dicatorship of Franco, Biscay and Gipuzkoa (exclussively) were declared "traitor provinces" and stripped from any sort of self-rule.
Only after Franco's death in 1975, democracy was restored in Spain. The 1978 constitution, accepted the particular Basque laws (fueros) In 1979 the Statute of Guernica was approved and Biscay, Araba and Gipuzkoa formed the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country. The Autonomous Community of the Basque Country has its own parliament, which depends on the central government in Madrid.
For all of the recent democratic period the winner of all the elections held in Biscay has been the Basque Nationalist Party. Recently the foral law was ammended to extend it to the towns and the city of Urduina, that had always used the general Spanish civil law.
External links
- Official website
- Señores de Vizcaya: list of all claimed Lords of Biscay and interesting historical maps.
| Traditional provinces of the Basque Country | ||
|---|---|---|
| Southern Basque Country |  | |
| Northern Basque Country | ||
