Basque separatists

This chapter examines the roots and trajectory of the Basque separatist movement, with a particular focus on the rise of the terrorist organisation Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA). It discusses the ETA’s composition and operations and look at how the Spanish government’s brutal attempts to put down the movement led to a spiral of violence that peaked in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The chapter concludes by discussing how Spain’s transition to democracy combined with its concerted counterterrorism campaign eroded ETA’s support base and operational capacities, leading to an eventual cessation of hostilities in 2011. The separatist movement grew in the early twentieth century, and protests and strikes occurred periodically. The modern Basque terrorist organisation ETA traces its origins to 1952, when a group of seven university students in Bilbao began to meet to discuss ways of advancing the Basque independence movement. The post-Franco era was marked by the transition to democracy in 1978.