BIZCAITARRA PARTY, BILBAO Y BILDAD

BIZCAITARRA PARTY
PARTIDO NACIONAL VASCONGADO
(PNV)

Basque nationalist party in Spain named for a Bilbao newspaper that, along with the party, was founded in the last decade of the 19th century by the brothers Luís and Sabino Arana.

Luís Arana, who coined the slogan "Muera España or Death to Spain", his brother Sabino, and other protested oppression of the Basques by the Madrid government, burning flags and conducting soapbox rallies.

The movement rapidly gained popularity in the Provincias Vascongadas or Basque Provinces of northern Spain, and on July 15, 1894, in Bilbâo, a governing junta was formed under the leadership of the Aranas.

A separate flag was adopted, members began paying regular dues, and a manifesto advocating secession from Spain was written.

On July 31, 1895, the party became formally known as the Bizcai-Buru-Batzar or Bizcaitarras.

It remained active until the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), during which it favoured the Republican side.


BILBAO

Seaport and capital of Vizcaya (Biscay) province, northern Spain, located along the mouth of the Río Nervión, near the Cantabrian coast.

It is the largest city in the three Basque provinces.

Bilbao originated as a setlement of seafaring people on the banks of the estuary, from which the inhabitants began the exports of iron ore found in large quantities along the eastern bank, and the products of their ironworks.

The later were well known, and Shakespeare refers to the excellent swords of Bilbos made fron the steel of Bilbao.

To this settlement of mariners and ironworkers, Don Diego López de Haro,lord of Biscay, in 1300 gave the charter and privilege of selfgovernment in an independent municipality.

Bilbao was a centre for the export of wool from Burgos, in the interior of Castile, to Flanders.

In 1511 the city obtained the right like Burgos to its own commercial tribunal that could issue laws in the form of ordinances. The last of these, promulgated in 1737, formed the basis of the first Spanish commercial code in 1829.

In the 18th century Bilbao derived great prosperity from intensive trade with the American colonies of Spain.

The city was sacked by French troops (1808) in the Peninsular War and besieged four times during the Carlist Wars. These struggles produced a strong communal spirit that after 1874 directed itself toward industrialization.

Several towns on the left bank of the river were annexed to the municipality after 1890, forming the modern extension of the city.

Bilbao is one of the most important ports in Spain. It is significant as one of the nation´s largest concentration of metallurgical and chemical industries and as financial centre. Maritime industries include the fishing industry and shipbuilding and ship repairing.