lava (Basque Araba), capital Vitoria (Basque Gasteiz)
Vizcaya (Basque Bizkaia), capital Bilbao (Basque Bilbo)
Guip zcoa (Basque Gipuzkoa), capital San Sebasti n (Basque Donostia)
Political Spain in 1854, after the first Carlist War
Before the Spanish Constitution of 1978 and its system of autonomous communities, these three provinces were known in Spanish as the Provincias Vascongadas, a term still used by some nostalgics of the Franco era and by independentists who despise the current autonomy and reserve "Basque Country" for the union of the seven territories.
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Images of Euskadi (http://www.travel-images.com/euskadi.html) - photos of the Basque Country
BASQUEPROVINCES (Provincias Vascongadas), a division of north-eastern Spain, comprising the three provinces of Alava, Biscay or Vizcaya and Guipuzcoa.
The territory occupied by the BasqueProvinces forms a triangle bounded on the west and south by the provinces of Santander, Burgos and Logrono, on the east by Navarre, on the north by France and the Bay of Biscay.
The chief industries of the BasqueProvinces are the sea fisheries and iron mining.
Basque ancient laws (called fors in France and fueros in Spain), which emphasized a respect for individual liberty, traditionally governed every area of their lives and were strictly adhered to.
When a Spanish kingdom was established in the late 15th century, the Basqueprovinces preserved their customs, laws, and diplomatic relations with other countries with slight variation until 1876, when the provinces were absorbed by Spain.
Since then, relations between the Basques and the central government have improved, though occasional terrorist acts were carried out by the military wing of the Basque separatist organization, ETA (Euzkadi ta Azkatasuna: “Basque Fatherland and Liberty”), which was formed in the 1950s.
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