The Basque History of the World by Mark Kurlansky

• Introduction: The Island and the World - Part 1
• "While their neighbors have long since resigned all their pretensions into the hands of Kings and priests, this extraordinary people have preserved their ancient language, genius, laws, government and manners, without innovation, longer than any other nation of Europe." - John Adams, 1794, pg. 5
• etxea (echea) - house; belonging to one is a central concept in Basque identity - 6
• "the Basques believe that naming something proves its existence. Izena duen guzia omen da. That which has a name exists." - 6-7
• The Basque Cake
• "Jai alai, an Euskera phrase meaning 'happy game,' originally referred to a pelota game with an additional long left-hand wall." - 13
• gateau Basque - normally cream-filled cake today, traditionally filled with black cherry preserves
• The Basque Myth - Chapter 1
• Seven Basque Provinces
• in Spain: Nafaroa (Navarra), Gipuzkoa (Guipuzcoa), Bizkaia (Viscaya), Araba (Alava)
• in France: Lapurdi (Labourd), Benefaroa (Basse Navarre), Zuberoa (Soule)
• "The only word to identify a member of their group is Euskaloun -- Euskera speaker. Their land is called Euskal Herria -- the land of Euskera speakers. It is the language that defines a Basque." - 19
• "In past eras, when Spaniards and French were typically fairly small people, Basque men were characteristically larger, thick chested, broad-shouldered, and burly. Because these were also the characteristics of Cro-Magnons, Basques are often thought to be direct descendants of this man" - 19
• "the rate of miscarriage and stillborn births among the Basques was extremely high" due to the rhesus factor: Rh- mothers bodies would terminate Rh+ fetuses - 21
• 1545: first book entirely in Euskera published - 24
• The Basque Problem - Chapter 2
• "If a new idea offered commercial opportunities, the Basques embraced it -- a characteristic that would remain with them throughout history." - 33
• "In the long Basque memory, the Roman Empire is considered a good period. In the context of Basque history a good period was one with a reasonable invader, an intruder with whom you could do business." - 34
• "Only after the fall of the Visigoths did Christianity slowly penetrate Basque culture, and even then, Basque religious beliefs coexisted with Christianity for centuries. Some still survive." - 36
• "the female line of Basques inherited property and titles because women did the farm work, while men went off to war." - 36
• 818 C.E. - "Inigo Iniguez became king and ruled for thirty-three years. The Kingdom of Navarra, the only kingdom in all of Basque history, had begun", lasted through 1512 - 42
• The Basque Whale - Chapter 3
• Balaena euskariensis - like the sperm whale and unlike other whales, it floats when dead - 48
• 670 C.E. - "at the end of the age of the Visigoths, there was a documented sale in northern France by Basques from Labourd of forty pots of whale oil." - 48
• "The first commercial whale hunters were the seventh- and eigth-century Basques, who found an eager market for this meat in Europe." - 48
• "Capitalists before capitalism, Basques financed most of their shipbuilding through private venture. Typically, a single ship would have three or four investors. Under the common Basque contract, the crew worked for one-third of the profits." - 55
• The Basque Saint - Chapter 4
• "The castle fell, and the French had Navarra. Then, repeating Charlemagne's mistake, they needlessly antagonized the Basques on their way into Castile by pillaging the Navarrese town of Los Arros for several days. The Castilians, desperately trying to recruit an army to meed the French, were suddenly awash with Basque volunteers. Navarra was quickly retaken, never again to be regarded as a nation." - 75
• "Ignatius was one of the Catholic Church's great mystics, given to visions and trances. His eyes would run with tears for hours as he tried to recite prayers...In his battle against the Reformation, Ignatius made Jesuits in the tradition of medieval romance, knights who went forth in the world to conquer lands for the Church." - 78
• The Basque Billy Goat - Chapter 5
• "The original Basque religion was directly associated with nature -- sun gods, mood gods, rock gods, tree gods, mountain gods." - 80
• "The antiwoman aspect of witch hunting becomes clearer when examining the nature of some of the allegations...The witches allegedly flew to a secret meadow and had group sex with a billy goat" called akelarre in Euskera, from akerr ('male goat') and larre ('meadow') - 95
• "The Basques were the first Europeans to cultivate tobacco, and it seemed that this was rendering them a bit strange. 'I feel, and it is certain, that it makes their breath and their bodies so foul smelling that the uninitiated cannot bear it and yet they use it three or four times a day.'" - 101
• The Wealth of Non-Nations - Chapter 6
• Amerikanuak bezain - good, like an American; generous
• Ez gira Amerikanuak - you're no American; cheap
• 1713 - Treaty of Utrecht "dealt a blow to the Basque long-distance fishing fleets, from which they never recovered."; ended War of Spanish Succession, gave fishing rights and territorial rights to established European powers - 120
• "At the dawn of capitalism, the Royal Guipuzcoan Company of Caracas became a multinational." - 124
• The Dawn of Euskadi - Part 2; The Basque Onomatopoeia
• The Basque Beret - Chapter 7
• Napoleon "was thinking of creating a Basque state. Called Nueva Fenicia, it was to have two parts: The three French provinces would become Nueva Tiro, and the four Spanish ones, Nueva Sidon...The broader plan...was moving the French-Spanish border to the Ebro. North of the Ebro would be France, and south of it would be a puppet Spain ruled by his brother." - 142
• "it was during the First Carlist War that the French began referring to the hat...as le beret Basque. Since the First Carlist War, the hat not only has become a central symbol of Basqueness but also has gained international popularity and is generally associated with the political left." - 146
•  1833-39 - First Carlist War; "Most of Europe took sides: England and France, for once on the same side, backed the Liberals [for a secular republic under Isabella], and Russia, Prussia, and Austria supported the Carlists [for traditional monarchy under Carlos]. To Europe, it was a war for or against absolute monarchy." - 148
• August 16, 1841 - "Basque autonomy was largely ended...Provincial government retained control only over internal affairs." - 152
• 1844 - responding to sporadic violence in Basqueland, the Spanish government created a national police force, the Guardia Civil, "which became and has remained the greatest single irritant in Basque-Spanish relations." - 152
• The Basque Ear - Chapter 8
• 1872-6 - "A Basque Carlist rebellion financed by provincial Foral governing bodies grew into the Second Carlist War." - 157
• July 21, 1876 - a law "ended the remaining Foral rights...[Basques] would pay taxes to the Spanish government and be required to serve in the Spanish military." - 158
• "On chant comme un Basque, You sing like a Basque, is a French expression for someone who sings loudly, well, and often." - 158
• Sabino Arana, a dogmatic Basque nationalist, gave the proposed nation a name, "inventing the word Euzkadi from Euskal, meaing 'Euskera-speaking,' and the suffix di, meaning 'together.'" - 165
• "Bizkaya por su Independensia, originally published in 1890 as Cuatro Glorias Patrias (Four Glorious Acts of Nationalism), is considered the founding act of modern Basque nationalism." - 165
• July 31, 1895 - on Ignatius Loyola's Saint's Day, "Arana officially founded the Basque Nationalist Party, his underground independence movement." - 166
• Gernika - Chapter 9
• October 7, 1936 - "A Basque government was installed with Aguirre as lehendakari, leader...It was a historic moment...the lehendakari, heir to Sabino Arana's underground movement, standing in public, under the [Guernica] oak, pledging in Euskera to serve a Basque government." - 189
• The Potato Time - Chapter 10
• Speaking Christian - Chapter 11
• "Immediately after the Basque provinces had been taken, Franco outlawed the Euskera language. The Basques were told to 'speak Christian.'" - 227
• 1953 - "newly elected president, Dwight Eisenhower, sought a military presence in the southwestern flank of Europe. This produced the Defense Pacts of September. The pacts gave the United States a bomber base near Madrid, in Torrejon, and other bases near Zaragoza, Seville, and Moron de Frontera, as well as the Rota navy base in Cadiz. In exchange for allowing a foreign power to establish bases that were potential nuclear targets next to Spanish cities, Spain got $226 million in assistance...The only developmental assistance was for roads, port facilities, and ancillary defense industries that the Americans would need to operate." - 231
• 1952 - young Basques, including Jose Luis Alvarez form ATA, Aberri Ta Askatasuna (Homeland and Liberty); ata means "duck" in the Vizcayan dialect - 234
• July 31, 1959 - ATA is changed to ETA, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Euskadi and Liberty) on Ignatius Loyola's Saint's Day - 234
• 1967 - up to 450 ETA members publish "The Official Ideology of ETA"; "ETA was now 'a Basque socialist national liberation movement' defining its nationalism as 'revolutionary nationalism'" - 240
• Eventually Night Falls - Chapter 12
• Euskadi: Askatuta - Part 3; Slippery Maketos
• The Great Opportunity - Chapter 13
• November 20, 1975 - after Franco finally died, 'Juan Carlos became king and head-of-state, in  accordance with Franco's wishes. He further fulfilled Franco's wishes by appointing Arias Navarro head-of-government"; Navarro resigned by July 1976 - 267
• "The majority of Navarrese think of themselves as simply Navarrese. But the Navarrese speak Euskera and fit almost any definition of Basque -- except theirs. If the seven provinces were to be united today, a separatist movement might emerge in Navarra." - 274
• Checks and Balances - Chapter 14
• "French policy toward 'the Basque problem' has always been to keep it in Spain. As long as the problem stayed in Spain, ETA members could stay in France."; this changed when Franco died - 285
• September 1998 - ETA "unilaterally and unconditionally" gave up violence - 301
• Surviving Democracy - Chapter 15
• The Nation - Chapter 16