Culture
The following Spanish provinces make up the autonomous community of Pais Vasco:
Alava Basque: Araba, capital Vitoria-Gasteiz Basque: Gasteiz.
Guipuzcoa Basque: Gipuzkoa, capital San Sebastián Basque: Donostia.
Vizcaya Basque: Bizkaia, occasionally rendered Biscay in English, like the bay of the same name, capital Bilbao Basque: Bilbo.
Culturally, the Basque Country also includes the Spanish province of Navarra Basque: Nafarroa, and the territories of Labord Basque: Lapurdi, French Navarra Basque: Behenafarroa, and Soule Basque: Zuberoa in southwestern France.
History
Under the Franco regime all languages other than Castilian Spanish were severely restricted. The Spanish constitution of 1978 established the provinces of Araba, Gipuzkoa, and Bizkaia as the Basque Autonomous Region. The Basque Autonomous Region Communidad Autonoma Vasca has a great deal of autonomy from the national government including the autonomy to recognize Euskara as an official language of the region, but this has not satisfied all factions of the Basque community.
The Basque people have had a stormy relationship with the nation of Spain, and for decades there had been incidents of violence made in the name of self-determination and/or independence. ETA Euskadi Ta Askatasuna -the Basque terrorist organization announced a permanent ceasefire at the end of March of 2006, but has since reopened hostilities, killing two people in 2007 with a car bomb at Madrid airport, and in the summer of 2009 detonating bombs in Burgos and Palma de Mallorca.