stic difference between the Basques and the people of France and Spain became a fundamental element that held a tightly woven community, throughout the centuries it also became the barrier that separated them from their neighbors. This distance created fear, intolerance and misunderstanding; in 1609, the witch hunting French official Pierre de Lancre was convinced that all 30,000 Basque-speaking inhabitants of Lapurdi were witches, priests included. He tried to execute all inhabitants and tortured and burned around 600 women and some men. He was stopped only after their male relatives returned from a fishing expedition of the coast of Newfoundland and started a revolt after which bishop Echauz intervened. Episodes of this sort helped to reinforce the idea of “otherness” on both sides of the fence. The French have been, at least in appearance, less conflictive towards the Basque. Therefore, the conflict between them has never reached the intensity that it has on the southern side of the Pyrenees. Also the fact that the core of the Basque nation lies within Spanish territory has also influenced greatly in the dealing s that the French government has had towards the Basque. In the case of Spain, perhaps the biggest factor that has refueled the desire of the creation of a Basque nation is due to the many internal conflicts that have severed Spain since 1833. The first Carlist war broke out in 1833 and ended in 1839; the Carlists wars developed in the Spanish State but fundamentally in the four southern Basque provinces. In the Basque provinces, the first Carlist war took the form of a popular uprising in the defense of Basque liberties and traditions as opposed to Spanish centralism. The Carlist leadership was based in Navarre. Fearing the end of their regional autonomy, traditional Basques aligned with the Catholic Church and the followers of Don Carlos, a contender to the Spanish throne, in a war against the Liberal central g...
