Alejandro Pulido presents at the University his book "Neutrality on war footing. The Basque Country and Navarre before the First World War (1914-1918)".

In collaboration with the Chair of language and Basque Culture, last June 4 took place the presentation at the University of the book by Alejandro Pulido, Neutralidad en pie de guerra. El País Vasco y Navarra ante la Primera Guerra Mundial (1914-1918), published by publishing house Sílex.

The author, graduate in History by the School of Philosophy and Letters, where he was also student of the mentioned Chair, and doctor by the University of the Basque Country, offered in first time a synthesis of the work, fruit of his doctoral thesis . 

In his speech, he began by underlining the timeliness of topic, of which there was only scattered and very general news, and its historical importance due to the great influence of the European conflict in the Basque-Navarre area , given its Atlantic façade and its border condition with France. Undoubtedly, that was a total war that completely impregnated local life in its most diverse aspects. It generated, as everywhere else, a heated "war of ideas". The Basque left-wing supported the allied side, while among the Catholic right-wing there was a division of positions: Maurism defended neutrality; Carlism, on the contrary, was a firm supporter of the Germanic block, although it ended up living the Mellist split on account of the conflict; while in the PNV the war brought to light the tension between radicals and possibilists, accentuating the interest in an international scenario that, after the allied victory, would reinforce the presence and identity of the peoples.

Beyond the impact on local politics, there was also a much more direct involvement in the Great War, which had its most prominent military aspect in the configuration of espionage networks and also in all the movement that was generated around the border, either by the intense activity of smuggling, or by the open reception of the Basque-French deserters, to whom they united cultural and family ties, or by the recruitment of volunteers, up to a total of 300 Basque-Navarre soldiers, who would have a prominent role in the conflict. 

B Finally, the war burst fully into daily life: it promoted an important Catholic humanitarian mobilization present in pilgrimages and collections; it contributed to the modernization of the press and the world of leisure; but, above all, it provoked a crisis of subsistence, with its corollary of hardship and discontent, which had in the Basque-Navarre area a timid reflection of the revolutionary events of 1917.