It includes three former historic French provinces in the north-east of the traditional Basque Country totalling 2, km 2 1, sq mi : Lower Navarre French: Basse-Navarre ; Basque: Nafarroa Beherea , until nominally Kingdom of Navarre , with 1, km 2 sq mi ; Labourd Lapurdi , with km 2 sq mi ; Soule Zuberoa , with km 2 sq mi. The population included in the Basque Municipal Community amounts to , inhabitants distributed in municipalities.
The French Basque Country included three pre-existing historic territories before the departmental division of France in , with a few modifications:. It is the political capital of its subprefecture and economic capital of the largest region, which includes the French Basque country and the south of Landes. A slow but continuous French institutional evolution has been produced as a response to the historical claims of the French Basque Country.
These are based on the notion of a country in the traditional sense, as a society belonging to a place, culture, etc. The creation of an institution of greater substance than what was represented by the geographical organization of pays and more specifically of a Basque department, has been a constant element during that last decades in elected posts for the main political parties, with representation from the French Socialist Party , The Republicans , and nationalist parties. On 15 January , the Euskal Herriko Laborantza Ganbara Chamber of Agriculture for the Basque Country , [ 11 ] was created as a house for the representation and promotion of the interests of livestock farmers and agriculturists of the French Basque Country, promoted by the agrarian union, Laborarien Batasuna.
Initially, this institution wasn't recognised, and its function was illegal. Now, its function is regulated and receives subventions from the Regional Council of Aquitaine. In , the French government proposed the creation of a single commonwealth for all of the towns in French Basque Country, under two conditions: being approved by at least half of the communes in the historic territory, and that at least half of the nearly , residents be represented within this historic territory.
After a process of municipal meetings, on 2 May , both conditions were met. The oldest human remains that are known of in the territory of the current French Basque Country are approximately , years old. At the beginning they lived in the open air and later in caves, like the one in Isturits.
