Royal Basque Society of Friends of the Country

The Royal Basque Society of Friends of the Country (in Basque Euskalerriaren Adiskideen Elkartea and in Spanish Real Sociedad Bascongada de Amigos del País), also known as La Bascongada or Bascongada Society, was founded in the mid-18th century to encourage the scientific, cultural and economic development of the Basque Country.

The founding members were the Knights of Azcoitia or the Triumvirate of Azcoitia, under the encouragement of Xavier María de Munibe e Idiáquez, count of Peñaflorida, José María de Eguía, marquis of Narros, and the encyclopedist and Enlightenment scholar Manuel Ignacio de Altuna. The blueprint for its constitution was drafted in 1763 in Vergara and approved in 1765. Its inception is inextricably linked to the economic momentum spurred by the activity of the Guipuzcoana Company.

The establishment of the society was followed by the founding of the Seminar of Vergara a decade later (1776), the first higher education institution to operate in Basque territory. Research carried out by Fausto Elhuyar and brother Juan Jose in the seminar led to their isolating of the chemical element tungsten, and Ignacio de Zavala came up with the procedure to obtain cast steel. In music the Society sponsored the work of composer José de Larrañaga. Literary activity was conducted by Félix María de Samaniego and others.

The Society was the first institution in Modern Age to ever regroup any Basque districts into a sole cluster out of common concerns—they operated on their own up to that point. It was also the first society of its kind in the Basque Country and Spain, with societies cut out after its pattern spreading soon afterwards all over Spain, and the New World.

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