The third factor that influenced the loss of Euskara involved the great famines of the 18th-19th centuries, which made the Basque-speaking population (the poorest of the society in that period) emigrate towards America. One example of that is the very high number of Basque surnames that have disappeared in the Basque Country, but that have been preserved in the American continent. Entire families emigrated to the former Spanish colonies to scape from hunger and in the search for new opportunities
The fourth and last factor that weakened Euskara even more was due to the opinion that the Spanish and French authorities and scholars had on the Basque language in those days. Euskara was considered by all of them as 'rudem et barbarum linguam, cultum abhorrentem' (a rough and Barbarian language, unable to develop itself). In this context of disrespect for the local culture, the Basque-speaker felt inferior
and was forced to learn Spanish of French if he wanted to become something in life.
The different Latin languages that surrounded the Basque-speakers (Aragonese, Gascon, Castilian and French) were the ones that were always used to write: all of them were widely used, except the Basque language.
Euskara was the vehicle of the traditional and rural Basque culture, while Castilian or French were the vehicles of the Western culture; in other words, the vehicles of the Culture, Sciences and Arts. Due to this assessment, it is not unusual to see some cases like the famous writer Unamuno, who said the following phrase in spite of being Basque-speaker: 'the best contribution the Basque language could make to the humanity is to disappear'. The Basque middle-class society was ashamed of Euskara and rejected it since the language was considered something specific of the lower class. Therefore, Castilian was accepted as a cultured language and this discredited Euskara even more, what increased its loss since the 19th century.
The picture on the right shows the evolution of the geographical limits of Euskara in the Navarrese territory since the 16th century to the present.
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