Who Are The Basque People?

The Basques are generally recognised as the oldest culture in Europe.  Their homeland is mountainous central northern Spain and southern France.  DNA evidence strongly supports the hypothesis that they are descendants of hunter-gatherer societies that existed pre agriculture.  This is not to say that the rest of us aren't also descended from such ancient peoples, but the Basques may have the closest cultural affinity to these earliest European settlers.

The most distinctive cultural difference about the Basque is their language.  It is pretty much like nothing else on Earth (spoken in modern times).  Occasionally it gets suggested that it might be related to Indo-Europeans, Berbers, ancient Iberians or other groups, but really, no proposed links have stood up to close scrutiny.

There is some archaelogical evidence of other languages, closely related to modern Basque, being spoken and used in other parts of France and Spain.

The ancient Basque language may have survived because of the geography of the Basque country.  It is rugged, mountainous, poor in natural resources and unsuitable for agriculture.  In other words, hardly anyone else wanted to go there, so Basque wasn't swamped by Latin unlike most of Europe.  In modern times the Basque region is still relatively impoverished, although it is also increasingly industrialised and very politicised.