Vicissitudes of the project. This project developed in the heat of two different circumstances:
1.-The ideological-institutional convergence operated the Basque territories as Bourbon centralism increased its pressure on them, as Cadalso perceived when he wrote (Letter XXVI, written 1768-1774) that "the Lordship of Vizcaya, Guipúzcoa, Alava and the Kingdom of Navarre have such a pact with each other that some call these countries the united provinces of Spain". See NATIONALISM (PRENATIONALISM) .The special conditions created in Europe as a result of the French Revolution and the warlike-administrative enterprises of Napoleon Bonaparte. See NAPOLEON I OF FRANCE.
It was in this context that Guipúzcoa, through its legitimate authorities, sought independence when it was invaded by conventional troops in the summer of 1794, and also in which the occupying authorities, with Moncey at their head, considered the possibility of forming a Republic with the Basque territories under the protection of France. The reprisals carried out by Madrid after the Peace of Basel, Godoy's d enmity towards the foral institutions and their ideological support only increased Basque unease. According to Darricau (1906), the Garat project had three stages.