The Carlists took positions to siege Pamplona in the Second Carlist War. The blockade began in September with the aim of defeating the last area controlled by liberals in the country. But they wouldn't. Six months later, in February, liberals broke the Carlist lines. At the orders of the priest Santa Cruz, thousands of Basque citizens defended the Basque forces against the liberals who would destroy them and organized a Basque state based on the deputies in the area controlled by the Carlists. Among other things, they decided to eliminate the prohibition of Basque in schools and teach in Basque.