Long before the Basques were given their name by the Romans (the history of this people has never been written down before the Romans did) many nations tired to invade their lands, yet always they ran into a lot of opposition. Many times these invaders had no intentions to submit the Basques, yet they used their services of them, or trained Basque soldiers to have them fighting in their wars. For instance, the Basque soldiers joined Carthago in a battle against Rome in 240 B.C., a battle that was won by the Romans. This resulted in all of Iberia, inclusief the Basque area, being occupied ny the Romans. They were after the fertile grounds of Iberia and came to a special agreement with the Basque nation. Their land was not to be occupied and they were not tributary either. Also they could keep on using their 'common law', or later referred to as fueros. In this way, the Romans tired to pacify the Basques and get a passage between 'Southern France' and the areas behind the Ebro river, behind the Basque area . And where as in Iberia people spoke Latin, people in 'Vasconia' (as the Romans named the Basque country) spoke 'Euskera'.

While Iberia was christianized at a quick rate, the Basques worshipped the sun, the moon and a pantheon of spirits from nature. Surrounded by worships for Jesus Christ, the Basques has Baxajaun, the bearded lord of the forest and Mari (a reassuring name for the Romans), who wandered around in caves in many shapes. Not until the downfall of the Visigoths in and round 700 AD and during the fights against the Muslims/Mussulmen the Basques converted to Christianity. They proved to be not such reliable Christians: the Basques went only into battle for themselves and their country and chose site for one or two sides of the fighting fractions of the border area of the Pyrenees. The Basque people fought against Christians, Mussulmen and succeeded perhaps in doing so to survive and keep its land. The constant state of war united the people, which was originally divided into several mountain tribes. Even after the unification of Spain by catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella the Basques kept their identity; their own laws and language.

The Basques had a rich industry, varying from trade - the Basques are rather not reminded of their participation to the construction of the Spanish empire -, steel industry and fishing. They built ships of superior quality with which they sailed the world seas, traded and caught whales. The later steel industry had turned the Basque country into a rich area. However, when in England a new procedure was developed of producing steel in an even cheaper way, by using 'hematyte', an ore which was richly available in the Basque country, the economic growth was speeded up considerably.
This resulted in the fact that many from outside the Basque area came to settle themselves, hoping to find a job. Cities became more cosmopolitic and the differences between social classes bigger. The lower class that was formed by many people who worked in the Basque industries, of for instance Bilbao, spoke Spanish and no Euskera. The Basque culture came under large pressure because of this huge stream of 'foreigners'. That was especially after the Second Carlistic war (1876), when the Basques lost their final privileges of the fueros, their local common laws, and it was only intensified by this flood of labourers, who were jered at by the local Basque people and called 'maketos' (outsiders).

Source: Erwin van der Ley - http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/history/hic/2001-4/kat.htm