History of the Basques

The Basques ( eu, Euskaldunak) are an indigenous ethno-linguistic group mainly inhabiting Basque Country (adjacent areas of Spain and France). Their history is therefore interconnected with Spanish and French history and also with the history of many other past and present countries, particularly in Europe and the Americas, where a large number of their descendants keep attached to their roots, clustering around Basque clubs which are centers for Basque people.

Origins

First historical references

In the 1st century, Strabo wrote that the northern parts of what are now Navarre (''Nafarroa'' in Basque) and Aragon were inhabited by the Vascones. Despite the evident etymological connection between ''Vascones'' and the modern denomination ''Basque'', there is no direct proof that the Vascones were the modern Basques' ancestors or spoke the language that has evolved into modern Basque, although this is strongly suggested both by the historically consistent toponymy of the area and by a few personal names on tombstones dating from the Roman period.

Three different peoples inhabited the territory of the present Basque Autonomous Community: the Varduli, Caristii and Autrigones. Historical sources do not state whether these tribes were related to the Vascones, the Aquitani or the Celts. The area where a Basque-related language is best attested from an early period is Gascony in France, to the north of the present-day Basque region, whose ancient inhabitants, the Aquitani, spoke a language related to Basque.

Prehistory

Although little is known about the prehistory of the Basques before the period of Roman occupation owing to the difficulty in identifying evidence for specific cultural traits, the mainstream view today is that the Basque area shows signs of archaeological continuity since the Aurignacian period.

Many Basque archaeological sites, including cave dwellings such as Santimamiñe, provide evidence for continuity from Aurignacian times down to the Iron Age, shortly before Roman occupation. The possibility therefore cannot be ruled out of at least some of the same people having continued to inhabit the area for thirty millennia.

Some scholars have interpreted the Basque words ''aizto'' 'knife' and ''aizkora'' 'axe' as containing ''aitz'' 'stone', which they take as evidence that the Basque language dates back to the Stone Age. However, stone was abandoned in the Chalcolithic, and ''aizkora'' (variants ''axkora'', ''azkora'') is sometimes considered to be loaned from Latin ''asciola''; cf. Spanish ''azuela'', Catalan ''aixol''.

Genetic evidence

A high concentration of Rh- among Basques, who have the highest level worldwide, had already been interpreted as suggestive of the antiquity and lack of admixture of the Basque genetic stock. In the 1990s Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza published his findings according to which one of the main European autosomal components, PC 5, was shown to be a typically Basque trait believed to have receded owing to the migration of Eastern peoples during the Neolithic and Metal Ages.

X chromosome microsatellites also seem to point to Basques being the most direct descendants of prehistoric Western Europeans, having the highest percent of "Western European genes" but found also at high levels among neighbor populations, as they are also direct descendants of the same people. However, mitochondrial DNA have cast doubts over this theory. Along the same lines, a genetic study carried out in 2001 revealed that the Y-chromosome of Celtic populations do not differ statistically from the Basques, establishing a link between them and such populations as the Irish and the Welsh.

Alternative theories

The following alternative theories about the prehistoric origins of the Basques have all had adherents at some time but are rejected by many scholars and do not represent the consensus view:

*Basques as Neolithic settlers: According to this theory, a precursor of the Basque language might have arrived about 6,000 years ago with the advance of agriculture. The only archaeological evidence that could partly support this hypothesis would be that for the Ebro valley area.
*Basques arrived together with the Indo-Europeans: Linked to an unproven linguistic hypothesis that includes Basque and some Caucasian languages in a single super-family. Even if such a Basque-Caucasian connection did exist, it would have to be at too great a time depth to be relevant to Indo-European migrations. Apart from a Celtic presence in the Ebro valley during the Urnfield culture, archaeology offers little support for this hypothesis. The Basque language shows few certain Celtic or other Indo-European loans, other than those transmitted via Latin or Romance in historic times.
*Basques as an Iberian subgroup: Based on occasional use by early Basques of the Iberian alphabet and Julius Caesar's description of the Aquitanians as ''Iberians''. Apparent similarities between the undeciphered Iberian language and Basque have also been cited, but this fails to account for the fact that attempts so far to decipher Iberian using Basque as a reference have failed.

New genetic findings, 2015

In 2015, a new scientific study of Basque DNA was published which seems to indicate that Basques are descendants of Neolithic farmers who mixed with local hunters before becoming genetically isolated from the rest of Europe for millennia.Ancient DNA Elucidates Basque Origins
Researchers find that the people of northern Spain and southern France are an amalgam of early Iberian farmers and local hunters. By Bob Grant , September 9, 2015, thescientist.com. Juan Lizariturry from Uppsala University in Sweden analysed genetic material from eight Stone Age human skeletons found in El Portalón Cavern in Atapuerca, northern Spain. These individuals lived between 3,500 and 5,500 years ago, after the transition to farming in southwest Europe. The results show that these early Iberian farmers are the closest ancestors to present-day Basques.

The official findings were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. "Our results show that the Basques trace their ancestry to early farming groups from Iberia, which contradicts previous views of them being a remnant population that trace their ancestry to Mesolithic hunter-gatherer groups," says Prof. Jakobsson.

Basque Country in prehistoric times

Paleolithic

About 35,000 years ago, the lands that are now the Basque Country, together with neighbouring areas such as Aquitaine and the Pyrenees, were settled by Cro-Magnons, who gradually displaced the region's earlier Neanderthal population. The settlers brought the Aurignacian culture with them.

At this stage, the Basque Country formed part of the archaeological Franco-Cantabrian province which extended all the way from Asturias to Provence. Throughout this region, which underwent similar cultural developments with some local variation, Aurignacian culture was successively replaced by Gravettian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian cultures. Except for the Aurignacian, these all seem to have originated in the Franco-Cantabrian region, which suggests no further waves of immigration into the area during the Paleolithic period.

Within the present-day Basque Country, settlement was limited almost exclusively to the Atlantic area, probably for climatic reasons. Important Basque sites include the following:

*Santimamiñe (Biscay): Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian remains, mural art
*Bolinkoba (Biscay): Gravettian and Solutrean
*Ermitia (Gipuzkoa): Solutrean and Magdalenian
*Amalda (Gipuzkoa): Gravettian and Solutrean
*Koskobilo (Gipuzkoa): Aurignacian and Solutrean
*Aitzbitarte (Gipuzkoa): Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian
*Isturitz (Lower Navarre): Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian, mural art
*Gatzarria (Soule): Aurignacian and Gravettian

Epipaleolithic and Neolithic

At the end of the Ice Age, Magdalenian culture gave way to Azilian culture. Hunters turned from large animals to smaller prey, and fishing and seafood gathering became important economic activities. The southern part of the Basque Country was first settled in this period.

Gradually, Neolithic technology started to filter through from the Mediterranean coasts, first in the form of isolated pottery items (Zatoia, Marizulo) and later with the introduction of sheepherding. As in most of Atlantic Europe, this transition progressed slowly.

In the Ebro valley, more fully Neolithic sites are found. Anthropometric classification of the remains suggests the possibility of some Mediterranean colonisation here. A comparable situation is found in Aquitaine, where settlers may have arrived via the Garonne.

In the second half of the 4th millennium BC, Megalithic culture appeared throughout the area. Burials become collective (possibly implying families or clans) and the dolmen predominates, while caves are also employed in some places. Unlike the dolmens of the Mediterranean basin which show a preference for corridors, in the Atlantic area they are invariably simple chambers.

Copper and Bronze Ages

Use of copper and gold, and then other metals, did not begin in the Basque Country until c. 2500 BCE. With the arrival of metal working, the first urban settlements made their appearance. One of the most notable towns on account of its size and continuity was La Hoya in southern Álava, which may have served as a link, and possibly a trading centre, between Portugal (Vila Nova de São Pedro culture) and Languedoc (Treilles group). Concurrently, caves and natural shelters remained in use, particularly in the Atlantic region.

Undecorated pottery continued from the Neolithic period up until the arrival of the Bell Beaker culture with its characteristic pottery style, which is mainly found around the Ebro Valley. Building of megalithic structures continued until the Late Bronze Age.

In Aquitaine, there was a notable presence of the Artenacian culture, a culture of bowmen that spread rapidly through Western France and Belgium from its homeland near the Garonne c. 2400 BCE.

In the Late Bronze Age, parts of the southern Basque Country came under the influence of the pastoralist Cogotas I culture of the Iberian plateau.

Iron Age

In the Iron Age, bearers of the late Urnfield culture followed the Ebro upstream as far as the southern fringes of the Basque Country, leading to the incorporation of the Hallstatt culture; this corresponds to the beginning of Indo-European, notably Celtic influence in the region.

In the Basque Country, settlements now appear mainly at points of difficult access, probably for defensive reasons, and had elaborate defense systems. During this phase, agriculture seemingly became more important than animal husbandry.

It may be during this period that new megalithic structures, the (stone circle) or ''cromlech'' and the megalith or ''menhir'', made their appearance.

Roman rule

On arrival of the Romans to current south-west France, the Pyrenees and its threshold up to Cantabria, the territory was occupied by a number of tribes, most of them non Indo-European (the nature of others remain unclear, e.g. the Caristii). The Vascones show the closest identification with current Basques, but evidence points to Basque-like people extending around the Pyrenees and up to the Garonne, as evidenced by Caesar's testimony on his book ''De Bello Gallico'', Aquitanian inscriptions (person and god names), and several place-names.

Most of the Aquitanian tribes were subjugated by Crasus, lieutenant of Caesar, in 65 BC. However, prior to this conquest (celebrated apparently, on the Tower of Urkulu), the Romans had reached the upper Ebro region at the beginning of the 2nd century BC, on the fringes of the Basque territory (Calagurris, Graccurris). Under Pompey in the 1st century BC, the Romans stationed in and founded Pompaelo (modern Pamplona, ''Iruñea'' in Basque) but Roman rule was not consolidated until the time of the Emperor Augustus. Its laxness suited the Basques well, allowing them to retain their traditional laws and leadership. Romanisation was limited on the lands of the current Basque Country closer to the Atlantic, while it was more intense on the Mediterranean basin. The survival of the separate Basque language has often been attributed to the fact that Basque Country was little developed by the Romans.

There was a significant Roman presence in the garrison of Pompaelo, a city south of the Pyrenees founded by and named after Pompey. Conquest of the area further west followed a fierce Roman campaign against the Cantabri (see Cantabrian Wars). There are archaeological remains from this period of garrisons protecting commercial routes all along the Ebro river, and along a Roman road between Asturica and Burdigala.

A unit of Varduli was stationed on Hadrian's Wall in the north of Britain for many years, and earned the title ''fida'' (faithful) for service to the Emperor. Romans apparently entered into alliances (''foedera'', singular ''foedus'') with many local tribes, allowing them almost total autonomy within the Empire.

Livy mentions the natural division between the ''Ager'' and the ''Saltus Vasconum'', i.e. between the fields of the Ebro basin and the mountains to the north. It has been held by historians that Romanisation was significant in the fertile ''Ager'' but almost null in the ''Saltus'', where Roman towns were scarce and generally small. However, the latest 21st century findings have called into question that assumption, highlighting the importance of fishing (fish processing factories, ''caetariae'') and mining sector on the Atlantic arch (the Atlantic route of cabotage), as well as other settlements dotting the Atlantic basin.

The BagaudaeBagaudas (Auñamendi Encyclopedia)
/ref> seem to have produced a major impact on Basque history in the late Empire. In the late 4th century and throughout the 5th century, the Basque region from the Garonne to the Ebro escaped Roman control in the midst of revolts. Several Roman villas (Liédena, Ramalete) were burned to the ground. The proliferation of mints is interpreted as evidence for an ''inner limes'' around Vasconia, where coins were minted for the purpose of paying troops. After the fall of the Empire, the struggle against Rome's Visigoth allies continued.

Middle Ages

Christianization

Despite early Christian testimonies and institutional organization, Basque Christianization was slow. The Basques hung onto their own pagan religion and beliefs (later transfigured into mythology), and were Christianized at a par with the Germanic peoples hostile to Carolingian expansion (8th-9th century), such as the Saxons. However, it remained a slow internal process that some scholars have extended up to the 15th century.

The Christian poet Prudentius sings to the prominent Vasconic town of Calahorra in his work ''Peristephanon'' (I) written in the early 5th century, reminding to the town's "one-time pagan Vascones" of the martyrdom gone through in it formerly (305). Calahorra itself became episcopal see in the 4th century, with its bishop holding an authority over a territory that extended well into the lands of present-day central Rioja (''Sierra de Cameros''), Biscay, Álava, a large part of Gipuzkoa and Navarre. In the 5th century, Eauze (Elusa) is attested as episcopal see in the Novempopulania, but the actual influence of these centers on the different domains of the society is not well known.

The collapse of the Roman Empire seems to have turned the tide. Basques are not identified anymore with Roman civilization and its declining urban life after the late 5th century, and they prevailed over Roman urban culture, so that paganism remained widespread among the Basques at least up to the late 7th century and the failed mission of Saint Amandus. However, less than a century later, no reference is made by Frankish chroniclers to Basque paganism in the Frankish assault on Basques and Aquitanians, despite its powerful propaganda value, Odo was even recognized as champion of Christianity by the Pope.

Charlemagne started a policy of colonization in Aquitaine and Vasconia after the submission of both territories in 768–769. Enlisting the Church on his side to strengthen his power in Vasconia, he restored Frankish authority on the high Pyrenees in 778, divided the land between bishops and abbots and began to baptize the pagan Basques of this region.

Muslim accounts from the period of the Umayyad conquest of Hispania and beginning of 9th century identify the Basques as ''magi'' or 'pagan wizards', they were not considered 'people of the Book' (Christians). Still in 816, Muslim chroniclers attest not far from Pamplona a so-called 'Saltan', "knight of the pagans", certainly a distorted name maybe referring to Zaldun, literally in Basque "Knight". Later Muslim historians cite Navarrese leaders of the early 9th century (but not only them) as holding onto polytheist religious practices and criticize the Banu Qasi for allying with them.

Early Middle Ages

In 409, Vandals, Alans, and Suevi forced their way into Hispania through the western Pyrenees, chased closely by the Visigoths in 416 as allies of Rome, while the consequences of their advances are not clear. In 418 Rome gave the provinces of Aquitania and Tarraconensis to the Visigoths, as '' foederati'', probably with a view to defending Novempopulana from the raids of the Bagaudae. It has sometimes been argued that the Basque were underlying these roving armed hosts, but this claim is far from certain. The contemporary chronicler Hydatius was well aware of the existence of the Vasconias, but does not identify the Bagaudae rebels as Basque.

While the Visigoths seem to have claimed the Basque territory from an early date, the chronicles point to their failure to subdue it, punctuated only by sporadic military successes. The years between 435 and 450 saw a succession of confrontations between the Bagaudae and Romano-Gothic troops, the best documented of which were the battles of Toulouse, Araceli, and Turiasum. Just about the same period, in 449–51, the Suevi under their king Rechiar ravaged the territories of the Vascones, probably looting their way through the region on their way back home from Toulouse. Settlements were clearly damaged after the raids and, while Calahorra and Pamplona survived, Iruña (Veleia) seems to have been abandoned as a result.

After 456, the Visigoths crossed the Pyrenees twice from Aquitaine, probably at Roncesvalles, in an effort to destroy the Suevic kingdom of Rechiar, but as the chronicle of Hydatius, the only Spanish source of the period, ends in 469, the actual events of the Visigothic confrontation with the Basques are obscure. Apart from the vanished previous tribal boundaries, the great development between the death of Hydatius and the events accounted for in the 580s is the appearance of the Basques as a "mountain roaming people", most of the times depicted as posing a threat to urban life.

The Franks displaced the Visigoths from Aquitaine in 507, placing the Basques between the two warring kingdoms. In 581 or thereabouts both Franks and Visigoths attacked ''Vasconia'' (''Wasconia'' in Gregory of Tours), but neither with success. In 587 the Franks launched a second attack on the Basques, but they were defeated on the plains of Aquitaine, implying that Basque settlement or conquest had begun north of the Pyrenees. However, the theory of a Basque expansionism in the Early Middle Ages has often been dismissed and is not necessary to understand the historic evolution of this region. Soon afterwards, the Franks and Goths created their respective marches in order to contain the Basques ̶ the Duchy of Cantabria in the south and the Duchy of Vasconia in the north (602).

In the south-western marches of the Frankish Duchy of Vasconia, extending at certain periods during the 6-8th centuries across the Pyrenees, Cantabria (maybe including Biscay and Álava) and Pamplona remained out of Visigothic rule, with the latter sticking to either self-rule or under Frankish suzerainty (Councils of Toledo unattended between 589 and 684).

After much fighting, the Duchy of Vasconia was consolidated as an independent polity between 660 and 678 ruled by the Duke Felix, who by means of a personal union with the Duchy of Aquitaine established a ''de facto'' realm detached from the distant Merovingian rule. Synergies between "Roman", non-Frankish urban elites and a rural militarised Vascon power base enabled a strong political entity in south-west Gaul. The Basque-Aquitanian realm reached its zenith at the time of Odo the Great, but the Muslim invasion of 711, at which time the Visigoth Roderic was fighting the Basques in Pamplona, and the rise of the Carolingian dynasty posed new threats for this state, eventually spurring its downfall and breakup.

Vasconia's submission to the Franks after Odo's death in 735 was interrupted by frequent outbreaks of resistance, led by the latter's son Hunald (735-744) and grandson Waifer (+768). In 762, the hosts of Frankish king Pippin crossed the Loire, attacked Bourges and Clermont defended by the Basques and ransacked Aquitaine. After several military setbacks, the Basques pledged submission to Pippin on the river Garonne ( Fronsac, c. 769). At this time (7-8th centuries), Vasconia is sometimes mentioned as stretching from the lands of Cantabria in the south-west all the way to the river Loire in the north pointing to a not preponderant but clearly significant Basque presence in Aquitaine (i.e. between Garonne and Loire).

Vasconia's newly suppressed resistance cleared the way for the Frankish army to deal with Charlemagne's interests in the Spanish marches (siege of Zaragoza). After pulling down the walls of Pamplona, Roland's rear guard headed north and were defeated in the first Battle of Roncevaux (778) by the "treacherous" Basques, as put by Frankish chroniclers, suggesting that the Basques overall and Duke Lupus backed down on their 769 allegiance vow. After 781, tired of the Basque uprisings, Charlemagne appointed no more dukes, instead opting for a direct rule by creating the Kingdom of Aquitaine.

The Basque-Muslim state of the Banu Qasi (meaning "heirs of Cassius" in Arabic), founded c. 800 near Tudela (''Tutera'' in Basque), acted as a buffer state between the Basques and the Cordovan Umayyads that helped consolidate the independent Kingdom of Pamplona after the second Battle of Roncevaux, when a Frankish expedition led by the counts Eblus and Aznar (sometimes identified as the local Frankish vassal toppled in Aragon some 10 years earlier) was defeated by the Pamplonese and maybe the Banu Qasi, after crossing the Pyrenees, probably in the wake of Basque rebellions north of the Pyrenees. In the west fringes of Basque territory, Álava arose first in history attacked by Asturian and Cordovan hosts and comprising a blur territory previously held by the Duchy of Cantabria (current Cantabria, Biscay, Álava, La Rioja and Burgos).

After the battle, Enecco Arista (Basque ''Eneko Aritza'', i.e. Eneko ''the Oak''), re-asserted his power in Pamplona c. 824, the Basques managing thereafter to fend off Frankish rule to the south of the western Pyrenees. The line of the Aristas ruled Pamplona side by side with the Banu Qasi of Tudela up to the decline of both dynasties (early 10th century). When Sancho I Garces rose to prominence in 905, Pamplonese allegiances switched to their neighbour Christian realms, with the new royal lineage starting its expansion south to the territory of their former allies.

In 844, the Vikings sailed up the Garonne to Bordeaux and Toulouse and raided the countryside on either bank of the river, killing the Duke of the Basques Sigwinum II (recorded as Sihiminum too, maybe Semeno) in Bordeaux. They took over Bayonne, and attacked Pamplona (859), even taking the king Garcia prisoner, only released in exchange for a hefty ransom. They were to be overcome only in 982 by the Basque Duke William II Sanchez of Gascony, who made his way back from Pamplona to fight to the north of Bayonne and put a term to Viking incursions, so allowing monasteries to spring up all over Gascony thereafter, the first of which was the one of Saint-Sever, ''Caput Vasconiae''.

William started a policy of rapprochement to Pamplona, by establishing dynastic ties with their rulers. Despite its newly found strength, by the 10th century the territory of Vasconia (to become Gascony and stripped by the 11th–12th centuries of its original ethnic sense) fragmented into different feudal regions, for example, the viscountcies of Soule and Labourd out of former tribal systems and minor realms ( County of Vasconia), while south of the Pyrenees the Kingdom of Castile, Kingdom of Pamplona and the Pyrenean counties of Aragon, Sobrarbe, Ribagorza (later merged into the Kingdom of Aragon) and Pallars arose as the main regional powers with Basque population in the 9th century.

High Middle Ages

Under Sancho III the Great, Pamplona controlled the entire southern Basque Country. Actually, its power extended from Burgos and Santander to northern Aragon. Through marriage Sancho also became the acting Earl of Castile and held a protectorate over Gascony and León. However, in 1058, the former Vasconia turned into Gascony, merged by personal union with Aquitaine ( William VIII). William VIII intervened on the dynastic struggles taking place in Aragón and other Peninsular kingdoms, but Gascony progressively moved away from the Basque political sphere, just as its own ethnic make-up: the Basque people increasingly turned into Gascon on the plains to the north of the central and west Pyrenees.

Following Sancho III's death, Castile and Aragon became separate kingdoms ruled by his sons, who were responsible for the first partitioning of Pamplona (1076). Pamplona, the main Basque kingdom (to be renamed Navarre), was absorbed and dwindled for the benefit of Aragón. The kingdom of Aragón itself expanded from its Pyrenean stronghold to the Ebro valley (Saragossa and Tudela conquered in 1118), so shifting its power base to the lowlands and urban areas, with the Basque language and culture receding at the pressure of the stronger urban population and Latin (and Arabic) civilization's prestige encountered at the Ebro valley. Basque ceased to be the main language of communication in many areas of the central Pyrenees, and Romance, Navarro-Aragonese, took over instead. The colonizers of the lands conquered to the Andalusian kingdoms brought the new language along, and not Basque.

The kingdom of Navarre was restored in 1157 under García Ramírez ''the Restorer'', who fought Castile for control over its western lands of the realm (La Rioja, Álava, and parts of Old Castile; see map). In the mid-12th century, Navarrese kings Sancho the Wise and his successor Sancho VII asserted Navarrese authority over central Álava in their contest with Castile by granting various town charters, i.e. Treviño (1161), Laguardia (1164), Vitoria-Gasteiz (1181), Bernedo, Antoñana (1182), La Puebla de Arganzón (1191). A peace treaty signed in 1179 ceded La Rioja and the northeastern part of present-day Old Castile to the Castilian crown. In return, this pact acknowledged that central Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa belonged to Navarre.

In 1199, while Navarre's King Sancho VI ''the Wise'' was away on a diplomatic mission in Tlemcen, Castile invaded and annexed the western Basque Country, leaving Navarre landlocked. King Alfonso VIII of Castile promised to give the Durangaldea, Gipuzkoa and Álava back, but ultimately that did not happen. However, the Castilian king went on to ratify their Navarrese rights and garner their loyalty. They managed to retain a large degree of their self-government and native laws, which all Castilian (and later, Spanish) monarchs, or their viceroys, would swear to uphold on oath until the 19th century. During the following decades, Castilian kings reinforced their position over Navarre's borders and secured new commercial routes, notably the Tunnel Route, by chartering new towns, e.g. Treviño (1254, rechartered), Agurain, Campezo/Kanpezu, Corres, Contrasta, Segura, Tolosa, Orduña (rechartered), Mondragon (Arrasate; 1260, rechartered), Bergara (1268, rechartered), Villafranca (1268), Artziniega (1272), etc.

Basque sailors

Basques played an important role in early European ventures into the Atlantic Ocean. The earliest document to mention the use of whale oil or blubber by the Basques dates from 670. In 1059, whalers from Lapurdi are recorded to have presented the oil of the first whale they captured to the viscount. Apparently the Basques were averse to the taste of whale meat themselves, but did successful business selling it and the blubber to the French, Castilians and Flemings.

On the heat of the 1199–1201 Castilian conquests (Gipuzkoa, shire of Durango, Álava), a number of towns were founded all along the coast during the next two hundred years. The towns chartered by the Castilian kings, thrived on fishing and maritime trade (with northern Europe), as depicted in their coat of arms. The development of ironworks (water propelled) and shipyards added to the Basque naval effort. Basque whalers used longboats or ''traineras'' which they rowed in the vicinity of the coast or from a larger ship.

Whaling and cod-fishing are probably responsible for early Basque contact with both the North Sea and Newfoundland. The Basques began cod-fishing and later whaling in Labrador and Newfoundland as early as the first half of the 16th century.

In Europe, the rudder seems to have been a Basque invention, to judge from three masted ships depicted in a 12th-century fresco in Estella (Navarre; ''Lizarra'' in Basque), and also seals preserved in Navarrese and Parisian historical archives which show similar vessels. The first mention of use of a rudder was referred to as steering "à la Navarraise" or "à la Bayonnaise".

Magellan's expedition was manned on departure by 200 sailors, at least 35 of them Basques, and when Magellan was killed in the Philippines, his Basque second-in-command, Juan Sebastián Elcano took the ship all the way back to Spain. 18 crew members completed the circumnavigation, 4 of them Basques. The Basques mutinied in Christopher Columbus' expedition, a distinctive group who is reported to have erected a makeshift camp in an American island.

Early 17th century international treaties seriously undermined Basque whaling across the northern Atlantic. In 1615, Gipuzkoan whalers frequenting Iceland for decades were massacred (32) by an Icelandic force commanded by the sheriff Ari Magnusson acting on orders of the Danish king. The act ordering the killing of Basques was finally revoked in 2015 during a Basque-Icelandic friendship event. However, northern Atlantic fishing continued at least up to the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), when the Spanish Basques were definitely deprived of their traditional northern European fishing grounds.

Late Middle Ages

The Basque Country in the Late Middle Ages was ravaged by the War of the Bands, bitter partisan wars between local ruling families. In Navarre these conflicts became polarised in a violent struggle between the Agramont and Beaumont parties. In Biscay, the two major warring factions were named Oñaz and Gamboa (cf. the Guelphs and Ghibellines in Italy). High defensive structures called ''dorretxeak'' ("tower houses") built by local noble families, few of which survive today, were frequently razed by fire, sometimes by royal decree.

Modern period

Self-government status and accommodation

Navarre divided and home rule

Basques in the present-day Spanish and French districts of the Basque Country managed to retain a large degree of self-government within their respective districts, practically functioning initially as separate nation-states. The western Basques managed to confirm their home rule at the end of the Kingdom of Castile's civil wars, pledging an oath to claimant Isabella I of Castile in exchange for generous terms in overseas trade. Their ''fueros'' recognised separate laws, taxation and courts in each district.
As the Middle Ages drew to a close, the Basques got sandwiched between two rising superpowers after the Spanish conquest of Iberian Navarre, i.e. France and Spain. Most of the Basque population ended up in Spain, or "the Spains", according to its poly-centric arrangement prevailing under the Habsburgs. The initial repression in Navarre on the local nobility and population (1513, 1516, 1523) was followed by a softer, compromising policy on the part of Ferdinand II of Aragon and the emperor Charles V. While heavily conditioned by its geopolitical situation, the Kingdom of Navarre-Bearn remained independent and attempts at reunification, both in Iberian and continental Navarre, did not cease up to 1610— King Henry of Navarre and France was set to march over Navarre at the moment of his assassination.

The Protestant Reformation made some inroads and was supported by Queen Jeanne d'Albret of Navarre- Bearn. The printing of books in Basque, mostly on Christian themes, was introduced in the late 16th century by the Basque-speaking bourgeoisie around Bayonne in the northern Basque Country. King Henry III of Navarre, a Protestant, converted to Roman Catholicism in order to become King Henry IV of France too ("Paris is well worth a mass"). However, Reformist ideas, imported via the vibrant Ways of Saint James and sustained by the Kingdom of Navarre-Bearn, were subject to intense persecution by the Spanish Inquisition and other institutions as early as 1521, especially in bordering areas, a matter with close links to the shaky status of Navarre.

The Parliament of Navarre in Pamplona (''The Three States, Cortes'') kept denouncing King Philip II of Spain's breach of the binding terms laid out in his oath taking ceremony—tension came to a head in 1592 with an imposed oath pledging for Philip III of Spain fraught with irregularities—while in 1600 allegations arise of discrimination by Castilian abbots and bishops to the Navarrese monks "for the sake of their nation", as pointed by the Kingdom's Government (the ''Diputación''). A combination of factors—suspicion of the Basques, intolerance to a different language, religious practices, traditions, high status held by women in the area (cf. whaling campaigns), along with political intrigues involving the lords of Urtubie in Urruña and the critical Urdazubi abbey—led to the Basque witch trials in 1609.

In 1620 the ''de jure'' separate Lower Navarre was absorbed by the Kingdom of France, and in 1659 the Treaty of the Pyrenees upheld actual Spanish and French territorial control and determined the fate of vague bordering areas, so establishing customs that did not exist up to that point and restricting free cross-border access. The measures decided were implemented as of 1680.

The region specific laws also underwent a gradual erosion and devaluation, more so in the French Basque Country than in the southern districts. In 1660 the authority of the Assembly of Labourd (''Biltzar'' of Ustaritz) was significantly curtailed. In 1661 French centralization and the nobility's ambition to take over and privatize commons unleashed a popular rebellion in Soule—led by Bernard Goihenetche "Matalaz"—ultimately quelled in blood. However, Labourd and its ''Biltzar'' retained important attributions and autonomy, showin
an independent fiscal system

Masters of the ocean

The Basques (or ''Biscaynes''), especially proper Biscayans Gipuzkoans and Lapurdians, thrived on whale hunting, shipbuilding, iron exportation to England, and trade with northern Europe and America during the 16th century, at which time the Basques became the masters not only of whaling but the Atlantic Ocean. However, King Philip II of Spain's failed '' Armada Invencible'' endeavour in 1588, largely relying on heavy whaling and trade galleons confiscated from the reluctant Basques, proved disastrous. The Spanish defeat triggered the immediate collapse of Basque supremacy over the oceans and the rise of English hegemony. As whaling declined privateering soared.

Many Basques found in the Castilian-Spanish Empire an opportunity to promote their social position and venture to America to make a living and sometimes amass a little fortune that spurred the foundation of the present-day baserris. Basques serving under the Spanish flag became renowned sailors, and many of them were among the first Europeans to reach America. For example, Christopher Columbus's first expedition to the ''New World'' was partially manned by Basques, the Santa Maria vessel was made in Basque shipyards, and the owner, Juan de la Cosa, may have been a Basque.

Other seamen became renowned as privateers for the French and Spanish kings alike, namely Joanes Suhigaraitxipi from Bayonne (17th century) and Étienne Pellot (Hendaye