Reddit reviews The Basque History of the World: The Story of a Nation

Because they maintained some form of independence and were capable of defending their lands pretty well (the Pyreness create a nice natural barrier). The Celts and Iberians didn't affect Basque life much. The Romans, who did eventually conquer the Basques, didn't develop/Romanize it too well, being more interested on the Mediterranean coast. After the fall of the Romans and the rise of the Franks and Visigoths, the state of Vasconia (Gascony) was more or less consolidated (602), alternating between absolute independence or a client state of the Franks.

With the eventual absorption of Gascony into French politics (~1053), we then see the rise of the Kingdom of Pamplona/Navarre (824), which existed as an independent entity until 1512, when it was absorbed into the greater Spanish crown. It's important to note that Basque regions that were annexed usually asked that their new lords allow them to govern themselves according to their own laws and traditions. These vows, taken by the lord, were done in public/holy places, leaving the Basques to enjoy a greater amount of autonomy.

Shown so far is a history of independence and self-rule from pre-history to the early 16th century. Unfortunately, I don't have much on the history between then and the rise of nationalism. However, if France wasn't able to consolidate French entirely until the late 19th century, and we are to believe that only ~50% of people in France could speak any French in 1789 and only 25% spoke it as their native language in 1871, this raises issues with the idea of a centralized state capable of enforcing its language, specially on semi-autonomous region or ethnic minorities in the peripheries.

This brings us into the modern era. The Basques sided with the losers during the Spanish Civil War. Under Francisco Franco, who took power, speaking Basque was banned in Spain, and the region saw greater immigration from the poorer parts of the country, both of which severely damaged the amount of Basque being spoken.

EDIT: Seeing as this was well received, I'd like to introduce you all to Sancho the Great. He was the Basque king of Pamplona from 1004 to 1035, and before his death untied all of Christian northern Spain, from Galicia, through Leon and Castile, to Navarre and Aragon. His descendants would continue to rule those kingdoms after him. He also greatly improved the roads from Leon to Gascony, leading to increased trade coming in from mainland Europe and the greater popularization of the holy site at Santiago.

So, say what you want of the Basques as a minority group, but I have to side with Mark Kurlansky's biased views of the Basques in that Spanish customs and Iberian Catholicism would not exist as they are without the Basques, among other things.

Basque fishermen were fishing and whaling off New England and Canada from around 1500 up through the early 18thC. In his excellent book "Cod", Mark Kurlansky mentions a Mayflower log entry noting the presence of Basque fishing ships off Plymouth Rock. Yet, their story is rarely told. (For more on that check out Kurlanky's book "The Basque History of the World"

Speaking of Plymouth Rock, none of the original Plymouth Pilgrims made any mention of the rock at all. It was first mentioned in 1715 and wasn't named until 1741; 121 years after the 1620 Mayflower landing.

Mark Kurlansky (author of Salt: A World History) wrote a fascinating book about Basque history and culture. I definitely recommend it:

The Basque History of the World: The Story of a Nation

The tomato is a new world vegetable.
All of the usual foods you think of as Italian weren't Italian until post-Columbus exchange.

Source:the Basque people were the first importers of tomatos, tobacco, etc. etc. etc.

You forget Basque fishermen. Here you go.