The Basque Country was one of the main arms supply centers for the Spanish monarchy from the late Middle Ages. During the time of the Catholic Monarchs, alongside bladed weapons, armor, and other defensive instruments, the first firearms began to appear in the orders that the crown formalized with Basque artisans. This connection Basque armory and military demand grew in subsequent centuries, such that the characteristics of its production were determined by the changes taking place in military tactics and troop equipment. The stagnation of the Spanish military structure, which remained tied to the structure of the tercios (thirds) at the end of the 17th century, conditioned the technical capacity of Basque armorers, who had to make great efforts to adapt to the new weapons models introduced by the Bourbon dynasty at the beginning of the 18th century.
Despite the delay in incorporating technical innovations into Spanish military armament, the development of the private arms manufacturing industry during the 19th century allowed the sector to stay abreast of these advances. This private production was primarily responsible for the sector's expansion in the final years of the century, with the predominant sale of cheap versions of foreign models of handguns.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the automatic pistol was incorporated into Basque gun production. The Eibar-type pistols, a simplified and inexpensive version of the Browning models, enjoyed their greatest splendor during the First World War. However, not all pistols and revolvers manufactured by Basque gunsmiths were of low quality, as the service weapons they made also enjoyed great prestige. The same could be said of Basque machine pistols, which, being imitations of the Mauser , improved the original model and competed in the Asian market the wars. This century also witnessed efforts by some companies to expand their product range with machine guns, submachine guns, and mortars.