Industrialisation was an important event in the history of the Basque Country, but this neither happened everywhere nor at the same time. Nevertheless, there were some common characteristics. The Industrial Revolution was slow in developing, and began in the middle of the 19th century in Biscay, at the end of the 19th in Gipuzkoa and in the middle of the 20th in Araba and Navarre.
Biscay began to develop rapidly with the incorporation of foreign capital, expansion of the ports, expansion of a new banking network and a new infrastructure with the expansion of the railway. The first modern iron factory in the Basque Country, Santa Ana de Bolueta, S.A. was founded in 1841 and by 1859 there was an Altos Hornos in Barakaldo, and almost immediately the whole Bilbao zone was industrialised. By 1870, Biscay was Europe’s biggest exporter of iron-ore. The iron exports and railway companies also made certain members of the Biscayan industrial bourgeoisie very rich and powerful. This stimulated mercantile activity and the end of the century saw the creation of important shipyards in Sestao (Astilleros de Sestao, Euskalduna de Construcción y Reparación de Buques) and in 1902 the creation of Altos Hornos de Vizcaya, a large and important steelworks. Up to the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th, many people from other Basque lands and other Spanish territories moved to the major industrial areas of Biscay.
In Gipuzkoa, industrialisation developed differently. There were some iron-based industries, but other related industries also appeared in different areas of Gipuzkoa. Although most of the industries were created from the end of 19th century, some industries were founded in the middle of the 19th century – such as the textile industries of Bergara –1846 Algodonera San Antonio, the paper factories near Oria-1841 La Esperanza in Tolosa, and – Fábrica de Trenes San Martín in Beasain in 1860, the predecessor of CAF (Compañía Auxiliar de Ferrocarril). In the 20th century, La Papelera Española (1902) was founded in Errenteria. In 1906 the Unión Cerrajera in Arrasate was founded, and in 1920 Alfa to make sewing machines. These factories were generally quite small, created with local capital and the workers were from Gipuzkoa.
In Araba and Navarre, and particularly in the Northern Basque Country, industrialisation didn’t begin until middle of the 20th. The exception was the iron ore Forge de l’Adour founded in Bayonne in 1884, that used iron from Biscay and English coke.