It is generally believed that Freemasonry has its roots in the English and Scottish construction companies of the late Middle Ages. The current organizational form emerged in England around 1715. Since then we have more documentation and the historical development is better defined.
Origin and development. The English term Freemason refers to the stonemason. The origin of the term ‘Freemason’ is uncertain. The word could be derived from ‘free stone’, a high quality limestone mostly used for fine sculpting. The term ‘Freemason’ in this case, derives from the term ‘freestone mason’. element 'free' in the name could also refer to the craftsman who had completed his contractual time as an apprentice and subsequently was ‘free’ to work as journeyman or for another master. He thus became a ‘free mason’, a free stonemason. The Dutch term ‘vrije metselaar’ (‘free mason’) is based on this second explanation.
Operative and speculative
In old English and Scottish manuscripts, including the Regius and Cooke Manuscript of the fourteenth century, customs and rules for builders were defined. In the halls - lodges - at large building sites, often cathedrals, apprentices were trained by craftsmen under the supervision of a Master Mason. They sometimes lived and worked together for many years.
They not only discussed the technical side of the work, but also the spiritual background. The lodge was not only a place of practical learning, but also a community, with a highly developed system of norms and values. Because the craftsmen journeyed from one building site to another, some means of recognition was required signs, grips and passwords were used for recognition and acknowledgement. This code of conduct, shows the private nature of the building corporations that served to protect the craftsmen from imposters.
Around 1450 the Gothic period, with its impressive buildings, was nearing its end. The Renaissance brought forth a class of erudite architects, who were not only building engineers, but who also had scientific, philosophical and spiritual qualities. (Civil)Wars and the Reformation put an end to spiritually inspired building activities, but the lodges remained, albeit in a changing form. The purely operative, artisan, Freemasonry changed into a speculative , reflective, Freemasonry. The number of operative Freemasons per lodge decreased to the advantage of the number of speculative members, often scientists and philosophers. They joined the lodges in growing numbers, because they constituted safe havens, for those eager to escape the political and religious coercion of the times..
Old Charges
1717 is considered to be the starting point of organized modern Freemasonry. On the 24th June, Saint Johns Day (patron saint of builders), four Lodges in London formed a Grand Lodge. 
In 1723, the new Masonic spirit was expressed in a ‘Constitution Book’, drawn up by the Scottish minister James Anderson. This contained an adaptation of the ‘Old Charges’ (the old duties), as they used to apply to the members of the building corporations. They formed, and still form, the main part of the oldest Masonic Code, in which, the moral duties of Freemasons to each other as well as the organization of proceedings are written down.
Persecution and growth
During the eighteenth century, Freemasonry spread from Britain to large parts of Europe, America and the rest of the world. Outside Britain, individual lodges were first formed, then later united into orders. Most countries developed a masonic character of their own. For example, the Anglo-Saxon lodges were often of a socially broad spectrum, but on the continent the influence of the elite was clearly predominant.
There were also excesses and divisions as well as imitators and fake organisations. In the eighteenth century, the Freemasons idea of Enlightenment resulted in papal condemnation and bans, which in some countries, particularly the Latin countries, led to anticlerical, and later to anti-religious, reactions.
However, in the latter half of the twentieth century, the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and Freemasonry has been favourably changed. 
Totalitarian, both left and right wing systems, have always considered Freemasons as a threat. Which is why Freemasonry was banned and persecuted in Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and Spain.
After the Second World War, the bans were continued by the communists countries like Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia and East Germany.
This, in spite of a large increase in the number of Freemasons, in the free world, reaching about six million in the beginning of the seventies. The United States were the leaders, with more than four million members, followed by Great Britain with over one million members and over a quarter of a million in Canada. It is worth mentioning that Freemasonry, which was strictly forbidden in Spain under the Franco regime, is now permitted again. Several dozen lodges are active in Spain, as in Portugal after the Salazar regime. In Central and Eastern Europe Masonic activities have resumed in most countries after decades of oppression