ErikStenger
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There is evidence of human habitation in Gibraltar going as far back as Neanderthal man, an extinct species of the genus Homo. Within recorded history, the first inhabitants were the Phoenicians, around 950 BC. Subsequently, Gibraltar became known as one of the Pillars of Hercules, after the Greek legend of the creation of the Strait of Gibraltar. The Carthaginians and Romans also established semi-permanent settlements.
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Gibraltar came briefly under the control of the Vandals. The area later formed part of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania until the Kingdom's collapse due to the Muslim conquest in 711 AD.
The Moorish period
On 30 April 711, the Umayyad general Tariq ibn Ziyad led a Berber-dominated army across the Strait from Ceuta. He first attempted to land at Algeciras but failed. Subsequently, he landed undetected at the southern point of the Rock from present-day Morocco. However, the first four centuries of Moorish control brought little development.
The Almohad Sultan Abd al-Mu'min built the first permanent settlement in the 1150s. He ordered the construction of a fortification on the Rock, the remains of which are still present in the form of the Moorish Castle. Gibraltar would later become part of the Kingdom of Granada until 1309, when Castillian troops briefly occupied it. In 1333, the Marinids, who had invaded Muslim Spain, conquered it, but ceded Gibraltar to the Kingdom of Granada in 1374. Finally, the Duke of Medina Sidonia reconquered it in 1462, finally ending 750 years of Moorish control.
The Spanish period
Medina Sidonia initially granted Gibraltar sovereignty as a home to a population of exiled Sephardic Jews. Pedro de Herrera, a Jewish converso from Córdoba who had led the conquest of Gibraltar, led a group of 4,350 Jews from Córdoba and Seville to establish themselves in the town. A community was built and a garrison established to defend the peninsula. However, this lasted only three years. In 1476, the Duke of Medina Sidonia realigned with the Spanish Crown; the Sefardim were then forced back to Córdoba and the Spanish Inquisition. In 1501 Gibraltar passed under the hands of the Spanish Crown, which had been established in 1479. In 1501, in Toledo, Isabella of Castile issued a Royal Warrant granting Gibraltar the coat of arms that it still uses today.
The Battle of Gibraltar, 25 April 1607.
The naval Battle of Gibraltar took place on 25 April 1607 during the Eighty Years' War when a Dutch fleet surprised and engaged a Spanish fleet anchored at the Bay of Gibraltar. During the four-hour action, the entire Spanish fleet was destroyed.
The British period
During the War of the Spanish Succession, British and Dutch troops, allies of Archduke Charles, the Austrian pretender to the Spanish Crown, formed a joint fleet and attacked various towns on the southern coast of Spain. On 4 August 1704, after six hours of bombardment starting at 5:00 am, the fleet, under the command of Admiral Sir George Rooke, assisted by Field Marshal Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt, comprising some 1800 Dutch and British marines, captured the town of Gibraltar and claimed it in the name of the Archduke Charles. Terms of surrender were agreed upon, after which most of the population chose to leave Gibraltar peacefully.
Franco-Spanish troops failed to retake the town. The 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, which ended the war, awarded Britain sovereignty over Gibraltar. In this treaty, Spain ceded Gibraltar (Article X) and Minorca (Article XI) to the United Kingdom in perpetuity. Great Britain has retained sovereignty over Gibraltar, though not Minorca, ever since, despite attempts by Spain to recapture it.
Due to military incursions by Spain various fortifications were established and occupied by British troops in the area which came to be known as "the British Neutral Ground". This was the area to the north of the city wall, militarily conquered and continuously occupied by the British except during time of war. (The sovereignty of this area, which today contains the airport, cemetery, a number of housing estates and the sports centre, is separately disputed by Spain.)
Great Siege of Gibraltar, 13 September 1782.
During the American Revolution, the Spanish, who had entered the conflict against the British, imposed a stringent blockade against Gibraltar as part of an unsuccessful siege (the Great Siege of Gibraltar) that lasted for more than three years, from 1779 to 1783. On 14 September 1782, the British destroyed the floating batteries of the French and Spanish besiegers, and in February 1783 the signing of peace preliminaries ended the siege.
Gibraltar subsequently became an important naval base for the Royal Navy and played an important part in the Battle of Trafalgar. Its strategic value increased with the opening of the Suez Canal, as it controlled the important sea route between the UK and colonies such as India and Australia.
World War II
During World War II, the British evacuated the Gibraltar's civilian residents and turned the Rock into a fortress. They also converted the civilian golf course into an airfield. Spain's reluctance to allow the German Army onto Spanish soil frustrated a German plan to capture the Rock, codenamed Operation Felix, later named Llona. Germany's Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Abwehr, secretly opposed Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, and filed a pointedly negative assessment of the options. Hitler sent Canaris to negotiate with Franco, but, according to some sources, he privately told Franco it would be foolish for him to join or cooperate with the Axis.[10] Franco subsequently made exorbitant demands for his cooperation, and erected concrete barriers on roads leading to the Pyrenees.
General Władysław Sikorski, who led Poland’s government in exile during World War II, died on 4 July 1943, when the British bomber he was in crashed into the sea after taking off from Gibraltar.
Recent history
In the 1950s, Spain, under the dictatorship of Franco, renewed its claim to sovereignty over Gibraltar, sparked in part by the visit of Queen Elizabeth II in 1954 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Rock's capture. For the next thirty years, Spain restricted movement between Gibraltar and Spain, in application of one of the articles of the Treaty. Gibraltar's first sovereignty referendum was held on 10 September 1967, in which Gibraltar's voters were asked whether they wished either to pass under Spanish sovereignty, or remain under British sovereignty, with institutions of self-government. The vote was overwhelmingly in favour of continuance of British sovereignty, with 12,138 to 44 voting to reject Spanish sovereignty. This led to the passing of the Gibraltar Constitution Order, granting autonomy in May 1969, which the Government of Spain strongly opposed. In response, in June Spain completely closed the border with Gibraltar and severed all communication links.
View of the frontier from the Spanish side.
In 1981 it was announced that the honeymoon for the royal wedding between Prince Charles and Diana Spencer would start from Gibraltar. The Spanish Government responded that King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia had declined their invitation to the ceremony as an act of protest.
The border with Spain was partially reopened in 1982, and fully reopened in 1985 prior to Spain's accession into the European Community. Joint talks on the future of The Rock held between Spain and the United Kingdom have occurred since the late 1980s under the Brussels Agreement.
In July 2002 proposals for joint sovereignty with Spain were revealed by Jack Straw. A second sovereignty referendum was organised in Gibraltar in November 2002, which rejected any idea of joint sovereignty by 17,900 (98.97%) votes to 187 (1.03%). The British Government restated that, in accordance with the preamble of the Constitution of Gibraltar:
"The UK will never enter into arrangements under which the people of Gibraltar would pass under the sovereignty of another state against their freely and democratically expressed wishes.â€ÂÂ
"La Cuestión de Gibraltar" (Spanish: "The Question of Gibraltar"
, as it is termed by Spain, continues to affect Spain–United Kingdom relations.
September 2006 saw representatives of the United Kingdom, Gibraltar and Spain conclude talks in Córdoba, Spain, with a landmark agreement on a range of issues affecting the Rock and the Campo de Gibraltar removing some of the restrictions imposed by Spain. This agreement resolved a number of longstanding problems; improved flow of traffic at the frontier, use of the airport, recognition of the +350 telephone code and the settlement of the long-running dispute regarding the pensions of former Spanish workers in Gibraltar who lost their jobs when Spain closed its border in 1969.
The Trilateral process is ongoing, and the British Government now states as policy that it will not enter into talks about sovereignty with Spain without the consent of the Government and people of the territory.
In December 2008, Gibraltar won its EU case on regional selectivity providing for a new tax system. A public holiday in January 2009 was announced to celebrate this milestone.
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Gibraltar came briefly under the control of the Vandals. The area later formed part of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania until the Kingdom's collapse due to the Muslim conquest in 711 AD.
The Moorish period
On 30 April 711, the Umayyad general Tariq ibn Ziyad led a Berber-dominated army across the Strait from Ceuta. He first attempted to land at Algeciras but failed. Subsequently, he landed undetected at the southern point of the Rock from present-day Morocco. However, the first four centuries of Moorish control brought little development.
The Almohad Sultan Abd al-Mu'min built the first permanent settlement in the 1150s. He ordered the construction of a fortification on the Rock, the remains of which are still present in the form of the Moorish Castle. Gibraltar would later become part of the Kingdom of Granada until 1309, when Castillian troops briefly occupied it. In 1333, the Marinids, who had invaded Muslim Spain, conquered it, but ceded Gibraltar to the Kingdom of Granada in 1374. Finally, the Duke of Medina Sidonia reconquered it in 1462, finally ending 750 years of Moorish control.
The Spanish period
Medina Sidonia initially granted Gibraltar sovereignty as a home to a population of exiled Sephardic Jews. Pedro de Herrera, a Jewish converso from Córdoba who had led the conquest of Gibraltar, led a group of 4,350 Jews from Córdoba and Seville to establish themselves in the town. A community was built and a garrison established to defend the peninsula. However, this lasted only three years. In 1476, the Duke of Medina Sidonia realigned with the Spanish Crown; the Sefardim were then forced back to Córdoba and the Spanish Inquisition. In 1501 Gibraltar passed under the hands of the Spanish Crown, which had been established in 1479. In 1501, in Toledo, Isabella of Castile issued a Royal Warrant granting Gibraltar the coat of arms that it still uses today.
The Battle of Gibraltar, 25 April 1607.
The naval Battle of Gibraltar took place on 25 April 1607 during the Eighty Years' War when a Dutch fleet surprised and engaged a Spanish fleet anchored at the Bay of Gibraltar. During the four-hour action, the entire Spanish fleet was destroyed.
The British period
During the War of the Spanish Succession, British and Dutch troops, allies of Archduke Charles, the Austrian pretender to the Spanish Crown, formed a joint fleet and attacked various towns on the southern coast of Spain. On 4 August 1704, after six hours of bombardment starting at 5:00 am, the fleet, under the command of Admiral Sir George Rooke, assisted by Field Marshal Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt, comprising some 1800 Dutch and British marines, captured the town of Gibraltar and claimed it in the name of the Archduke Charles. Terms of surrender were agreed upon, after which most of the population chose to leave Gibraltar peacefully.
Franco-Spanish troops failed to retake the town. The 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, which ended the war, awarded Britain sovereignty over Gibraltar. In this treaty, Spain ceded Gibraltar (Article X) and Minorca (Article XI) to the United Kingdom in perpetuity. Great Britain has retained sovereignty over Gibraltar, though not Minorca, ever since, despite attempts by Spain to recapture it.
Due to military incursions by Spain various fortifications were established and occupied by British troops in the area which came to be known as "the British Neutral Ground". This was the area to the north of the city wall, militarily conquered and continuously occupied by the British except during time of war. (The sovereignty of this area, which today contains the airport, cemetery, a number of housing estates and the sports centre, is separately disputed by Spain.)
Great Siege of Gibraltar, 13 September 1782.
During the American Revolution, the Spanish, who had entered the conflict against the British, imposed a stringent blockade against Gibraltar as part of an unsuccessful siege (the Great Siege of Gibraltar) that lasted for more than three years, from 1779 to 1783. On 14 September 1782, the British destroyed the floating batteries of the French and Spanish besiegers, and in February 1783 the signing of peace preliminaries ended the siege.
Gibraltar subsequently became an important naval base for the Royal Navy and played an important part in the Battle of Trafalgar. Its strategic value increased with the opening of the Suez Canal, as it controlled the important sea route between the UK and colonies such as India and Australia.
World War II
During World War II, the British evacuated the Gibraltar's civilian residents and turned the Rock into a fortress. They also converted the civilian golf course into an airfield. Spain's reluctance to allow the German Army onto Spanish soil frustrated a German plan to capture the Rock, codenamed Operation Felix, later named Llona. Germany's Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Abwehr, secretly opposed Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, and filed a pointedly negative assessment of the options. Hitler sent Canaris to negotiate with Franco, but, according to some sources, he privately told Franco it would be foolish for him to join or cooperate with the Axis.[10] Franco subsequently made exorbitant demands for his cooperation, and erected concrete barriers on roads leading to the Pyrenees.
General Władysław Sikorski, who led Poland’s government in exile during World War II, died on 4 July 1943, when the British bomber he was in crashed into the sea after taking off from Gibraltar.
Recent history
In the 1950s, Spain, under the dictatorship of Franco, renewed its claim to sovereignty over Gibraltar, sparked in part by the visit of Queen Elizabeth II in 1954 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Rock's capture. For the next thirty years, Spain restricted movement between Gibraltar and Spain, in application of one of the articles of the Treaty. Gibraltar's first sovereignty referendum was held on 10 September 1967, in which Gibraltar's voters were asked whether they wished either to pass under Spanish sovereignty, or remain under British sovereignty, with institutions of self-government. The vote was overwhelmingly in favour of continuance of British sovereignty, with 12,138 to 44 voting to reject Spanish sovereignty. This led to the passing of the Gibraltar Constitution Order, granting autonomy in May 1969, which the Government of Spain strongly opposed. In response, in June Spain completely closed the border with Gibraltar and severed all communication links.
View of the frontier from the Spanish side.
In 1981 it was announced that the honeymoon for the royal wedding between Prince Charles and Diana Spencer would start from Gibraltar. The Spanish Government responded that King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia had declined their invitation to the ceremony as an act of protest.
The border with Spain was partially reopened in 1982, and fully reopened in 1985 prior to Spain's accession into the European Community. Joint talks on the future of The Rock held between Spain and the United Kingdom have occurred since the late 1980s under the Brussels Agreement.
In July 2002 proposals for joint sovereignty with Spain were revealed by Jack Straw. A second sovereignty referendum was organised in Gibraltar in November 2002, which rejected any idea of joint sovereignty by 17,900 (98.97%) votes to 187 (1.03%). The British Government restated that, in accordance with the preamble of the Constitution of Gibraltar:
"The UK will never enter into arrangements under which the people of Gibraltar would pass under the sovereignty of another state against their freely and democratically expressed wishes.â€ÂÂ
"La Cuestión de Gibraltar" (Spanish: "The Question of Gibraltar"
, as it is termed by Spain, continues to affect Spain–United Kingdom relations.September 2006 saw representatives of the United Kingdom, Gibraltar and Spain conclude talks in Córdoba, Spain, with a landmark agreement on a range of issues affecting the Rock and the Campo de Gibraltar removing some of the restrictions imposed by Spain. This agreement resolved a number of longstanding problems; improved flow of traffic at the frontier, use of the airport, recognition of the +350 telephone code and the settlement of the long-running dispute regarding the pensions of former Spanish workers in Gibraltar who lost their jobs when Spain closed its border in 1969.
The Trilateral process is ongoing, and the British Government now states as policy that it will not enter into talks about sovereignty with Spain without the consent of the Government and people of the territory.
In December 2008, Gibraltar won its EU case on regional selectivity providing for a new tax system. A public holiday in January 2009 was announced to celebrate this milestone.