Around The World

Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a self-governing British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula and Europe at the entrance of the Mediterranean overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar. The territory covers 6.843 square kilometres (2.642 sq mi) and shares a land border with Spain to the north. Gibraltar has historically been an important base for the British Armed Forces and is the site of a Royal Navy base.
According to the Jane’s Country Risk Ratings 2008, which measures the stability of 235 countries, territories and political entities in the world, Gibraltar is the 5th most stable territory worldwide, and the highest ranked British territory. The ratings are based on five fundamental categories: political, social, economic, external and military and security.
The sovereignty of Gibraltar has been a major point of contention in Anglo-Spanish relations. Gibraltar was ceded by Spain to the Crown of Great Britain in perpetuity, under the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, though Spain asserts a claim to the territory and seeks its return. The overwhelming majority of Gibraltarians strongly oppose this, along with any proposal of shared sovereignty. The British government has stated that it is committed to respecting the Gibraltarians’ wishes.

History

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 from the Muslim conquest in 711 AD.

The British period

During the War of the Spanish Succession, English 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 marines and the English Royal Marines, captured the town of Gibraltar and claimed it in the name of the Archduke Charles. The terms of surrender provided certain assurances but commanders lost control, drunken sailors and marines engaged in rape and pillaged the town, desecrating most Catholic churches, whilst townspeople carried out reprisal killings. By 7 August 1704, after order was restored, almost all the population felt that staying in Gibraltar was too dangerous and departed.
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..
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. The signing of peace preliminaries in February 1783 ended the siege. Gibraltar subsequently became a key base for the Royal Navy, first playing an important part prior to the Battle of Trafalgar. Its strategic value increased with the opening of the Suez Canal as it controlled the sea route between the UK and its colonies and Dominions east of Suez, such as India and Australia.

Spanish Civil War

After Britain recognised the Franco regime in 1938,[citation needed] Gibraltar had two Spanish Consulates, a Republican one and a Nationalistic one. During the Spanish Civil War there were several incidents that touched Gibraltar. In May 1937, HMS Arethusa had to tow HMS Hunter into port after Hunter hit a mine off Almeria that killed and wounded several British sailors. In June 1937, the German pocket battleship Deutschland arrived in Gibraltar with dead and wounded after Republican planes bombed it in Ibiza in retaliation for the Condor Legion’s bombing of Guernica. In August 1938, the Republican destroyer Jose Luis Diez took refuge in Gibraltar after taking casualties from the guns of the National cruiser Canarias. The one incident that resulted in the death of Gibraltarians occurred in January 1938 when a submarine of unknown origin, though probably Italian, sank the SS Endymion, a small freighter taking a cargo of coal to Cartagena, which was in Republican hands.

World War II

During World War II, the British evacuated Gibraltar’s women and children and turned the Rock into a fortress. They also converted the civilian race 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, Canaris privately told Franco it would be foolish for him to join or cooperate with the Axis. Franco subsequently made exorbitant demands for his cooperation, and erected concrete barriers on roads leading to the Pyrenees.
General Wladyslaw 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 (when Spain was under the dictatorship of Franco), 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.
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.