ABSTRACT

Berber Algerian Muslims first reached Gibraltar in the eighth century, only to give in to the Castilian Spanish in 1309 (although it was not finally reconquered until 1462). Two centuries later British naval ascendancy led strategists to spot Gibraltar-later Malta and Cyprus-as a post through which the United Kingdom (as England and Scotland became in 1707) could maintain maritime communications and hegemony in the Mediterranean. However, the French were interested too and poised to ally with Spain against the British, but, in the run up to the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), France abandoned Spain and gave the green light to the United Kingdom to assume total control of the Rock. This Treaty ceded control of the Rock of Gibraltar and its environs to the United Kingdom in perpetuity. However, the Spanish claimed that the British were in breach of the Treaty, because they allowed other ethnicities, such as Jews, to settle in the city. Gibraltar became a Crown colony in 1830, the year in which the United Kingdom was becoming a guarantor of Greece’s independence in the eastern Mediterranean. Spain never ceased to demand sovereignty over the Rock and, in 1963, under Gen. Francisco Franco, managed to obtain a favourable UN vote in the international organization’s General Assembly. The United Kingdom refused to comply and in 1967 went instead ahead with organizing a referendum in which the overwhelming majority of the population voted in favour of remaining under British sovereignty (only 43 people voted to join Spain, as opposed to 12,137 who opted to remain British). Oddly enough, Spain considers Gibraltar to be Spanish, although it refuses to concede to Morocco the two Spanish enclaves on the northern African coast, Ceuta and Melilla. Morocco’s claims have been ignored and episodes of tension often occur, as in 2002, when a small group of Moroccan soldiers occupied the uninhabited island of Perejil, which is claimed by Spain (there are also other islands or islets claimed by Spain as part of Spanish North Africa, with Ceuta and Melilla, and lying very close to Moroccan coast). The Moroccan soldiers were quickly outnumbered by Spain’s far superior military strength, but tensions remain to the present day, both between Spain and Morocco (Algeria also asserts a claim to the Spanish exclaves) and between Spain and the United Kingdom over the territorial question and other issues, such as fishery rights. Today’s inhabitants of Gibraltar barely exceed 35,000 and often

cross to Spain for entertainment. The United Kingdom is discussing with Spain ways in which the Rock can either become independent or join Spain, although it refuses to discuss surrendering the exclusive use of military and intelligence facilities in Gibraltar, as well as certain privileges concerning navigation and porting rights.