So, today, the United Kingdom retains only a scattered handful of the lands that once made up
its vast Empire. But there is one British Overseas Territory that stands apart from the rest,
because rather than being some far-flung island, it's actually quite close to the UK,
and even more strangely it was once an integral part of one of Britain’s oldest imperial rivals.
So then, how did the British get their hands on the tiny territory of Gibraltar, and why,
despite the end of the British Empire, has it never, once again, been made a part of Spain?
Well, Spanish rule in Gibraltar was actually relatively short, it only lasted for about 250
years, compared to over 300 for Britain, and around seven centuries of rule by a variety
of Muslim kingdoms, collectively called Al-Andalus. It's actually from the Muslims,
specifically from a Berber commander, Tariq ibn Ziyad, that Gibraltar gets it name; Jebal Tariq
or the “mountain of Tariq” as it was called by the Muslim conquerers, over time, became Gibraltar.
Though Muslim rule over the Iberian Peninsula obviously didn’t last forever, and by 1492,
after a few centuries of reconquista-ing by Iberian Christians, the last of the Muslim states,
the Emirate of Granada, was destroyed, and Iberia was split between four different Christian
kingdoms: Portugal, Aragon, Navarre and Castile, which since 1462 had control over Gibraltar.
Not all of those kingdoms were completely distinct though. The rulers of Castile and Aragon, Isabella
I and Ferdinand II, the Catholic Monarchs, were married which meant that after Aragon
conquered all but the northernmost part of Navarre in the early 1500’s, modern
Spain was united, even if the kingdoms wouldn’t technically be joined until the 18th century.
Around the same time, in fact, that England seized Gibraltar. You see, in 1700 King Charles
II of Spain, who was left infertile and disabled as a result of generations of inbreeding within
his dynasty, the house of Habsburg, died which kicked off the War of the Spanish Succession.
Charles II left the entire Spanish Empire, which included not only Spain itself, but also Sardinia,
Sicily, Naples, and the Duchy of Milan in Italy, as well as the Spanish Netherlands,
not to mention the Philippines and Spain’s enormous colonial empire in the Americas,
to Philip, Duke of Anjou; Charles’ grandnephew and the grandson of Louis XIV of France. Which made
possible a calamity, certainly from the points of view of every other European great power;
if the now Philip V of Spain was to at some point inherit the throne of France,
the combined Franco-Spanish monarchy could steamroll anyone else in Europe. And to the
other European’s credit, mostly the English and Dutch, they had seen that possibility coming.
Philip, Duke of Anjou wasn’t the only claimant to the Spanish throne,
Charles II had two other relevant relatives: the six-year-old Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria
and his fellow Habsburg, Archduke Charles of Austria. So, in 1698 Louis XIV’s France came
to an agreement, the First Partition Treaty, with its main rival, England.
As the Bavarians were the weakest of the three claimants, had the treaty been put into effect,
Joseph Ferdinand would have succeeded Charles II in Spain, which would have retained its colonial
empire, but given up most of its European territories to the French and Austrians,
thus maintaining the balance of power in Europe. The only problem?
Joseph Ferdinand died before Charles II. So they tried again and signed the Second
Partition Treaty in the spring of 1700. This one made Archduke Charles the heir, though Spain’s
Italian possessions would be handed over to the French. But Spain never accepted either treaty,
hence why Charles II willed his crown to Philip, and when it came down to it,
Louis XIV didn’t stand by the deal and supported his grandson’s claim to the Spanish throne.
Which brought them to war. The Grand Alliance, composed primarily of England,
the Dutch Republic, and the Austrian Habsburgs, which had fought the French in the Nine Years War,
was re-formed and it declared war on France and Philip V’s Spain to depose him and to prevent
a Franco-Spanish Union. They faced a significant challenge though; most of the Spanish aristocracy,
after a century of misrule by the Habsburgs, were ready to see Philip’s Bourbon dynasty take the
throne, and an alliance with the French. Which is why, in 1704, England attacked from the sea
at Gibraltar; the part of Spain that’s pretty much as far away as you can get from France.
Naturally, the Spanish and French weren’t overly happy about having a Grand Alliance enclave in
their rear, and they did everything in their power to push the English and their Dutch allies
out of Gibraltar. Notably by laying siege, but according to one legend, a Spanish counterattack
was called off after the monkeys that inhabit Gibraltar alerted the defenders to their presence.
That has led to the notion that for as long the Gibraltar macaques remain within the territory,
so too will British rule. And that has, for now, held true. During the War of
the Spanish Succession, the Austrian Holy Roman Emperor died, and then his eldest son
quickly followed suit. That made Archduke Charles the new Emperor, but the prospect of a unified
Habsburg monarchy was just as unappealing to Britain (England had merged with Scotland in 1707)
as a unified France and Spain. With Britain no longer interested in the war,
a stalemate ensued so they and the other powers involved agreed to the Peace of Utrecht and
ended it. Philip V was recognized as King of Spain, on the conditions that he
and his descendants renounce any claim to France, and that he cede Spanish lands in Italy and the
Netherlands to the Austrian Habsburgs and Savoy. Gibraltar was officially handed over to Britain.
Spain definitely still wanted the place though. They besieged it again in 1727,
and again, the Great Siege of Gibraltar, as they fought Britain during the American War
of Independence. And their desire to retake the peninsula came with good reasoning: Gibraltar
proved to be a valuable commercial and military asset to Britain, giving them influence over
both entries and exits to the Mediterranean sea after the completion of the Suez canal in 1869,
and it even served as the headquarters of General Dwight D. Eisenhower during the Allied invasion of
North Africa in 1942. Spain, though, had become a military dictatorship under the command of
Francisco Franco in the 1930’s, and he was rather eager to see Gibraltar return to Spanish control.
That, combined with the post-war era United Nations’ opposition to what it viewed as
colonialism, resulted in a referendum on Gibraltarian sovereignty in 1967.
By over 12,000 votes to just 44, the Gibraltarians overwhelmingly chose to remain British.
Most of the Spaniards had left in 1704 and the Gibraltarian population since then
has largely been made up of immigrants from across the Mediterranean and Britain. In 1969
Gibraltar enacted a Constitution which gave them the right to democratic self-governance
and self-determination, much to Franco’s chagrin.
So he closed the border, and it remained that way until, after Franco’s death,
Spain wanted to join the European Economic Community and needed British support.
The issue wasn’t fully put to bed though, so in 2002 Britain and Spain agreed to share sovereignty
over Gibraltar, but the Gibraltarians, exercising their constitutional right to self-determination,
held another referendum on the topic which rejected the proposal by an insurmountable margin.
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