History of Gibraltar

The history of Gibraltar, a small peninsula on the southern Iberian coast near the entrance of the Mediterranean Sea, spans over 2,900 years. The peninsula has evolved from a place of reverence in ancient times into "one of the most densely fortified and fought-over places in Europe",Rose, p. 95. as one historian has put it. Gibraltar's location has given it an outsized significance in the history of Europe and its fortified town, established in the Middle Ages, has hosted garrisons that sustained numerous sieges and battles over the centuries.

Gibraltar was first inhabited over 50,000 years ago by Neanderthals and may have been one of their last places of habitation before they died out around 24,000 years ago. Gibraltar's recorded history began around 950 BC with the Phoenicians, who lived nearby. The Carthaginians and Romans later worshipped Hercules in shrines said to have been built on the Rock of Gibraltar, which they called ''Mons Calpe'', the "Hollow Mountain", and which they regarded as one of the twin Pillars of Hercules.

Gibraltar became part of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania following the collapse of the Roman Empire and came under Muslim Moorish rule in 711 AD. It was permanently settled for the first time by the Moors and was renamed ''Jebel Tariq'' – the Mount of Tariq, later corrupted into ''Gibraltar''. The Christian Crown of Castile annexed it in 1309, lost it again to the Moors in 1333 and finally regained it in 1462. Gibraltar became part of the unified Kingdom of Spain and remained under Spanish rule until 1704. It was captured during the War of the Spanish Succession by an Anglo-Dutch fleet in the name of Charles VI of Austria, the Habsburg contender to the Spanish throne. At the war's end, Spain ceded the territory to Britain under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713.

Spain tried to regain control of Gibraltar, which Britain had declared a Crown colony, through military, diplomatic and economic pressure. Gibraltar was besieged and heavily bombarded during three wars between Britain and Spain but the attacks were repulsed on each occasion. By the end of the last siege, in the late 18th century, Gibraltar had faced fourteen sieges in 500 years. In the years after Trafalgar, Gibraltar became a major base in the Peninsular War. The colony grew rapidly during the 19th and early 20th centuries, becoming a key British possession in the Mediterranean. It was a key stopping point for vessels en route to India via the Suez Canal. A large British naval base was constructed there at great expense at the end of the 19th century and became the backbone of Gibraltar's economy.

British control of Gibraltar enabled the Allies to control the entrance to the Mediterranean during the Second World War. It was attacked on several occasions by German, Italian and Vichy French forces, though without causing much damage. The Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco declined to join a Nazi plan to occupy Gibraltar but revived Spain's claim to the territory after the war. As the territorial dispute intensified, Spain closed its border with Gibraltar between 1969 and 1985 and communications links were severed. Spain's position was supported by Latin American countries but was rejected by Britain and the Gibraltarians themselves, who vigorously asserted their right to self-determination. Discussions of Gibraltar's status have continued between Britain and Spain but have not reached any conclusion.

Since 1985, Gibraltar has undergone major changes as a result of reductions in Britain's overseas defence commitments. Most British forces have left the territory, which is no longer seen as a place of major military importance. Its economy is now based on tourism, financial services, shipping and Internet gambling. Gibraltar is largely self-governed, with its own parliament and government, though the UK maintains responsibility for defence and foreign policy. Its economic success had made it one of the wealthiest areas of the European Union.

Geographical background

The history of Gibraltar has been driven by its strategic position near the entrance of the Mediterranean Sea. It is a narrow peninsula at the eastern side of the Bay of Gibraltar, from the city of Algeciras. Gibraltar is on the far south coast of Spain at one of the narrowest points in the Mediterranean, only from the coast of Morocco in North Africa. Its position on the bay makes it an advantageous natural anchorage for ships. As one writer has put it, "whoever controls Gibraltar also controls the movement of ships into and out of the Mediterranean. In terms of military and naval power, few places have a more strategic location than Gibraltar."

The territory's area measures only . Most of the land area is occupied by the steeply sloping Rock of Gibraltar, which reaches a height of . The town of Gibraltar lies at the base of the Rock on the west side of the peninsula. A narrow, low-lying isthmus connects the peninsula to the Spanish mainland. The North Face of the Rock is a nearly vertical cliff high overlooking the isthmus; the only land access to the town is via a coastal strip about wide, which was considerably narrower before the reclamation of land from the sea during the 20th century. Dennis, pp. 7–8.

Gibraltar's geography has thus given it considerable natural defensive advantages. It is virtually impossible to scale the eastern or northern sides of the Rock, which are either vertical or nearly so. To the south, the relatively flat area around Europa Point is surrounded by cliffs that are up to high. The western side is the only practicable area for a landing, but even here the steep slopes on which the town is built work to the advantage of a defender. These factors have given it an enormous military significance over the centuries.

Prehistory and ancient history

Gibraltar's appearance in prehistory was very different. Whereas today it is surrounded by sea, the water level was much lower in prehistoric times, when the polar ice caps were larger. The current peninsula was surrounded by a fertile coastal plain, with marshes and sand dunes supporting an abundant variety of animals and plants.

Neanderthals are known to have lived in caves around the Rock of Gibraltar; in 1848 the first known adult Neanderthal skull, and only the second Neanderthal fossil ever found, was excavated at Forbes' Quarry on the north face of the Rock. Had the skull been recognised for what it was, the species might have been named Gibraltarians rather than Neanderthals. The date of the skull is unclear but it has been attributed to around the start of the last glacial period about 50,000 years ago.

More Neanderthal remains have been found elsewhere on the Rock at Devil's Tower and in Ibex, Vanguard and Gorham's Caves on the east side of Gibraltar. Excavations in Gorham's Cave have found evidence of Neanderthal occupation dated as recently as 28,000–24,000 years ago, well after they were believed to have died out elsewhere in Europe. The caves of Gibraltar continued to be used by ''Homo sapiens'' after the final extinction of the Neanderthals. Stone tools, ancient hearths and animal bones dating from around 40,000 years ago to about 5,000 years ago have been found in deposits left in Gorham's Cave.Stringer, p. 48. Numerous potsherds dating from the Neolithic period have been found in Gibraltar's caves, mostly of types typical of the Almerian culture found elsewhere in Andalusia, especially around the town of Almería, from which it takes its name. There is little evidence of habitation in the Bronze Age, when people had largely abandoned the tradition of living in caves.

During ancient times, Gibraltar was regarded by the peoples of the Mediterranean as a place of religious and symbolic importance. The Phoenicians were present for several centuries, apparently using Gorham's Cave as a shrine to the '' genius loci'' of the place, as did the Carthaginians and Romans after them. Excavations in the cave have shown that pottery, jewellery and Egyptian scarabs were left as offerings to the gods, probably in the hope of securing safe passage through the dangerous waters of the Strait of Gibraltar.

The Rock was revered by the Greeks and Romans as one of the two Pillars of Hercules, created by the demigod during his tenth labour when he smashed through a mountain separating the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. According to a Phocaean Greek traveller who visited in the sixth century BC, there were temples and altars to Hercules on the Rock where passing travellers made sacrifices.Hills, p. 14. The Spanish later symbolised the importance of the Pillars of Hercules with a heraldic device consisting of a pair of columns with a scroll wrapped around them – a symbol that became the $ sign and the related Portuguese '' cifrão'' ().

To the Ancient Romans, Gibraltar was known as ''Mons Calpe'', a name perhaps derived from the Phoenician word ''kalph'', "hollowed out", presumably in reference to the many limestone caves in the Rock.Hills, p. 13. It was well known to ancient geographers, but there is no known archaeological evidence of permanent settlements from the ancient period. According to the Roman writer Avienius, the ancient Greek traveller Euctemon recorded that

There were more mundane reasons not to settle, as Gibraltar had many disadvantages that were to hinder later settlers. It lacked easily accessible fresh water, fertile soil or a safe natural anchorage on the shoreline. Avienus cited the "shallow draft and dense mud of the shore" as reasons not to land there. Its geographical location, which later became its key strategic asset, was not a significant factor during the Classical period as the entrance to the Mediterranean was not contested by the states of the day.Jackson, p. 22.

For these reasons the ancients instead settled at the head of the bay in what is today known as the ''Campo'' (hinterland) of Gibraltar. The town of Carteia, near the location of the modern Spanish town of San Roque, was founded by the Phoenicians around 950 BC on the site of an early settlement of the native Turdetani people. The Carthaginians took control of the town by 228 BC and it was captured by the Romans in 206 BC. It subsequently became Pompey's western base in his campaign of 67 BC against the pirates that menaced the Mediterranean Sea at the time. Carteia appears to have been abandoned after the Vandals sacked it in 409 AD during their march through Roman Hispania to Africa. The region subsequently fell under the rule of the Christianised Visigoths.

Moorish rule (711–1309, 1333–1462)

By 681 the armies of the Umayyad Caliphate had expanded from their original homeland of Arabia to conquer North Africa, the Middle East and large parts of West Asia, bringing Islam in their wake and converting local peoples to the new religion. The Berbers of North Africa, called Moors by the Christians, thereby became Muslims. The Strait of Gibraltar became the frontier between Muslim North Africa and Christian Hispania and thus gained a new strategic significance. Hispania descended into civil war in the 8th century as rival Visigothic factions fought for control of the throne. This gave the Moors the opportunity to invade Hispania and pursue a course of dividing-and-conquering the Christian factions.Hills, p. 30.Jackson, pp. 21–25.

Following a raid in 710, a predominately Berber army under the command of Tariq ibn Ziyad crossed from North Africa in April 711 and landed somewhere in the vicinity of Gibraltar (though most likely not in the bay or at the Rock itself). Although Tariq's expedition was an outstanding success and led to the Islamic conquest of most of the Iberian peninsula, he ended his career in disgrace after falling out with the Arab general Musa bin Nusayr. His conquest nonetheless left a long-lasting legacy for Gibraltar: ''Mons Calpe'' was renamed ''Jebel Tariq'', the Mount of Tariq, subsequently corrupted into ''Gibraltar''.

Gibraltar was fortified for the first time in 1160 by the Almohad Sultan Abd al-Mu'min in response to the coastal threat posed by the Christian kings of Aragon and Castile. Gibraltar was renamed ''Jebel al-Fath'' (the Mount of Victory), though this name did not persist, and a fortified town named ''Medinat al-Fath'' (the City of Victory) was laid out on the upper slopes of the Rock. It is unclear how much of Medinat al-Fath was actually built, as the surviving archaeological remains are scanty.

In the late thirteen and early fourteenth centuries the Crown of Castile fought with the Marinids of Morocco and the Nasrids of Granada for control of the Strait of Gibraltar. This conflict ( es, link=no, la Cuestión del Estrecho) is a major chapter in the history of the Christian reconquest of Spain. Although no documentary account of Gibraltar is available for the period following the creation of Madinat al-Fath, there are reasons to believe that a small fortified town existed in Gibraltar, and that its existence was the direct consequence of the fall of Tarifa in 1292. After the capture of the city, it was expected that the Castilian king Sancho IV would lay siege to Algeciras (though in the event, he did not do so) to hinder the Marinids' communications with the Iberian peninsula. The threatening presence of a Christian stronghold to the west would have made it necessary to set up a garrison to the east of Algeciras. That way, Gibraltar would protect the rearguard of Algeciras and provided a fallback position if the town fell. At the same time, the heights of the Rock of Gibraltar provided an excellent vantage point for monitoring the activities of the Christian fleets in the Straits.

It was not until 1309 when Gibraltar's defences were put to the test for the first time in the First Siege of Gibraltar. That year Ferdinand IV of Castile and James II of Aragon joined forces to attack the Muslim Emirate of Granada, targeting Almería in the east and Algeciras, across the bay from Gibraltar, in the west. In July 1309 the Castilians laid siege to both Algeciras and Gibraltar. By this time the latter had a modest population of around 1,200 people, a castle and rudimentary fortifications. They proved unequal to the task of keeping out the Castilians and Gibraltar's Nasrid defenders surrendered after a month. Ferdinand gave up the siege of Algeciras the following February but held on to Gibraltar, expelling the Moors and repopulating it with Christians. A keep and dockyard were built on his orders to secure Castile's hold on the peninsula. Ferdinand also issued a letters patent granting privileges to the inhabitants to encourage people to settle, as it was initially not regarded as a particularly hospitable place to live.

In 1315 the Nasrid Moors of Granada attempted to recapture Gibraltar but abandoned a brief siege when a Castilian relief force appeared. Eighteen years later, the Nasrid Sultan of Granada, Muhammed and the Marinid Sultan of Fez, Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Othman, united to besiege Gibraltar with a large army and naval force. This time the king of Castile, Alfonso XI, was unable to raise a relief force for several months because of the threat of rebellions within his kingdom. The relief force eventually arrived in June 1333 but found that the starving inhabitants of Gibraltar had already surrendered to the Moors of Fez. The Castilians now found themselves having to besiege an entrenched enemy, but they were unable to break through the Moorish defences and, faced with a stalemate, the two sides agreed to disengage in exchange for mutual concessions and a four-year truce.

Abu al-Hasan refortified Gibraltar with what the Arab chroniclers called "strong walls as a halo surrounds a crescent moon" in anticipation of renewed war, which duly broke out in 1339. However, his forces suffered a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Río Salado in October 1340 and fell back to Algeciras. The Castilians besieged the city for two years and eventually forced its surrender, though Gibraltar remained in Moorish hands. The peninsula's defences had been greatly improved by Abu al-Hasan's construction of new walls, towers, magazines and a citadel, making its capture a much more difficult endeavour. Alfonso XI once again laid siege in 1349 following the death of Abu al-Hasan but was thwarted by the arrival of the Black Death in 1350, which killed many of his soldiers and claimed his own life.

Gibraltar remained in Moorish hands until 1462 but was disputed between the Nasrids of Granada and Marinids of Fez. In 1374 the latter handed the peninsula to the former, apparently in payment for Granadan military support in suppressing rebellions in Morocco. Gibraltar's garrison rebelled against the Nasrids in 1410 but a Granadan army retook the place the following year after a brief siege. Gibraltar was subsequently used by the Granadans as the base for raids into Christian territory, prompting Enrique de Guzmán, second Count of Niebla, to lay siege in 1436. The attempt ended in disaster; the attack was repelled with heavy casualties and Enrique himself was drowned while trying to escape by sea. His body was recovered by the Moors, decapitated and hung on the walls of Gibraltar for the next twenty-two years.Jackson, p. 56.

Moorish rule over Gibraltar came to an end in August 1462 when a small Castilian force under the command of Alonso de Arcos, the governor of Tarifa, launched a surprise attack. The Castilians mounted their attack while Gibraltar's senior commanders and townspeople were away paying homage to the new sultan of Granada. After a short assault that inflicted heavy losses on the defenders, the garrison surrendered to Enrique de Guzmán's son Juan Alonso, now the first Duke of Medina Sidonia

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