The Status Of Gibraltar

Howard S Levie

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780367296360
• eBook ISBN: 9781000306101
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Two aphorisms are often stated about Gibraltar: first, that it was a possession that "Spain did not value until she had lost it"; and second, since the day it became a British possession, "Gibraltar has been a thorn in the side of Spain." Except for a few relatively short periods, the Gibraltar issue has adversely affected Anglo-Spanish relations during the almost 275 years of British ownership. To date, negotiations under the aegis of the United Nations have proven unfruitful. Spain demands that complete sovereignty be returned. Great Britain declines to take any such action without the consent of the inhabitants. Despite a referendum in which the Gibraltarians voted overwhelmingly to retain links with Great Britain, the Special Committee of the U.N. General Assembly continues to strongly support the Spanish claim. What effect Spain's entry into NATO will have remains to be seen. This book examines the historical background and present status of the dispute, making extensive use of documents not previously analyzed in depth. Dr. Levie describes the events leading up to the Treaty of Utrecht, provides a detailed analysis of the treaty itself, and traces the origins of its various interpretations. He discusses how the British, unintentionally or otherwise, have violated its provisions, and how the Spanish have attempted to retaliate. The book concludes with a discussion of how the Gibraltar issue has beeen handled in the U.N. to the present day.

1
Prolegomena

Of all the strongholds in the world, the Rook of Gibraltar is probably the most striking and impressive. Tartly by virtue of its strategic position at the entrance to the Mediterranean; partly by virtue of its imposing appearance; partly by virtue of its historical associations, it has at all times made a powerful appeal to the imagination. From the days when as Calpe, one of the Pillars of Hercules, which marked the limits of the known European world, it was the subject of myth and legend, to the present time, it has become a synonym for strength and for stability, a symbol of firmness and immutability and trustworthiness.¹

1. Introduction

After more than two hundred and seventy-five years of the occupation and ownership of Gibraltar by Great Britain, during which period that country's title and right to possession has frequently been challenged by the previous owner, Spain, both on the battlefield and in the realm of diplomacy, the latter country, now supported by agencies of the United Nations, appears to be closer to winning the return of that disputed territory than ever before. Although it can no longer be deemed the impregnable fortress that it once was considered to be, Gibraltar still symbolizes the guardianship of the western entrance to the Mediterranean Sea and, absent an atomic attack, could very probably withstand a modern-day siege with even less difficulty than did Malta during World War II--except for the possibility of an air-land attack launched by a major Power from bases on a Spain unfriendly to the British.² For this reason, if for no other, the relations between Great Britain and Spain, particularly with respect to Gibraltar, are a matter of major importance extending far beyond the borders of those two countries.³ For this reason also, it is important to understand the background and nature of the dispute--more than two and onehalf centuries old--between those two countries with respect to Gibraltar, a dispute which reached a crescendo during the decades of the 1960s and 1970s, and to ascertain whether its current comparative quiescence represents a downgrading of the dispute (which does not, in the nature of things, appear probable) or merely a slumbering volcano ready to erupt at the appropriate time.

In 1963 a Spanish representative at the United Nations stated that Gibraltar was a "political phenomenon [which] can be studied in its multiple facets."⁴ After a brief historical background, the present author proposes to discuss a number of those "multiple facets" of the problem, presenting their inception and their evolution; moving then into the manner in which a particular facet of the problem has been dealt with by the two countries, particularly during the past two decades; and concluding with some expectations and suggestions for the future.

2. A Short History of Gibraltar

Historians normally divide the story of Gibraltar into four distinct periods:

1. Early period: Prehistory to 711 A.D
2. Moslem period: 711 to 1462
3. Spanish period: 1462 to 1704
4. British period: 1704 to?⁵

Because of the nature and scope of this study, emphasizing as it does the differences which exist between Great Britain and Spain with respect to the British possession of Gibraltar and the events which have caused those differences, the first three of those periods, being merely background, will be dealt with in a somewhat summary fashion. The fourth period is, of course, the subject of much of the balance of this monograph.

a. Early period (prehistory to 711 A.D.)

Gibraltar is a limestone, sandstone, and marble promontory, some 1,398 feet above sea level at its highest point, which, mythology tells us, was the northern portion of the mountain split asunder by Hercules and pushed northward by him in order to create the strait which connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. In the Roman era it was known as Mons Calpe, one of the Pillars of Hercules, the southern pillar having been the mountain once known as Mons Abyla and later as Djabal (Djebal or Jebal) Musa (Mt. Acho), near Ceuta.⁶ From a distance Gibraltar appears to be an island lying off the coast of Spain. Actually, it is connected to mainland Spain by a low, narrow isthmus which separates the Mediterranean Sea from the Bay of Algeciras by only about one-half mile of sandy soil.⁷ To the north of the dividing line across the isthmus, wherever it may be,⁸ lies the Spanish town of La Linea; to the east of Gibraltar is the Mediterranean; to the south, across from Europa Point, is the Strait of Gibraltar and then Africa and;⁹ to the west is the Bay of Algeciras and then Spain, the pre-eminent Spanish land-marks there being the city of Algeciras and, to the, north of it, the Palmones and Guadarranque Rivers.¹⁰ The area in the region of Gibraltar, now known as the Campo de Gibraltar, has been occupied by human beings since prehistoric times.¹¹ It was already well established when the first Phoenicians arrived there around 1000 B.C. and Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, and Visigoths, among others, have ail played a part in its history. However, during this period Gibraltar itself was a mere backwater compared to other places in the region.

In the early eighth century this area was under the uncertain rule of a Visigothic king, Roderic, In 710, allegedly on the recommendation of one Count Julian, the Visigothic commander of Septa (Ceuta),¹² by that time the last Visigothic possession in the Maghreb, Musa ibn Nusayr, the Moorish conqueror of the Maghreb, sent a small reconnaissance party commanded by Tarif ibn Malik Nakli across the Strait. Tarif landed at what is now known as Tarifa and conducted a foray which was so successful that the following year, in 711, Musa sent a much larger expedition across the Strait, this time under the command of another subordinate, Tarik ibn Ziyad, Whether Tarik actually landed on the Rock, and whether he actually built a fort or lookout tower on its summit, is now a matter about which there is disagreement;¹³ but there is none with respect to the fact that the name "Gibraltar" derives from a Spanish corruption of the term "Djabal Tarik"--Tarik's Rock;¹⁴ nor can there be any disagreement that it is at this point in time that Gibraltar begins to take its place in world history, small though that was to be for the next several centuries.

Thus began Gibraltar's Moslem period.

b. Moslem period (711 to 1462)

The period of Moslem possession of Gibraltar (and of a substantial part of the land area now known as Spain) continued without serious interruption for almost 600 years, the only changes being from the control of one Moslem faction to another. The period was notable for the internecine wars of the Christian princes of the Iberian peninsula, as well as those of Islamic persuasion. Beginning in 1146 A.D. a Moslem faction from Africa, now known as the Almohades, inspired by the not unusual belief that the Almoravids, the Moslem dynasty in Spain, and their followers, had strayed from the true faith,¹⁵ began a holy war directed against both their Moslem brothers in Spain and the Christians in that land, but primarily against the former. The fanatical invaders were successful and, in order to ensure their future security against the attacks which were anticipated, in 1160 A.D. the leader of the faction, Abd-al-Mu'min, ordered the planning and construction of what was intended to make Gibraltar a mighty bastion.¹⁶

During the years which followed, the area known today as the Campo de Gibraltar was very frequently the scene of fierce combat between Moslem and Spaniard;¹⁷ but, while Tarifa was, at times, taken and held by Castile, and Algeciras was often the object of attack and siege, Gibraltar continued to be out of the mainstream of events. Tarifa was a better and closer place to land cavalry embarked at Tangier; and Algeciras was a better and larger port. The fortifications begun at Gibraltar by Abd-al-Mu'min were allowed to disintegrate. Sancho IV, King of Castile, seized Tarifa in 1292 and his forces held it against a Moslem siege which ended unsuccessfully in 1294. Then in 1309 his son, Ferdinand IV, besieged Algeciras--and, as a part of the siege tactics, he ordered several of his nobles to attack Gibraltar.¹⁸ The town was totally unprepared to resist an attack and it quickly surrendered.¹⁹ Thus ended, for the time being, rather abruptly and completely unexpectedly for both sides, a Moslem possession which had continued without interruption and without real challenge for a period of 598 years.

Although at this time Gibraltar was still a very small town,²⁰ Ferdinand IV issued Letters Patent to it as a municipality on 28 February 1310.²¹ He wisely ordered the construction of works which would make Gibraltar more defensible against the Moslem attacks which could be expected. These attacks came; and between 1309 and 1462 Gibraltar underwent, all told, eight separate sieges. She became the possession of Castile after the first, that of 1309, mentioned above. Twenty-four years later the third siege, in 1333, resulted in her return to the control of the Moslems--this time represented by the Sultan of Fez and Morocco.²² in 1462, as a result of the eighth siege, Castile regained Gibraltar from Granada, to which it had been conveyed by a Sultan of Fez; and thereafter it remained in Spanish hands until it was lost to the Grand Alliance in 1704. Thus, it may be said that in 1462 Gibraltar became a part of Spain permanently--if 242 years can be considered "permanent" in the history of a city.

And so began Gibraltar's Spanish period.

d. Spanish period (1462 to 1704)

Henry IV, already the King of Castile (1454-1474), Leon, and a dozen other kingdoms and territories on the Iberian peninsula, now added Algeciras and Gibraltar to his numerous titles. Moreover, in order to encourage Gibraltar's development, its municipal boundaries were extended to include all of the territory which had been part of Algeciras (itself recently razed), This meant that the entire bay area was now within the jurisdiction of the town of Gibraltar and that, for all practical purposes, the Campo de Gibraltar had come into being.

In 1465 Henry gave the Governorship of Gibraltar to one Beltran de la Cueva. This so incensed the Duke of Medina Sidonia (a descendant was to command the Spanish Armada in 1588), who had been a leader in the capture of Gibraltar from the Moslems in 1462, while de la Cueva had had no prior connection with the town, that, when Henry was deposed in favor of his younger brother, Alfonso, the Duke obtained from the latter a grant of Gibraltar, attacked it in 1466 and, after a siege of approximately 15 months (its ninth recorded siege), captured it in 14 67. When Henry regained his throne in 14 68, after the death of Alfonso, a new Duke of Medina Sidonia renewed his loyalty to his king, but on condition that he would be permitted to retain Gibraltar; and this was publicly recognized by the issuance of a Royal Charter to Medina Sidonia on 3 June 1469.²³ And so it remained until 1501, when Isabella, Queen of Castile and Aragon, and intent upon uniting the Spanish portions of the Iberian peninsula into one Spain, ordered the Duke to return Gibraltar to the crown--which he agreed to do and which was actually accomplished on 2 January 1502.²⁴ Thus Gibraltar, recovered from Granada in 1462, but held as a personal fief by the Dukes of Medina Sidonia since 1467, once again became Crown property; and so it remained thereafter although in 1506, after Isabella's death,²⁵ the Duke subjected it to its tenth siege in an unsuccessful attempt to recover it for himself.

Little or nothing was done by the Crown of Spain to fortify Gibraltar, to make it the impregnable fortress that many tacticians of that day believed that it could be. In 1540 it was attacked and sacked in a hit-and-run raid mounted by a renegade Turkish commander at Algiers (the North African coast was now under nominal Turkish control); and in the succeeding years it was a frequent victim of Moslem pirates.²⁶ Major military construction did take place at various times between 1552 and 1618, but little work appears ever to have been completed; and what was built was soon allowed to lapse into ruin. Then in 1625 it became known in Spain that a large British fleet had left England en route in the direction of Spain.²⁷ Although the two countries were, at the moment, at peace, Philip IV of Spain had earlier made a circuit of the threatened areas and, among other things, he had given orders for the thorough modernization of the defenses of Gibraltar. This was accomplished over the next several years;²⁸ but well before the end of the seventeenth century events demonstrated that Spain had once again allowed those defenses to return to their former totally inadequate state. In 1693 a number of British ships, both naval and merchant, belonging to the command of Admiral Sir George Rooke, took refuge at a friendly and allied Spanish Gibraltar from the vastly superior fleet of French Admiral Tourville. The defenses of Gibraltar were found to be so inadequate that it was necessary to land a number of guns from the British warships in order to supplement those of the fort. Even so, the French ships which entered the Bay of Algeciras were able to do more or less as they pleased, with little interference from the shore.²⁹

Thus, after more than two and a quarter centuries of Spanish ownership, and after its importance to naval warfare in the Western Mediterranean had been demonstrated again and again, Gibraltar was still a "paper tiger." It had been taken from Granada by Castile in 1309; from Castile by Fez in 1333; from Granada by Fez in 1410; from Fez by Granada in 1411; from Granada by Castile again in 1462; while Castilian it had twice been besieged by a Castilian nobleman who had been successful once and unsuccessful once; and ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• About the Book and Author
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• PREFACE
• 1. PROLEGOMENA
• 2. THE WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION (1702-1713)
• 3. THE INTERMEDIATE PERIOD (1713-1963)
• 4. ENTER THE UNITED NATIONS (1963 to Date)
• EPILOGUE
• APPENDICES
• NOTES
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS
• INDEX