Gibraltar

Gibraltar. At the southern tip of Spain, with an area of 2½ square miles and 1,270 feet at its highest point, ‘The Rock’ commands the western entrance to the Mediterranean. The name derives from Djebel Tarik (Mountain of Tarik) after Tarik ibn Ziyad, the general leading the Moorish invasion of Spain in 711. Gibraltar was subject to numerous sieges as Christian rulers attempted to eject the Moors. Finally, in 1462 it was recaptured and became the evacuation point for Jews and Moors expelled from Spain. Queen Isabella of Spain in the 16th cent. laid it as a solemn charge in her will that her successors retain and hold the city. For almost 200 years few people, apart from privateers, showed much interest in Gibraltar until in 1704, during the War of the Spanish Succession, it was captured by an Anglo-Dutch fleet under Sir George Rooke and ceded to Britain by the treaty of Utrecht (1713). It has remained in British hands ever since. During the Great Siege of 1779–83, the garrison under General Elliott ( Lord Heathfield) resisted all attempts to bombard or starve them out. During the Second World War, fighting in north Africa and Italy gave Gibraltar a crucial role. Spain resumed pressure after the war ended but in a referendum of 1967 the colony voted to retain its connection with Britain. Spain closed the border for sixteen years from 1969 and the Rock remains a bone of contention.

June Cochrane