World War I
World War I, known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world.
On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors.
During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary and Germany
Strait of Gibraltar
The Strait of Gibraltar is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Gibraltar and Peninsular Spain in Europe from Morocco and Ceuta in Africa. The name comes from the Rock of Gibraltar, which in turn originates from the Arabic Jebel Tariq named after Tariq ibn Ziyad. It is known as the Straits of Gibraltar, the Gut of Gibraltar, the STROG in naval use, and Bab Al Maghrib, Gate of the West. In the Middle Ages, Muslims called it Al-Zuqaq, The Passage, the Romans called it Fretum Gatitanum and Africa are separated by 7.7 nautical miles of ocean at the straits narrowest point. Ferries cross between the two every day in as little as 35 minutes. The Spanish side of the Strait is protected under El Estrecho Natural Park, on the northern side of the Strait are Spain and Gibraltar, while on the southern side are Morocco and Ceuta. Its boundaries were known in antiquity as the Pillars of Hercules, there are several islets, such as the disputed Isla Perejil, that are claimed by both Morocco and Spain.
Due to its location, the Strait is commonly used for illegal immigration from Africa to Europe, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Strait of Gibraltar as follows, On the West. A line joining Cape Trafalgar to Cape Spartel, a line joining Europa Point to P. Almina. The seabed of the Strait is composed of synorogenic Betic-Rif clayey flysch covered by Pliocene and/or Quaternary calcareous sediments, exposed bedrock surfaces, coarse sediments and local sand dunes attest to the strong bottom current conditions at the present time. The resultant accumulation of huge salt and mineral deposits about the Mediterranean basin are directly linked to this era. It is believed that this took a short time, by geological standards. The erosion produced by the incoming waters seems to be the cause for the present depth of the strait. The strait is expected to close again as the African Plate moves northward relative to the Eurasian Plate, for full articles on the history of the north Gibraltar shore, see History of Gibraltar or History of Spain.
For the full article on the history of the south Gibraltar shore, evidence of the first human habitation of the area by Neanderthals dates back to 125,000 years ago. Archaeological evidence of Homo sapiens habitation of the dates back c.40,000 years. In that year, the last Muslim government north of the straits was overthrown by a Spanish force, the small British enclave of the city of Gibraltar presents a third cultural group found in the straits. This enclave was first established in 1704 and has since used by Britain to act as a surety for control of the sea lanes into
Spain
By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem.
This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula.
The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
Spanish peseta
The peseta was the currency of Spain between 1869 and 2002. Along with the French franc, it was a de facto currency used in Andorra, the name of the currency comes from pesseta, the diminutive form of the word peça, which is a Catalan word that means piece or fraction. The first non-official coins which contained the word peseta were made in 1808 in Barcelona, there was never a single symbol or special character for the Spanish peseta. Common abbreviations were Pt, Pta and Ptas, sometimes using superior letters, common earlier Spanish models of mechanical typewriters had the expression Pts on a single type head, as a shorthand intended to fill a single type space in tables instead of three. Later, Spanish models of IBM electric typewriters included the type in its repertoire. This original character set chart became the MS-DOS code page 437, some spreadsheet software for PC under MS-DOS, as Lotus 1-2-3, employed this character as the peseta symbol in their Spanish editions. Subsequent international MS-DOS code pages, like code page 850 and others, in order to guarantee the interchange with previous encodings such as code page 437, the international standard Unicode includes this character as U+20A7 PESETA SIGN in its Currency Symbols block.
Other than that, the use of the peseta symbol standalone is extremely rare, in the version 1.0 of Unicode the character ₧ U+20A7 PESETA SIGN had two reference glyphs, a Pts ligature glyph as in IBM code page 437 and an erroneous P with stroke. The peseta was subdivided into 100 céntimos or, informally,4 reales, the last coin of any value under one peseta was a 50-céntimo coin issued in 1980 to celebrate Spains hosting of the 1982 FIFA World Cup. The last 25-céntimo coin was dated 1959, the ten céntimos dated 1959, the 1-céntimo coin was last minted in 1913 and featured King Alfonso XIII. The 1⁄2-céntimo coin was last minted in 1868 and featured Queen Isabel II, the peseta was introduced in 1869 after Spain joined the Latin Monetary Union in 1868. The Spanish Law of June 26,1864 decreed that in preparation for joining the Latin Monetary Union, the peseta replaced the escudo at a rate of 5 pesetas =1 peso duro =2 escudos. The peseta was equal to 4.5 grams of silver, or 0.290322 grams of gold, from 1873, only the gold standard applied.
The political turbulence of the twentieth century caused the monetary union to break up. In 1959, Spain became part of the Bretton Woods System, in 1967, the peseta followed the devaluation of the British pound, maintaining the exchange rate of 168 pesetas =1 pound and establishing a new rate of 70 pesetas =1 U. S. dollar. The peseta was replaced by the euro in 2002, following the establishment of the euro in 1999, the exchange rate was 1 euro =166.386 pesetas. At least 1252–1284 there was a 1 obolo brass coin – plated with silver – stamped, colnect shows even a first 1 Maravedí-coin made of copper having been edited since 1454. The bigger silver coin 1 Real came out 1786, the latter two currency units were used until the Peseta came in 1869
Wilhelm II, German Emperor
Wilhelm II or William II was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. He was the eldest grandchild of the British Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and his leading generals, Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, dictated policy during the First World War with little regard for the civilian government. An ineffective war-time leader, he lost the support of the army, abdicated in November 1918, and fled to exile in the Netherlands. Wilhelm was born on 27 January 1859 at the Crown Princes Palace, Berlin to Prince Frederick William of Prussia and his wife, Princess Royal, the eldest daughter of Britains Queen Victoria. At the time of his birth, his great-uncle Frederick William IV was king of Prussia, a traumatic breech birth left him with a withered left arm due to Erbs palsy, which he tried with some success to conceal. His left arm was about 6 inches shorter than his right arm, historians have suggested that this disability affected his emotional development.
In 1863, Wilhelm was taken to England to be present at the wedding of his Uncle Bertie, William attended the ceremony in a Highland costume, complete with a small toy dirk. During the ceremony the four-year-old became restless and his eighteen-year-old uncle Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, charged with keeping an eye on him, told him to be quiet, but Wilhelm drew his dirk and threatened Alfred. When Alfred attempted to subdue him by force, Wilhelm bit him on the leg and his grandmother, Queen Victoria, missed seeing the fracas, to her Wilhelm remained a clever, good little child, the great favourite of my beloved Vicky. His mother, was obsessed with his damaged arm and she blamed herself for the childs handicap and insisted that he become a good rider. The thought that he, as heir to the throne, should not be able to ride was intolerable to her, riding lessons began when Wilhelm was eight and were a matter of endurance for Wilhelm. Over and over, the prince was set on his horse. He fell off time after time but despite his tears was set on its back again, after weeks of this he finally got it right and was able to maintain his balance.
Wilhelm, from six years of age, was tutored and heavily influenced by the 39-year-old teacher Georg Hinzpeter, Hinzpeter, he wrote, was really a good fellow. Whether he was the tutor for me, I dare not decide. The torments inflicted on me, in this riding, must be attributed to my mother. As a teenager he was educated at Kassel at the Friedrichsgymnasium, in January 1877, Wilhelm finished high school and on his eighteenth birthday received as a present from his grandmother, Queen Victoria, the Order of the Garter. After Kassel he spent four terms at the University of Bonn, studying law and he became a member of the exclusive Corps Borussia Bonn
Tangier International Zone
The zone was governed in accordance with the Tangier Protocol, although the Sultan of Morocco retained nominal sovereignty over the zone and jurisdiction over the native population. The International zone of Tangier had, by 1939, a population of about 60,000 inhabitants and 150,000 by 1950, although some disagreements emerged about the agreement ratifications were exchanged in Paris on May 14,1924. The convention was amended in 1928, the governments of Italy and Belgium adhered to the convention in 1928, and the government of the Netherlands in 1929. Executive power was vested in an Administrator, and judicial power resided in a Mixed Court of five judges, respectively appointed by the Belgian, Spanish and Italian governments. As a result of the creation of the Mixed Court, the various European powers withdrew the consular courts that previously exercised jurisdiction there, the Zone had a reputation for diversity of culture and religion. Spanish troops occupied Tangier on June 14,1940, the same day Paris fell to the Germans, despite calls by the writer Rafael Sánchez Mazas and other Spanish nationalists to annex Tánger español, the Franco regime publicly considered the occupation a temporary wartime measure.
In May 1944, although it had served as a point between him and the Axis Powers during the Spanish Civil War, Franco expelled all German diplomats from the Zone. The territory was restored to its status on October 11,1945. In July 1952 the protecting powers met at Rabat to discuss the Zones future, Tangier joined with the rest of Morocco following the restoration of full sovereignty in 1956. The Battle for Spain, The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939, the Law and Practice of International Territorial Administration, Versailles to Iraq and Beyond. List of administrators of the Tangier International Zone
Tangier
Tangier is a major city in northwestern Morocco. It is located on the Maghreb coast at the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar. It is the capital of the Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region, as well as the Tangier-Assilah prefecture of Morocco, the history of Tangier is very rich, due to the historical presence of many civilisations and cultures starting from before the 5th century BC. Between the period of being a strategic Berber town and a Phoenician trading centre to the era around the 1950s. In 1923, it was considered as having international status by foreign colonial powers, the city is currently undergoing rapid development and modernisation. Projects include new tourism projects along the bay, a business district called Tangier City Center, a new airport terminal. Tangiers economy is set to benefit greatly from the new Tanger-Med port. The citys name is said to come from Tingis, the daughter of Atlas, however, it more likely derives from the Semitic word tigisis, meaning harbour. Tangier is referred to as Boughaz or nicknamed as the bride of the north by the Moroccans, Tangier was founded in the early 5th century BC by Carthaginian colonists, who were probably the first ones to settle around the coast.
The Greeks ascribed the citys establishment to the giant Antaios, whose tomb and skeleton are pointed out in the vicinity, the cave of Hercules, a few miles from the city, is a major tourist attraction. It is believed that Hercules slept there before attempting one of his twelve labours, the commercial town of Tingi came under Roman rule during the 2nd century BC. It was initially autonomous, and then, under Augustus, became a colony and it was the scene of the martyrdoms of Saint Marcellus of Tangier. Tingis was the main Roman city of Mauretania Tingitana in the 4th century and enjoyed huge development, in the 5th century, Vandals conquered and occupied Tingi and from here swept across the Maghreb. A century later, Tangier fell to the Byzantine Empire, before coming under the control of the Umayyad Caliphate in 702, due to its Christian past, it is still a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church. When the Portuguese, driven in part by religious fervour, started their colonial expansion by taking Ceuta in 1415.
They failed to capture the city in 1437 but finally occupied it in 1471, a partial plan of the original kasbah was found in 2009–12, in a Portuguese document now preserved in the Military Archives of Sweden in Stockholm. The Portuguese rule lasted until 1662, when it was given to Englands King Charles II as part of the dowry from the Portuguese Infanta Catherine of Braganza, the English gave the city a garrison and a charter which made it equal to English towns. The English planned to improve the harbour by building a mole, with an improved harbour the town would have played the same role that Gibraltar played in British naval strategy
Haketia
Haketia is an endangered Jewish Romance language known as Djudeo Spañol, Ladino Occidental, or Western Judaeo-Spanish. It was historically spoken by the North African Sephardim in the Moroccan cities of Tétouan, Asilah, tetuani Ladino was spoken in Oran, Algeria. The well-known form of Judaeo-Spanish spoken by Jews living in the Balkans, Turkey, Haketia may be described by contrast as Ladino Occidental. The language is a variety of Spanish that borrows heavily from Judeo-Moroccan Arabic and it evidently contains a number of words of Hebrew origin and was originally written using Hebrew letters. The name Haketia derived from the Arabic ḥaká حكى, tell, in some places it is written Jaquetía with the same pronunciation. Haketia is considered to have influenced Llanito, the vernacular spoken in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar due to migration of Moroccan Jews. Still, there has been a renaissance of the language, helped by musicians such as Doris Benmaman, Mor Karbasi and Kol Oud Tof Trio.
Jose Benoliel and Alegría Bendayan de Bendelac have both compiled Spanish-Haketía dictionaries, published in 1977 and 1995, the Caracas Center of Sephardic Studies publishes regularly articles in Haketia in its magazine Magen-Escudo. List of articles written in Haketia at eSefarad. com Rodrigues-da-Cunha, Alvaro Fernando, Narrativa na hakitía
Abd el-Krim
Abd el-Krim was a Riffian political and military leader. He and his brother Mhemmed led a revolt by a coalition of Berber-speaking Rif tribes against French and Spanish colonization of the Rif. The rebels established the short-lived Republic of the Rif, Abd el-Krims guerrilla tactics influenced Ho Chi Minh, Mao Zedong, and Che Guevara. Abd el-Krim received an education at a mosque school in Ajdir. At the age of twenty, it appears he studied for two years in Fez at the Attarine and Seffarine madrasah, in order to prepare to enter the famous Qaraouiyine University. Both he and his brother MHammad received a Spanish education, with his brother studying mine engineering in Málaga, both spoke fluent Spanish and Riffian. After his studies, in 1906, Abd el-Krim was sent to Melilla by his father and he worked there as a teacher and translator, working for the OCTAI – the Spanish native affairs office – and became a journalist for the Spanish newspaper Telegrama del Rif. Additionally, in 1907 he was hired to edit and write articles in Arabic for El Telegrama del Rif, there he defended the advantages of European—especially Spanish—civilization and technology and their potential to elevate the economic and cultural level of the Moroccan population.
His association with El Telegrama lasted until 1915, in that post he gained a reputation for intelligence and discretion. Abd el-Krim entered the Spanish administration, first as a secretary in the Bureau of Native Affairs and he taught at a Hispano-Arabic school and was an editor for the Arab section of the newspaper, El Telegrama del Rif. During World War I, Abd el-Krim was arrested by the Spanish authorities for activities including alleged involvement in a conspiracy with the German consul Dr. Walter Zechlin. He was imprisoned in Chaouen from 1916 to 1918, escaped and he regained his job as a judge in Melilla. At the end of the war, Abd el-Krim briefly resumed publishing in a Spanish-language newspaper and he was alarmed by the appearance of Spanish agents in Ayt Weryaghel tribal territory and decided to fight for his tribes independence. The following year, Abd el-Krim, together with his brother and his goal was to unite the tribes of the Rif into an independent Republic of the Rif, to dismantle the entire French-Spanish colonial project in Morocco, and to introduce modern political reform.
In 1921, as a byproduct of their efforts to destroy the power of a brigand, Raisuli. Abd-el-Krim sent their commander, General Manuel Fernández Silvestre, a warning if the troops crossed the Ameqqran river he would consider it an act of war. Silvestre is said to have laughed, and shortly afterwards crossed the river, in June 1921 a sizable Riffian force attacked this post killing 179 of the estimated 250 Spanish troops there. Soon afterwards, Abd el-Krim directed his forces to attack the Spanish lines at Anwal, during the attack, General Silvestre, head of the Spanish forces, committed suicide after seeing his soldiers getting defeated
Spanish Sahara
Spanish Sahara was the name used for the modern territory of Western Sahara when it was occupied and ruled as a territory by Spain between 1884 and 1975. It had been one of the most recent acquisitions of the Spanish Empire, as well as one of its last remaining holdings, Spain gave up its Saharan possession following Moroccan demands and international pressure, mainly from United Nations resolutions regarding decolonisation. There was internal pressure from the native Sahrawi population and the claims of Morocco, Mauritania claimed the territory for a number of years based on its history, and dropped all claims. In 1991 the UN negotiated a ceasefire, and has tried to arrange negotiations, Morocco controls the entire Atlantic coast and most of the landmass and natural resources of Western Sahara. Before and during the Spanish occupation, the territory was inhabited by Saharan Arabs who lived in many oases and they worked mainly in fishing and camel herding. They speak Hassaniya language, a Bedouin Arabic dialect, there is some dispute and ambiguity about whether the territory was under Moroccan royal sovereignty at the time when the Spanish claimed it in 1884.
It officially informed the other powers in writing on 14 January 1885 and it began establishing trading posts and a military presence. In July 1885, the king appointed Emilio Bonelli commissioner of the Río de Oro with civil, on 6 April 1887, it was incorporated into the Captaincy General of the Canary Islands for military purposes. At the time, geographers had not mapped the territory and its features were not widely known and their trek is considered the first scientific expedition in that part of the Sahara. In 1886, Spain signed the Treaty of Idjil by which the emirate of Adrar ceded the land of the colony to Spain, the borders of the territory were not clearly defined until treaties between Spain and France in the early 20th century. Spanish Sahara was created from the Spanish territories of Río de Oro and it was not part of the areas known as Spanish Morocco and was administered separately from them. On entering the territory in 1884, Spain was immediately challenged by stiff resistance from the indigenous Sahrawi tribes, a 1904 rebellion led by the powerful Smara-based marabout, Shaykh Ma al-Aynayn, was put down by France in 1910, which ruled neighboring Algeria.
This was followed by a wave of uprisings under Ma al-Aynayns sons, tribal uprisings meant that Spain found it difficult to control parts of the territorys large hinterland until 1934. After gaining independence in 1956, Morocco laid claim on Spanish Sahara as part of its historic pre-colonial territory, in 1957, the Moroccan Army of Liberation nearly occupied the small territory of Sidi-Ifni, north of Spanish Sahara, during the Ifni War. The Spanish sent a regiment of paratroopers from the nearby Canary Islands and were able to repel the attacks, with the assistance of the French, Spain soon re-established control in the area through Operaciones Teide-Ecoubillon. It tried to suppress resistance politically and it forced some of the previously nomadic inhabitants of Spanish Sahara to settle in certain areas, and the rate of urbanization was increased. In the same year, Spain united the territories of Saguia el Hamra and Río de Oro to form the province of Spanish Sahara, while ceding the provinces of Tarfaya, in the 1960s, Morocco continued to claim Spanish Sahara.
It gained agreement by the United Nations to add the territory to the list of territories to be decolonized, in 1969, Spain returned Ifni to Morocco, but continued to retain Spanish Sahara
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula. It has an area of 6.7 km2 and shares its border with Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the landmark of the region. At its foot is a populated city area, home to over 30,000 Gibraltarians. An Anglo-Dutch force captured Gibraltar from Spain in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession on behalf of the Habsburg claim to the Spanish throne, the territory was subsequently ceded to Great Britain in perpetuity under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Today Gibraltars economy is based largely on tourism, online gambling, financial services, the sovereignty of Gibraltar is a major point of contention in Anglo-Spanish relations as Spain asserts a claim to the territory. Gibraltarians overwhelmingly rejected proposals for Spanish sovereignty in a 1967 referendum, under the Gibraltar constitution of 2006, Gibraltar governs its own affairs, though some powers, such as defence and foreign relations, remain the responsibility of the British government.
The name Gibraltar is the Spanish derivation of the Arabic name Jabal Ṭāriq, earlier, it was known as Mons Calpe, a name of Phoenician origin and one of the Pillars of Hercules. The pronunciation of the name in modern Spanish is, evidence of Neanderthal habitation in Gibraltar between 28,000 and 24,000 BP has been discovered at Gorhams Cave, making Gibraltar possibly the last known holdout of the Neanderthals. Within recorded history, the first inhabitants were the Phoenicians, around 950 BC, Gibraltar became known as one of the Pillars of Hercules, after the Greek legend of the creation of the Strait of Gibraltar by Heracles. The Carthaginians and Romans established semi-permanent settlements, after the collapse of the Roman Empire, Gibraltar came briefly under the control of the Vandals. The area formed part of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania from 414 AD until the Islamic conquest of Iberia in 711 AD, in 1160, the Almohad Sultan Abd al-Mumin ordered that a permanent settlement, including a castle, be built.
It received the name of Medinat al-Fath, on completion of the works in the town, the Sultan crossed the Strait to look at the works and stayed in Gibraltar for two months. The Tower of Homage of the Moorish Castle remains standing today, from 1274 onwards, the town was fought over and captured by the Nasrids of Granada, the Marinids of Morocco and the kings of Castile. In 1462, Gibraltar was finally captured by Juan Alonso de Guzmán, after the conquest, King Henry IV of Castile assumed the additional title of King of Gibraltar, establishing it as part of the comarca of the Campo Llano de Gibraltar. In 1501, Gibraltar passed back to the Spanish Crown, the occupation of the town by Alliance forces caused the exodus of the population to the surrounding area of the Campo de Gibraltar. As the Alliances campaign faltered, the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht was negotiated and ceded control of Gibraltar to Britain to secure Britains withdrawal from the war. Unsuccessful attempts by Spanish monarchs to regain Gibraltar were made with the siege of 1727 and again with the Great Siege of Gibraltar, during the American War of Independence
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