1.
Gibraltar
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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, subsequently, 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 also established semi-permanent settlements, after the collapse of the Roman Empire, Gibraltar came briefly under the control of the Vandals. The area later 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
2.
Telephone number
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A telephone number serves as an address for switching telephone calls using a system of destination code routing. Telephone numbers are entered or dialed by a party on the originating telephone set. The exchange completes the call either to another locally connected subscriber or via the PSTN to the called party, telephone numbers were first used in 1879 in Lowell, Massachusetts when they replaced the request for subscriber names by callers connecting to the switchboard operator. Telephone numbers are dialed in conjunction with other signaling code sequences, such as vertical service codes. When telephone numbers were first used they were short, from one to three digits, and were communicated orally to a switchboard operator when initiating a call. As telephone systems have grown and interconnected to encompass worldwide communication, in addition to telephones, they have been used to access other devices, such as computer modems, pagers, and fax machines. The number contains the necessary to identify uniquely the intended endpoint for the telephone call. Each such endpoint must have a number within the public switched telephone network. Most countries use fixed length numbers and therefore the number of endpoints determines the length of the telephone number. It is also possible for each subscriber to have a set of numbers for the endpoints most often used. These shorthand or speed calling numbers are translated to unique telephone numbers before the call can be connected. Some special services have their own short numbers The dialing plan in some areas permits dialing numbers in the local calling area without using area code or city code prefixes. For example, a number in North America consists of a three-digit area code, a three-digit central office code. If the area has no area code overlays, seven-digit dialing may be permissible for calls within the area, for each large metro area, all of these lines will share the same prefix, the last digits typically corresponding to the stations frequency, callsign, or moniker. In the international network, the format of telephone numbers is standardized by ITU-T recommendation E.164. This code specifies that the number should be 15 digits or shorter. For most countries, this is followed by a code or city code and the subscriber number. ITU-T recommendation E.123 describes how to represent an international telephone number in writing or print, starting with a plus sign and the country code
3.
Telecommunication
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Telecommunication is the transmission of signs, signals, messages, writings, images and sounds or intelligence of any nature by wire, radio, optical or other electromagnetic systems. Telecommunication occurs when the exchange of information between communication participants includes the use of technology and it is transmitted either electrically over physical media, such as cables, or via electromagnetic radiation. Such transmission paths are divided into communication channels which afford the advantages of multiplexing. The term is used in its plural form, telecommunications. Early means of communicating over a distance included visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, other examples of pre-modern long-distance communication included audio messages such as coded drumbeats, lung-blown horns, and loud whistles. Zworykin, John Logie Baird and Philo Farnsworth, the word telecommunication is a compound of the Greek prefix tele, meaning distant, far off, or afar, and the Latin communicare, meaning to share. Its modern use is adapted from the French, because its use was recorded in 1904 by the French engineer. Communication was first used as an English word in the late 14th century, in the Middle Ages, chains of beacons were commonly used on hilltops as a means of relaying a signal. Beacon chains suffered the drawback that they could pass a single bit of information. One notable instance of their use was during the Spanish Armada, in 1792, Claude Chappe, a French engineer, built the first fixed visual telegraphy system between Lille and Paris. However semaphore suffered from the need for skilled operators and expensive towers at intervals of ten to thirty kilometres, as a result of competition from the electrical telegraph, the last commercial line was abandoned in 1880. Homing pigeons have occasionally used throughout history by different cultures. Pigeon post is thought to have Persians roots and was used by the Romans to aid their military, frontinus said that Julius Caesar used pigeons as messengers in his conquest of Gaul. The Greeks also conveyed the names of the victors at the Olympic Games to various cities using homing pigeons, in the early 19th century, the Dutch government used the system in Java and Sumatra. And in 1849, Paul Julius Reuter started a service to fly stock prices between Aachen and Brussels, a service that operated for a year until the gap in the telegraph link was closed. Sir Charles Wheatstone and Sir William Fothergill Cooke invented the telegraph in 1837. Also, the first commercial electrical telegraph is purported to have constructed by Wheatstone and Cooke. Both inventors viewed their device as an improvement to the electromagnetic telegraph not as a new device, samuel Morse independently developed a version of the electrical telegraph that he unsuccessfully demonstrated on 2 September 1837
4.
Telephone exchange
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A telephone exchange is a telecommunications system used in the public switched telephone network or in large enterprises. In historical perspective, telecommunication terms have been used with different semantics over time, the term telephone exchange is often used synonymously with central office, a Bell System term. Often, an office is defined as a building used to house the inside plant equipment of potentially several telephone exchanges. Such an area has also referred to as the exchange. Central office locations may also be identified in North America as wire centers, All central offices within a larger region, typically aggregated by state, were assigned a common numbering plan area code. For corporate or enterprise use, a telephone exchange is often referred to as a private branch exchange. Smaller installations might deploy a PBX or key telephone system in the office of a receptionist and this made it possible for subscribers to call each other at homes, businesses, or public spaces. These made telephony an available and comfortable communication tool for everyday use, one of the first to propose a telephone exchange was Hungarian Tivadar Puskás in 1877 while he was working for Thomas Edison. The first experimental telephone exchange was based on the ideas of Puskás, the worlds first commercial telephone exchange opened on November 12,1877 in Friedrichsberg close to Berlin. George W. Coy designed and built the first commercial US telephone exchange opened in New Haven. The switchboard was built from carriage bolts, handles from teapot lids and bustle wire, Charles Glidden is also credited with establishing an exchange in Lowell, MA. with 50 subscribers in 1878. In Europe other early telephone exchanges were based in London and Manchester, Belgium had its first International Bell exchange a year later. In 1887 Puskás introduced the multiplex switchboard, later exchanges consisted of one to several hundred plug boards staffed by switchboard operators. Each operator sat in front of a panel containing banks of ¼-inch tip-ring-sleeve jacks. In front of the jack panel lay a horizontal panel containing two rows of patch cords, each connected to a cord circuit. When a calling party lifted the receiver, the loop current lit a signal lamp near the jack. The operator responded by inserting the rear cord into the jack and switched her headset into the circuit to ask, Number. For a local call, the operator inserted the front cord of the pair into the partys local jack
5.
Switchboard operator
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Each pair of plugs was part of a cord circuit with a switch associated that let the operator participate in the call. Each jack had a light above it that lit when the receiver was lifted. Lines from the office were usually arranged along the bottom row. Switchboard operators are required to have very strong communication skills. Before the advent of automatic exchanges, an operators assistance was required for anything other than calling telephones across a party line. Callers spoke to an operator at a Central Office who then connected a cord to the circuit in order to complete the call. Being in complete control of the call, the operator was in a position to listen to private conversations, automatic, or Dial systems were developed in the 1920s to reduce labor costs as usage increased, and to ensure privacy to the customer. As phone systems became more sophisticated, less direct intervention by the operator was necessary to complete calls. As well as the people that were employed by the networks, operators were required at private branch exchanges to answer incoming telephone calls. Today, most large organizations have direct-dial extensions, smaller workplaces may have an automated system which allows callers to enter the extension of the called party, or a receptionist who answers calls and performs operator duties. Operators employed in healthcare settings have other duties, such as entry, greeting patients and visitors, taking messages, triaging. Experienced, well trained operators generally command a higher salary, in January 1878 George Willard Croy became the worlds first telephone operator when he started working for the Boston Telephone Dispatch company. Emma was hired by Alexander Graham Bell, and reportedly, could remember every number in the directory of the New England Telephone Company. Emma Nutt became the first female telephone operator on 1 September 1878 when she started working for the Boston Telephone Dispatch company, more women began to replace men within this sector of the workforce for several reasons. The companies observed that women were generally more courteous to callers, however, a contributing factor to women entering this workforce was because womens labour was cheap in comparison to mens. Specifically, women were paid from one half to one quarter of a mans salary, attendant console Operator assistance Private branch exchange Telephone operator Telephone switchboard Media related to Telephone operators at Wikimedia Commons
6.
Spain
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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, Valencia, 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 later 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 later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, 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, Basques 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
7.
Francisco Franco
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Francisco Franco Bahamonde was a Spanish general who ruled over Spain as a military dictator for 36 years from 1939 until his death. As a conservative and a monarchist, he opposed the abolition of the monarchy, with the 1936 elections, the conservative Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Right-wing Groups lost by a narrow margin and the leftist Popular Front came to power. Intending to overthrow the republic, Franco followed other generals in attempting a coup that precipitated the Spanish Civil War. With the death of the generals, Franco quickly became his factions only leader. Leaving half a million dead, the war was won by Franco in 1939. He established a dictatorship, which he defined as a totalitarian state. Franco proclaimed himself Head of State and Government under the title El Caudillo, under Franco, Spain became a one-party state, as the various conservative and royalist factions were merged into the fascist party and other political parties were outlawed. Although Francos Spain maintained a policy of neutrality during World War II. Francos regime has been called a fascist one, Spain was isolated by the international community for nearly a decade after World War II. By the 1950s, the nature of his regime changed from being openly totalitarian, by the 1960s Spain saw incremental reforms and progressive economic development. After a 36-year rule, Franco died in 1975 and he restored the monarchy before his death, which made King Juan Carlos I his successor, who led the Spanish transition to democracy. After a referendum, a new constitution was adopted, which transformed Spain into a democracy under a constitutional monarchy. Franco was born at half past noon on December 4,1892, at 108 Calle Frutos Saavedra in Ferrol and his father was of Andalusian ancestry. His mother was María del Pilar Bahamonde y Pardo de Andrade, Francisco was to follow his father into the Navy, but as a result of the Spanish–American War the country lost much of its navy as well as most of its colonies. Not needing any more officers, the Naval Academy admitted no new entrants from 1906 to 1913, to his fathers chagrin, Francisco decided to try the Spanish Army. In 1907, he entered the Infantry Academy in Toledo, graduating in 1910 as a lieutenant, two years later, he obtained a commission to Morocco. Spanish efforts to occupy their new African protectorate provoked the protracted Rif War with native Moroccans and their tactics resulted in heavy losses among Spanish military officers, and also provided an opportunity to earn promotion through merit. It was said that officers would receive either la caja o la faja, Franco quickly gained a reputation as a good officer
8.
Disputed status of Gibraltar
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Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory, located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula, is the subject of an irredentist territorial claim by Spain. It was captured in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession, the Spanish Crown formally ceded the territory in perpetuity to the British Crown in 1713, under Article X of the Treaty of Utrecht. Spain later attempted to recapture the territory during the thirteenth siege, British sovereignty over Gibraltar was confirmed in later treaties signed in Seville and the Treaty of Paris. The Gibraltarians themselves reject any such claim and no party or pressure group in Gibraltar supports union with Spain. In a referendum in 2002 the people of Gibraltar rejected a joint sovereignty proposal on which Spain, the British Government has stated that it would never. Enter into an agreement on sovereignty without the agreement of the Government of Gibraltar, Spain insists that the Gibraltar dispute is a bilateral matter purely between the United Kingdom and Spain. This principle appears to have been reflected in the United Nations resolutions on the decolonisation of Gibraltar in the 1960s, Gibraltarians argue that one cannot claim to be acting in the interests of a population, while at the same time ignoring its wishes and democratic rights. In 2002, an agreement in principle on joint sovereignty over Gibraltar between the governments of the United Kingdom and Spain was announced, there was a campaign against these proposals by the Government of Gibraltar and individuals, culminating in their rejection in a referendum. The British Government now refuses to discuss sovereignty without the consent of the Gibraltarians and this was ratified by the 2006 Cordoba Agreement. After meetings in Malaga, Faro, and Mallorca, the Spanish foreign minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos went to Gibraltar in July 2009 to discuss a range of mutual issues and this was the first official Spanish visit since Gibraltar was ceded. The issue of sovereignty was not discussed, Gibraltar was captured in 1704 by a force led by Admiral Sir George Rooke representing the Grand Alliance on behalf of the Archduke Charles, pretender to the Spanish Throne. After the battle, almost all the inhabitants decided to leave to the surrounding areas of Campo de Gibraltar. In that treaty, Spain ceded to Great Britain the full and entire propriety of the town and castle of Gibraltar, together with the port, fortifications, for ever, without any exception or impediment whatsoever. The British and Gibraltarian governments assert that Gibraltar has been effectively decolonised, on the other hand, the Special Committee on Decolonization maintains Gibraltar on its list of Non-Self-Governing Territories. Spain opposes any attempt to remove it from this list and Spanish commentators still describe Gibraltar as a colony, during the 1960s, the UN General Assembly passed five resolutions on the issue. The resolutions on the decolonisation of Gibraltar focused on the interests, from such a point of view, Gibraltarians are seen as mere settlers from the United Kingdom and other countries and only their interests, not their wishes, need be safeguarded. Therefore, Spain has insisted that the Gibraltar dispute is a bilateral matter with the United Kingdom and has ignored the role. The first formal proposal on how to achieve the return of Gibraltar to Spain was made on 18 May 1966 by the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, the proposal comprised three clauses, The cancellation of the Treaty of Utrecht and the subsequent return of Gibraltar to Spain
9.
Mobile phone
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A mobile phone is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while the user is moving within a telephone service area. The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the systems of a mobile phone operator. Most modern mobile telephone services use a network architecture, and, therefore. Mobile phones which offer these and more general computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones, the first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing c.4.4 lbs. In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first commercially available mobile phone. From 1983 to 2014, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew to seven billion, penetrating 100% of the global population. In first quarter of 2016, the top smartphone manufacturers were Samsung, Apple, a handheld mobile radio telephone service was envisioned in the early stages of radio engineering. In 1917, Finnish inventor Eric Tigerstedt filed a patent for a pocket-size folding telephone with a thin carbon microphone. Early predecessors of cellular phones included analog radio communications from ships, the race to create truly portable telephone devices began after World War II, with developments taking place in many countries. These 0G systems were not cellular, supported few simultaneous calls, the first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing c.4.4 lbs. The first commercial automated cellular network was launched in Japan by Nippon Telegraph and this was followed in 1981 by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone system in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Several other countries followed in the early to mid-1980s. These first-generation systems could support far more simultaneous calls but still used analog cellular technology, in 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first commercially available handheld mobile phone. In 1991, the digital cellular technology was launched in Finland by Radiolinja on the GSM standard. This sparked competition in the sector as the new operators challenged the incumbent 1G network operators, ten years later, in 2001, the third generation was launched in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA standard. This was followed by 3. 5G, 3G+ or turbo 3G enhancements based on the high-speed packet access family, allowing UMTS networks to have data transfer speeds. By 2009, it had become clear that, at point, 3G networks would be overwhelmed by the growth of bandwidth-intensive applications. Consequently, the industry began looking to data-optimized fourth-generation technologies, with the promise of speed improvements up to ten-fold over existing 3G technologies
10.
History of Gibraltar
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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, as one historian has put it. Gibraltar was first inhabited over 50,000 years ago by Neanderthals, Gibraltars recorded history began around 950 BC with the Phoenicians, who lived nearby. Gibraltar became part of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania following the collapse of the Roman Empire and 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, 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, at the wars end, Spain ceded the territory to Britain under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713. Spain tried to control of Gibraltar, which Britain had declared a Crown colony, through military. 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 base in the Peninsular War. The colony grew rapidly during the 19th and early 20th centuries and 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, 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, the Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco declined to join a Nazi plan to occupy Gibraltar but revived Spains 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, Spains 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 Gibraltars 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 Britains overseas defence commitments. Most British forces have left the territory, which is no longer seen as a place of military importance. Its economy is now based on tourism, financial services, shipping, Gibraltar is largely self-governed, with its own parliament and government, though the UK maintains responsibility for defence and foreign policy. Its economic success has made it one of the wealthiest areas of the European Union, the history of Gibraltar has been driven by its strategic position near the entrance of the Mediterranean Sea. It is a peninsula at the eastern side of the Bay of Gibraltar,6 kilometres from the city of Algeciras
11.
George Rooke
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Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Rooke was an English naval officer. As a junior officer he saw action at the Battle of Solebay, as a captain, he conveyed Prince William of Orange to England and took part in the Battle of Bantry Bay during the Williamite War in Ireland. As a flag officer, Rooke commanded a division of the Royal Navy during their defeat at the Battle of Beachy Head and he also commanded a division at the Battle of Barfleur and distinguished himself at the Battle of La Hogue. He was later defeated while escorting a convoy at the Battle of Lagos and he also commanded the allied naval forces at the capture of Gibraltar and attacked the French fleet at the Battle of Málaga. Born the son of Colonel Sir William Rooke and Jane Rooke, Rooke joined the Royal Navy as a volunteer in 1672. He transferred to the first-rate HMS Royal Prince, flagship of the Duke of York, in 1673, promoted to captain on 13 November 1673, Rooke was given command of the sixth-rate HMS Holmes and was deployed on convoy duties. After a period of service in the Army, Rooke transferred to the command of the fifth-rate HMS Nonsuch in April 1677 and conveyed Prince William of Orange to England in October 1677. In Deptford he saw action at the Battle of Bantry Bay in May 1689 when a French fleet tried to land troops in Southern Ireland to fight against Prince William during the Williamite War in Ireland. His tactics during the battle were subsequently severely criticised at the inquiry, knighted on 20 February 1693, he commanded the escort for Smyrna convoy, which was scattered and partly captured by the French Admiral Comte de Tourville at the Battle of Lagos in June 1693. He was promoted to admiral in July 1693. Rooke became a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty on the Admiralty board led by Admiral Edward Russell in May 1694 and he also became commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Fleet in August 1695 and then returned to England in April 1696. When the Admiralty was reconstituted under a council headed by the Lord High Admiral and he was also appointed Vice-Admiral of England later that year. The Allies resolved upon an expedition, led by Rooke, to capture the southern Spanish port of Cádiz, however, on arrival in August 1702 the Allies made little or no progress in the assault on Cádiz. However the English Government had become aware that a Spanish treasure fleet was sitting in Vigo Bay, Rooke received the thanks of Parliament in this important action in the opening stages of the War of the Spanish Succession. Rooke safely delivered Archduke Charles of Austria to Windsor Castle in December 1703, Rooke also attacked the French fleet at the Battle of Málaga later that month. He died at his home, Lawrence House in Canterbury, on 24 January 1709 and was buried at St Pauls Church in Canterbury. In November 2004 Peter Caruana, Chief Minister of Gibraltar, unveiled a statue of Rooke as part of the 300th anniversary celebration of the capture of Gibraltar, in around October 1684 Rooke married to Mary Howe. After the death of his first wife he married Mary Luttrell in January 1701, after the death of his second wife, he married Catherine Knatchbull in January 1706
12.
Thirteenth Siege of Gibraltar
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The Siege of Gibraltar of 1727 saw Spanish forces besiege the British garrison of Gibraltar as part of the Anglo-Spanish War. Depending on the sources, Spanish troops numbered between 12,000 and 25,000, British defenders were 1,500 at the beginning of the siege, increasing up to about 5,000. After a five-month siege with several unsuccessful and costly assaults, Spanish troops gave up, following the failure the war drew to a close, opening the way for the 1728 Treaty of El Pardo and the Treaty of Seville signed in 1729. On 1 January 1727 the Marquis of Pozobueno, Spanish ambassador to the Court of St, the letter was tantamount to a declaration of war. Spain, however, was not in an advantageous position to capture Gibraltar in 1727. At the last attempt to retake Gibraltar in 1704, Spain had a strong Navy, however, following their defeat at the battle of Cape Passaro and the capture of Vigo and Pasajes, the Spanish Navy was severely weakened. The Royal Navy had complete naval supremacy in the Straits, ruling out a Spanish landing in the south, also, any attempt to scale the Rock from the east was now impossible as the British had destroyed the path. The only option of open to the Spanish was along a narrow funnel that ran between the sea and the western side of the North Face of the Rock. This narrow strip of land would come under fire from three sides, Williss battery to the east, the Grand Battery to the south, a number of Philip Vs senior military advisers warned the King that the recapture of Gibraltar was, at the present, near impossible. The Marquis of Villadarias had warned that it would be impossible to take the Rock without naval support, is going to Madrid to complain to the King. Despite Verbooms doubts, the King gave de las Torres leave to attempt an assault on Gibraltar, the count began to muster the besieging troops at San Roque at the start of 1727, in total thirty infantry battalions, six squadrons of horse, seventy-two mortars and ninety-two guns. Large parts of the army were not themselves Spanish, serving alongside the Jacobite Irish was the infamous Duke of Wharton. A notorious libertine, alcoholic, and founder of the original Hellfire Club, Wharton had fled England and he attained permission from Philip V to serve as volunteer aide-de-camp to the Count de las Torres, and was something of an embarrassment to both sides. The Duke of Wharton never comes into the trenches but when he is Drunk, and that then and he was to be badly injured in the leg during the siege and he was later declared an outlaw by the British Government. Both the Governor of Gibraltar and the Lieutenant Governor were in England when the Spanish began to amass their forces, by early February Spanish labourers had moved down from San Roque to the isthmus and started to construct battle lines. On 22 February a warning shot was fired over the heads of the working parties, the Governor gave them a Gun, at Four OClock, by way of Challenge, and, in an hour, Canonaded them very warmly. The finished trenches might have proved the attackers with a foothold from which to assault the town. Williss battery, on the North Face of the Rock, gave the Spaniards a great deal of trouble
