Books on Gibraltar

[Nogtime]

I'm going through a bit of a crisis here - and help would be much appreciated! Due to the fact that one of my grandfathers came from Gibraltar, I decided to write a paper on Gibraltarian history and literature for one of my university courses. The problem is: there is hardly anything I can find about the place.
After three weeks of trawling through second hand stores here in my native Oregon all I have found has been a history book written by a retired British general by the name of Jackson. But that is all. Does anyone know of any other history or literary books about Gibraltar - and, more importantly, how to go about finding them? I read an article on the web about a novel called Rock Black 0-10 by an author called M. G. Sanchez. That looked interesting - but I have no idea how to trace it. Help much appreciated - otherwise I am going to have to go to my supervisor cap in hand and tell her that I can't fulfill my original essay plan!

[mtpspur]

Went to Yahoo and typed in Gibraltar literature which got me to Amazon.com and there are several books listed. (Not trying to be funny or anything--I usually check any subject that passes thru the brain cells by doing yahoo first --then the library---mine better then some--worse then others and interlibrary loans books was a godsend for finding Sabatini books I don't own--YET.)

[Bastet]

Well, since I live in Spain, I might be able to find something around here... I'll keep an eye out, ok? One expects that more would have been written about that controversial little rock, but the truth is that besides the fact that it was given to the British by the Spanish as part of the Treaty of Utretch in 1713 and that a fence was built between Gibraltar and Spain in the 1950s, not many other facts are really known by everyday people. I think it's an interesting subject of study and I'm sure it'll be a great paper if you can find the information you need and go through with your project. Good luck!!

[Turk]

What's Gibraltar friends? I heard it for first time in my life.

[Bastet]

Hello Turk,
Gibraltar is a piece of land with a huge rock in the south of Spain that million of years ago joined Spain to the north of Africa. As the continents separated with the centuries they created what's now called the Strait of Gibraltar. The thing is that in 1713 there was a peace treaty between Spain and England called the Treaty of Utretch and one of the points of it was that Spain had to give Gibraltar to Great Britain, since it was a good strategic position for both commerce and warface. Spain accepted and from then on Gibraltar became British. As the centuries went by and all the countries in the world started giving up their colonies in other countries, Spain tried to claim Gibraltar back, but Great Britain refused to give it up. Up to the 1950s people from Gibraltar and those from the southern town of Spain close to it could cross go back and forth pretty freely. However, in the 1950s a fence was created between both territories and that way the border between one country and another was made more difficult to cross. Families were separated too, since relations between people from one place and another had been common up to that moment. Now, there's a proper border that separates that little piece of land from the rest and crossing it is like entering England. Until the European Union was created, I or any other Spanish citizen needed a passport to get in.
After all these years Gibraltar is still British, and the situation still a controversial one, since people from Gibraltar are not Spanish but do not enjoy the same benefits than the British people living in Great Britain. Actually, one of the last polls revealed that they didn't considered themselves British nor Spanish, but citizens from Gibraltar. If you see the map of Spain, imagine a tiny part in the south belonging to another country, and you'll understand the controversy.

[KDuval]

Hello all!

I'm from Gibraltar and came across this forum when I was looking for something, so I've literally just signed up.

First of all, a quick outline of the history. The Rock of Gibraltar (which appears in the American Prudential logo) is a large chunk (technically two chunks) of Jurassic limestone north of the Straits of Gibraltar, the sea link between the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. It's physically joined to Spain but looks out towards Mediterranean, Atlantic and North Africa. Neanderthals probably made their last stand in Gibraltar about 28,000 years ago, probably co-existing with the humans who've lived here since.

Phoenecian sailors — and most of the ancients who followed them — regarded Gibraltar as a sacred place, the gateway to the dangerous ocean. Carthaginians were replaced by Romans, then Germanic "barbarians", before Tarik ibn-Zayad landed in Gibraltar in 711 on his way to establish the first Islamic Empire in Western Europe. The Rock of Gibraltar is named after him ("Jebel Tarik" - Tarik's Hill.)

The Rock was fortified at some stage and until its fall in 1462, was the last port to serve the Islamic Kingdom of Granada, finally conquered by the "Catholic Monarchs" in 1492. In 1704 Dutch, British and German marines conquered the Rock on behalf of a pretender to the Spanish throne. The peace treaty that ended that war saw forever Spain relinquishing sovereignty to the British, with the priviso that Gibraltar should become Spanish should the British ever leave. A few years later Spain tried to reinvade, but the fortress held firm. There were several other invasion attempts in the 18th century, sometime in collaboration with the French, but the British garrison won every time.

The controversy about Gibraltar is of course that Spain wants it back, viewing it as an insulting symbol of colonialism. In the last 300 years an autonomous community has formed on the Rock, and these are the people who don't want to be Spanish. The British keep a military base here: pretty valuable to the United States, since Spain is sensible enough to stay out of most American wars.

To be honest, the British aren't too worried about keeping the Rock. They can't grant independence because then Gibraltar wouldn't be British, which Spain says goes against the 1713 Treaty. They can't give Gibraltar to Spain because the locals would never accept Spanish rule. That's why the status quo has been maintained for such a long time.

There's also the technical problem that Gibraltar, for all the colonial trappings, is a constitutional democracy. There is still a Governor appointed by the British, but his political role is much like that of the Queen of England. Spain will not recognise the Gibraltar Government, insisting that the existence of such a body runs contrary to its treaty rights, but we enjoyed multiparty elections in Gibraltar at a time when Franco was executing political prisoners.

If Gibraltarian self-government were incorporated into the Spanish political system, as some Spanish doves have proposed, there would be problems with the overall political model. How could a territory of less than three square miles enjoy more autonomy than, say, the whole of Cataluña? The self-governing Gibraltar model also pumps loads of money into Spain, where more than a third of its workforce reside. So you see, it's in everyone's interest to keep Gibraltar as a colony, or "UK Overseas Territory", as Britain now calls Gibraltar, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and so on.

Spain mutters about "anachronisms" when maintaining its own enclaves in Africa. These are politically integrated into the Spanish system, so can claim a different status from Gibraltar and its cousins. Most of us would prefer self-government to integration with Britain, though. The obvious analogy is Puerto Rico, which doesn't want to become a U.S. state.

About the frontier: that was closed by Spain. When Franco saw that we would rather be British than Spanish, he decided to impose an economic blockade. When the frontier was finally closed in 1969, families were split and thousands of Spanish workers were left jobless. Before the telephone link was re-established, news could only get across the world's shortest frontier by someone taking a boat to Morocco, then another to Spain, or by families shouting their messages across no-man's land.

The frontier was re-opened in 1982 as a condition of Spain joining the European Union, but my generation grew up locked inside a tiny territory. Of course we all have Spanish friends, relatives and co-workers, with whom heated political discussion is considered impolite.

That's about as uncontroversial as I can make it. Try the "Gibraltar" entry on Wilkipedia, which is sensible when it hasn't been touched up by idealogues.

"The Rock of the Gibraltarians" by General (and former Governor) William Jackson is the best full history of Gibraltar, though it's not up to date on political events.

[Bastet]

Hello KDuval! Thanks for this great historical outdate and welcome to the forum! :)

[Turk]

Ooh alright, alright... I know Gibraltar. Just we call it Cebelitarik. You know that name comes from Emevi Arab commander. Anyway there's still a lot i learnt from your posts, so thx...