![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mandragoraHappy Birthday Gibraltar.
I'm ridiculously amused by the current hoohah surrounding the celebrations for the 300 years of British sovereignty over Gibraltar.
This morning on the Today programme there was an interview with a man whose ancestors were displaced from Gibraltar 300 years ago when the British took the Rock from the Spanish. He was bemoaning and bewailing and, really, one could have gained the impression that his life was totally ruined by this event. That happened 300 years ago. Rather before he was born, I suspect.
I can understand why the Spanish are, hmm, irritated at having this British possession stuck just off the Spanish coast by La Linea, but. If they want to persuade the Gibraltarians to change their minds and decide that they want to be Spanish rather than British throwing a temper tantrum really isn't the way to win friends and influence people. Plus, every time the Spanish have a hissy fit over Gibraltar being British I am irresistably reminded of the fact that Spain 'owns' two enclaves in Morocco which they have no intention of handing back. Hypocritical, much?
The irony is that Britain has now held sovereignty over Gibraltar for longer than Spain did, the Spanish being quick to claim it from the Moors when Arab power in the region started to fail. Britain wanted the Rock because of its immense strategic value at a time when British naval power was starting to increase. So, Britain marched in and booted the Spaniards out. That included the local civilian population who supported the military garrison. The trouble was that you couldn't run a military base in those days without a local civilian population and obviously the locals, who were unsurprisingly resentful as all hell weren't going to oblige.
So, the British hit on a Cunning Plan, and invited the Genoese (who were great travellers in those days) to come and settle on Gibraltar. Which they duly did. As a result the Gibraltarians are not of Spanish descent (although inevitably many of them have Spanish blood, their ancestors having intermingled with the Spanish over the centuries). They self identify, very proudly, as being British. The combination of Genoese and British culture has produced a curious amalgam of influences. Spanish is definitely there, of course. But they are most certainly not Spanish.
Feelings against Spain still run high. Many of them suffered greatly under Franco, when Gibraltar was cut off from Spain for 25 years. The only way out of Gib in those days was by a direct flight (which steered well clear of Spanish territory) to Britain or the ferry to Morocco. Even today there are Gibraltarians in their sixties and seventies who have never been off the Rock in their entire lives. The mind boggles.
I lived in Gib for a while. Long enough to become thoroughly annoyed at Spain's attitude to the Rock. And I love Spain, think that the Spanish people are, for the most part, warm, welcoming and hospitable with a cultural history to die for.
Nowadays Spain settles for petty harassment at the border with Spain. Petty, but extremely annoying. Waiting in the queue for 2 to 3 hours to drive across to Spain to go shopping on a Saturday is not much fun. Even with the loos thoughtfully positioned nearby in Gibraltar in anticipation of the long wait. Other annoyances include the fact that in Spain there aren't any signposts to Gibraltar until one is actually at Gibraltar. Likewise, if one posts a letter in Spain to Gibraltar it will take ages to get there because the letter is sent to the UK first and from there to Gibraltar.
Because Gibraltar doesn't exist, you see. Not in Spain, anyway.
Sigh.
As Gibraltar is no longer of prime strategic importance (although strategically significant, certainly) it would be in Spain's interests to woo Gibraltar, persuade them to become Spanish. Bullying demonstrably won't work. What a pity the Spanish don't seem to have learnt that lesson. Because in these post-colonial days the rule very firmly is that the people of the colony get to determine what they want, not what the mother country wants.
No, of course Britain wouldn't want or dream of seizing Gibraltar nowadays. But back then Spain was An Enemy and, well, the times were different. The whole bloody world was different. *g*
And what the people of Gibraltar want, overwhelmingly so, is to remain British.
I'm ridiculously amused by the current hoohah surrounding the celebrations for the 300 years of British sovereignty over Gibraltar.
This morning on the Today programme there was an interview with a man whose ancestors were displaced from Gibraltar 300 years ago when the British took the Rock from the Spanish. He was bemoaning and bewailing and, really, one could have gained the impression that his life was totally ruined by this event. That happened 300 years ago. Rather before he was born, I suspect.
I can understand why the Spanish are, hmm, irritated at having this British possession stuck just off the Spanish coast by La Linea, but. If they want to persuade the Gibraltarians to change their minds and decide that they want to be Spanish rather than British throwing a temper tantrum really isn't the way to win friends and influence people. Plus, every time the Spanish have a hissy fit over Gibraltar being British I am irresistably reminded of the fact that Spain 'owns' two enclaves in Morocco which they have no intention of handing back. Hypocritical, much?
The irony is that Britain has now held sovereignty over Gibraltar for longer than Spain did, the Spanish being quick to claim it from the Moors when Arab power in the region started to fail. Britain wanted the Rock because of its immense strategic value at a time when British naval power was starting to increase. So, Britain marched in and booted the Spaniards out. That included the local civilian population who supported the military garrison. The trouble was that you couldn't run a military base in those days without a local civilian population and obviously the locals, who were unsurprisingly resentful as all hell weren't going to oblige.
So, the British hit on a Cunning Plan, and invited the Genoese (who were great travellers in those days) to come and settle on Gibraltar. Which they duly did. As a result the Gibraltarians are not of Spanish descent (although inevitably many of them have Spanish blood, their ancestors having intermingled with the Spanish over the centuries). They self identify, very proudly, as being British. The combination of Genoese and British culture has produced a curious amalgam of influences. Spanish is definitely there, of course. But they are most certainly not Spanish.
Feelings against Spain still run high. Many of them suffered greatly under Franco, when Gibraltar was cut off from Spain for 25 years. The only way out of Gib in those days was by a direct flight (which steered well clear of Spanish territory) to Britain or the ferry to Morocco. Even today there are Gibraltarians in their sixties and seventies who have never been off the Rock in their entire lives. The mind boggles.
I lived in Gib for a while. Long enough to become thoroughly annoyed at Spain's attitude to the Rock. And I love Spain, think that the Spanish people are, for the most part, warm, welcoming and hospitable with a cultural history to die for.
Nowadays Spain settles for petty harassment at the border with Spain. Petty, but extremely annoying. Waiting in the queue for 2 to 3 hours to drive across to Spain to go shopping on a Saturday is not much fun. Even with the loos thoughtfully positioned nearby in Gibraltar in anticipation of the long wait. Other annoyances include the fact that in Spain there aren't any signposts to Gibraltar until one is actually at Gibraltar. Likewise, if one posts a letter in Spain to Gibraltar it will take ages to get there because the letter is sent to the UK first and from there to Gibraltar.
Because Gibraltar doesn't exist, you see. Not in Spain, anyway.
Sigh.
As Gibraltar is no longer of prime strategic importance (although strategically significant, certainly) it would be in Spain's interests to woo Gibraltar, persuade them to become Spanish. Bullying demonstrably won't work. What a pity the Spanish don't seem to have learnt that lesson. Because in these post-colonial days the rule very firmly is that the people of the colony get to determine what they want, not what the mother country wants.
No, of course Britain wouldn't want or dream of seizing Gibraltar nowadays. But back then Spain was An Enemy and, well, the times were different. The whole bloody world was different. *g*
And what the people of Gibraltar want, overwhelmingly so, is to remain British.
