What is the significance of the rock of gibraltar

Even so the French were exhausted and sought peace. When that came in , with the end of fighting in the War of Spanish Succession, the Bourbons were in control of Spain—but on condition that the thrones of France and Spain could not be united. As a part of the treaty, the British retained control of the island of Minorca, which they had also captured, and Gibraltar.

The Spanish refused to accept that they had lost Gibraltar because of a petty dynastic squabble. Their bitterness was further inflamed by British restrictions on the religious freedom of Catholics in the newly conquered territory. It was only a matter of time before the two countries would again come to blows and make Gibraltar a battleground. Fighting broke out in , when the Spaniards mounted another unsuccessful assault by land.

Major William Green, an engineer who was posted to Gibraltar in , knew that the Spanish would try to reconquer the Rock. What he saw at Gibraltar worried him. While the landward defenses were strong, those to sea were not. British command of the Mediterranean around Gibraltar was robust but could never be guaranteed. The improvements came in the nick of time. For Spain, North America meant little compared to the Rock, which they eagerly wanted back. Their determination culminated in the so-called Great Siege.

From to the Spanish did their best to blockade the peninsula by both land and sea and made multiple attempts to capture it. The defenders, vigorously led by General George Augustus Eliott—assisted ably by Green—successfully repulsed every attack. Laid low at times by short rations and disease, they never came close to surrender.

After the Great Siege, Gibraltar became a renowned symbol of British imperial power. During the Napoleonic Wars it served as an important naval base. In Gibraltar received the body of Admiral Horatio Nelson—preserved in a cask of brandy—after his death in the nearby Battle of Trafalgar. During the Peninsular War — the French groped toward but never came close to seizing the Rock.

During the 19th century the town below the Rock grew into a thriving community alongside the military garrison. The outbreak of the First World War brought Gibraltar straight back into the headlines. German surface ships soon disappeared from the seas, however, and Gibraltar settled back into its daily routines.

The appearance of German U-boats in the Mediterranean in found the British unprepared. The British garrison looked on in frustration but could do nothing to stop them. In and Gibraltar served as an assembly point for ocean convoys, but that was about the extent of its contribution to the war effort.

World War II brought Gibraltar back into the strategic picture. Although Spanish dictator Francisco Franco adopted a deliberately nebulous nonbelligerent posture, his pro-Axis leanings were well known, and there was always the possibility he would throw in his lot with Hitler and Mussolini.

Nor did he make any secret of his resentment of British control of the Rock. If Hitler had succeeded in bringing Franco into the Axis or if Germany had invaded Spain, Gibraltar would surely have been in deep trouble. Spain held the key to all British enterprises in the Mediterranean.

Gibraltar did come under attack from German and Italian aircraft, which sometimes bombed the peninsula but caused little damage. The greatest immediate danger came from Italian frogmen under the command of Prince Valerio Borghese, an aristocrat and enthusiastic Fascist.

The frogmen guided manned torpedoes toward British merchant ships and attached explosive charges to their hulls before swimming ashore, where Italian agents picked them up and smuggled them out of Spain. It's often described as being a bit like Britain in a time warp, and not all of it cosy and nostalgic. The age of consent for gay men was only equalised in , civil partnerships are not recognised, let alone equal marriage, and gay couples have only been allowed to adopt since April this year following a supreme court ruling.

It was the only place that could marry them at such short notice. Within an hour they headed for Amsterdam, and the Hilton hotel, where they spent their honeymoon in bed, accompanied by the world's press, to call for world peace. Gibraltar, which commemorated 30 years since the marriage with a special edition of stamps in , doesn't appear to have taken it as a snub. Attracted by low taxes, several of the biggest names in online gambling have moved offshore to Gibraltar in recent years, including William Hill and Ladbrokes.

A curious move, as surely the biggest threat to Gibraltar's attractiveness would be populating it with hedge fund managers. Gibraltar: 10 things you need to know about the Rock. Tensions are escalating at the Spanish-Gibraltarian border, with Spain warning that the 'party is over'. But what's life like on the Rock?

Who famously married there? And why shouldn't you tease one of the Barbary macaques? A Barbary macaque on the Rock of Gibraltar. Topics Gibraltar Shortcuts Europe Spain features. The Spanish ships were carefully prepared with wet sand and wet cork between the timbers and a sprinkler system to put out fires caused by red-hot shot.

During this long siege the Gibraltarians suffered greatly through lack of food. General Eliott was the Governor at this time; he had arrived at the Rock in and showed himself to be a great leader and planner. As an example to his men he lived on 4 ounces of rice a day when the siege was at its height.

It was during this siege that a Lieutenant Koehler solved the problem of how to fire the cannons from a steep angle of depression, from high up on the Rock down onto the besieging forces. Lieutenant Shrapnel, another of the garrison at that time, developed the ammunition that still bears his name. The numerous tunnels that are still in use today were the responsibility of a Sergeant-Major Ince, and these tunnels made it possible for the guns to bear down onto the Mediterranean shore.

Sergeant-Major Ince may have made better tunnels than he realised as they were used for the same purpose, gun emplacements, in the Second World War, and were invaluable to the Allied Forces.

The British had between 5, and 7, men and only 96 guns during the Great Siege , and the Spanish and French forces numbered 40, men and guns. Gibraltar has always been part of British history. Most of the civilian population were evacuated, except for 4, who fought with great courage to defend the freedom of the Rock.