Spain - United Kingdom Relations - Gibraltar-Spain Border, Strait of Gibraltar, Disputed Status of Gibraltar, Nootka Crisis, Treaty of Utrecht (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 23. Chapters: Gibraltar-Spain border, Strait of Gibraltar, Disputed status of Gibraltar, Nootka Crisis, Treaty of Utrecht, Disputed status of the isthmus between Gibraltar and Spain, List of ambassadors from the United Kingdom to Spain, Alboran Sea. Excerpt: Gibraltar is a British overseas territory, near the southernmost tip of the Iberian peninsula, which is the subject of a disputed irredentist claim by Spain. Gibraltar was captured in 1704, during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714). Spain formally ceded the territory in perpetuity to the British Crown in 1713, under Article X of the Treaty of Utrecht. This was confirmed in later treaties signed in Paris and Seville. Spain later attempted to recapture the territory militarily by a number of failed sieges, and reclamation of the territory by peaceful means remains its government's policy. The Gibraltarians themselves reject any such claim and no political party or pressure group in Gibraltar supports union with Spain. In a referendum in 2002 the people of Gibraltar soundly rejected a joint sovereignty proposal on which Spain and Britain were said to have reached "broad agreement." The British government has committed itself to respecting the Gibraltarians' wishes. 25,000 people demonstrated in Gibraltar on 18 March 2002.Despite this, an overwhelming majority of the population holds the view that better relations with Spain are desirable. A mass demonstration held in March 2002, whilst condemning the idea of joint sovereignty, called for good, neighbourly European relations with Spain, based on reasonable dialogue and mutual respect. The territorial claim was formally reasserted by the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco in the 1960s and has been continued by successive Spanish governments. They have insisted that the Gibraltar dispute is a purely bilateral matter and t...