Terry Foreman on 7 Jul 2012  •  Link

Gibraltar is located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region.

Evidence of Neanderthal habitation in Gibraltar between 128,000 and 24,000 BC has been discovered at Gorham's Cave, making Gibraltar 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 until the Islamic conquest of Iberia in 711 AD. Seven centuries of Moorish control ended when Gibraltar was captured by the Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1462 as part of the Spanish Reconquista.

After the conquest, King Henry IV assumed the title of King of Gibraltar, establishing it as part of the municipal area of the Campo Llano de Gibraltar. Six years later Gibraltar was restored to the Duke of Medina Sidonia who sold it in 1474 to a group of Jewish conversos from Cordova and Seville in exchange for maintaining the garrison of the town for two years, after which time the 4,350 Jews were expelled by the Duke as part of the Inquisition. In 1501 Gibraltar passed back to the hands of the Spanish Crown and Isabella I of Castile issued a Royal Warrant granting Gibraltar the coat of arms that it still uses today. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibr…

San Diego Sarah on 22 Aug 2024  •  Link

The Strait of Gibraltar is the channel connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean, lying between southernmost Spain and northwesternmost Africa.

It is 36 miles (58 km) long and narrows to 8 miles (13 km) in width between Point Marroquí (Spain) and Point Cires (Morocco).

The strait’s western extreme is 27 miles (43 km) wide between the capes of Trafalgar (north) and Spartel (south), and the eastern extreme is 14 miles (23 km) wide between the Pillars of Heracles — which have been identified as the Rock of Gibraltar to the north and one of two peaks to the south: Mount Hacho (held by Spain), near the city of Ceuta, a Spanish exclave in Morocco; or Jebel Moussa (Musa), in Morocco.

The strait is an important gap, averaging 1,200 feet (365 metres) in depth in the arc formed by the Atlas Mountains of North Africa and the high plateau of Spain.

The winds in the strait tend to be either easterly or westerly. Shallow cold-air masses, invading the western Mediterranean from the north, often stream through as a low-level, high-speed easterly wind, known locally as a levanter. There is also a significant exchange of water through the strait. A surface current flows eastward through the centre of the channel, except when affected by easterly winds. This surface movement exceeds a westward flow of heavier, colder, and more saline water, which takes place below a depth of about 400 feet (120 metres). Thus, only the existence of the strait prevents the Mediterranean from becoming a shrinking salt lake.

water glass on white background. (drink; clear; clean water; liquid)

The Pillars of Heracles marked the western end of the Classical world.

Of great strategic and economic importance, the strait was used by many early Atlantic voyagers and has continued to be vital to southern Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia as a shipping route. Much of the area’s history involved rivalry over control of the Rock of Gibraltar.

See
https://www.britannica.com/place/…

San Diego Sarah on 22 Aug 2024  •  Link

Elsewhere Alter Kacker in 2024 reported a helpful observation:
I’m no sailor, but I’m just back from a trip that included Malaga, Cadiz, Tarifa, Gibraltar and a ferry crossing to Tangier.
When the Levante wind is blowing, as it was two weeks ago, the Venturi effect as it passes between the Pillars of Hercules is really nasty.

San Diego Sarah on 2 Sep 2024  •  Link

To continue Terry's thoughts about the history of The Rock:

Gibraltar's inhospitable terrain made it an unpopular place to live. To boost the population in the 16th century, convicts from the kingdom of Granada were offered the possibility of serving their sentence in the Gibraltar garrison as an alternative to prison.
Despite its unattractiveness, Juan Alfonso de Guzmán, 3rd Duke of Medina Sidonia, still sought to regain control of the town. In September 1506, following Isabella's death, he laid siege, expectating the gates would quickly open to his forces.
After a fruitless 4-month blockade, he gave up. And Gibraltar received the title of "Most Loyal" from the Spanish crown in recognition of its resistance.

Despite continuing threats Gibraltar was neglected by the Spanish crown and its fortifications fell into disrepair.
Barbary pirates from North Africa took advantage of the weak defences in September 1540 by mounting a major raid in which hundreds of Gibraltar's residents were taken as hostages or slaves.
The Shrine of Our Lady of Europe was sacked and all its valuables were stolen.
Many of the captives were subsequently released when a Spanish fleet intercepted the pirate ships near Alborán as they were bringing ransomed hostages back to Gibraltar.
The Spanish crown belatedly responded to Gibraltar's vulnerability by building the Charles V Wall to control the southern flank of the Rock and strengthened other parts of the fortifications.

The seas around Gibraltar continued to be dangerous as Barbary pirate raids continued. A small squadron of Spanish galleys was based at the port to counter pirate raids, but proved to be of limited effectiveness and many inhabitants were abducted and sold into slavery by the pirates.

The problem worsened after 1606, when Spain expelled the Moriscos (Muslims who had converted to Christianity). Many of the expellees were evacuated to North Africa via Gibraltar but ended up joining the pirate fleets, either as Christian slaves or reconverted Muslims, and raided as far afield as Cornwall.

The threat to Gibraltar by the Barbary pirates was soon joined by that of Spain's enemies in northern Europe.

On 5 May 1607, during the Eighty Years' War, a Dutch fleet under Adm, Jacob van Heemskerk ambushed a Spanish fleet at anchor in the Bay of Gibraltar. The Dutch won an overwhelming victory, losing no ships and few men while the entire Spanish fleet was destroyed with the loss of 3,000 men.

San Diego Sarah on 2 Sep 2024  •  Link

PART 2

The Spanish and Dutch declared a temporary truce in 1609, but resumed hostilities in 1621 when a joint Dutch and Danish fleet arrived in the Strait to attack Spanish shipping. This time the Spanish succeeded in capturing and sinking some of the attacker's ships in the second Battle of Gibraltar, driving away the rest.

An English military presence was briefly established at Gibraltar for the first time in 1620. The Spanish granted permission for the English fleet to use Gibraltar's port as a base for operations against the Barbary pirates, who were raiding the British and Irish coasts.

Some in England wanted to turn the fleet against Spain rather than the Barbary coast. However, King James successfully resisted Parliamentary pressure to declare war on Spain and the fleet returned to England.

After King Charles ascended the throne in 1625, a second English fleet was sent to the region with instructions to "take or spoil a town" on the Spanish coast. Gibraltar was one of the proposed targets because it was small, could easily be garrisoned, supplied and defended, and was in a highly strategic location.

The English fleet instead attacked Cádiz in the belief that its sacking would be more immediately profitable. The raid turned into a fiasco. The landing force looted the town's wine stores and was evacuated after 4 days of drunkenness without anything useful being achieved.

The presence of Spain's enemies in the Straits prompted the Spanish king Philip IV to strengthen Gibraltar's defences.
A new mole and gun platforms were built, although the latter's usefulness was limited due to a lack of gunners.
The town was an unsanitary, crowded place, which probably contributed to the outbreak in 1649 of an epidemic – reportedly plague but possibly typhoid – which killed a quarter of the population.

English fleets returned to Gibraltar in 1651–52 and again in 1654–55 as temporary allies of the Spanish against French and Dutch shipping in the Straits.

San Diego Sarah on 2 Sep 2024  •  Link

CONCLUSION

In 1654, Oliver Cromwell decided to turn on Spain (which had been the first country to recognise the Commonwealth of England) and seize the island of Hispaniola to make it a base for English expansion in the Caribbean.
To do so, 2 fleets were fitted out: one set out for the Caribbean and another to the western Mediterranean (with the stated objective of fighting the Barbary pirates).

The Caribbean fleet failed to seize Hispaniola but took over Jamaica instead in May 1655.
The fleet in the Mediterranean sailed off Cádiz to intercept the Spanish treasure fleet, with no success.
With the arrival of the winter, the fleet went back to England.

Spain did not declare war on England until February 1656.
Shortly afterwards, Cromwell sent a fleet of 49 English warships manned by 10,000 sailors and soldiers sailed through the Straits and reconnoitred Gibraltar.
Although they lacked a viable landing force and took no action, Oliver expressed interest in its capture: "if possessed and made tenable by us, would it not be both an advantage to our trade, and an annoyance to the Spaniards, and enable us [to] ... ease our own charge?"

In 1693, during the Nine Years' War, in which Spain and England were allies, the remnants of an English-Dutch escort squadron under the command of Adm. Sir George Rooke took refuge at Gibraltar, pursued by the French, after losing the Battle of Lagos Bay.
In 1704, Rooke returned to Gibraltar and captured it. [And it remained British, just to upset everyone. - SDS]
FROM History of Gibraltar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His…

And the British occupation of Gibralter did upset a lot of people. For instance, the fright the Vatican received just from Oliver Cromwell's 1650's cruising squadron; a Protestant gatekeeper the mouth of the Mediterranean could only be an abiding menace to Rome.

Control of the Straits of Gibraltar, the mouth of the Mediterranean, was a very big deal. Queen Elizabeth saw it, as did Cromwell, and in the 1660's Charles II was attempting it by accepting Tangier from the Portuguese.

For more about this on-going Mediterranean policy, see
ENGLAND IN THE MEDITERRANEAN : A STUDY OF THE RISE AND INFLUENCE OF BRITISH POWER WITHIN THE STRAITS 1603-1713
BY JULIAN S. CORBETT
VOL. I. and II
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK AND BOMBAY
1904
https://archive.org/stream/englan…

San Diego Sarah on 31 Oct 2024  •  Link

Sandwich repeatedly refers to the gut of the Straits. Does anyone know what he means by that? In the past I have heard of the waist of a harbor or river mouth, meaning the smallest part of the opening. I suspect that's the meaning???