Rental Cars Gibraltar - History of Gibraltar

Not quite a country, but hotly contested for centuries, Gibraltar is one of the world’s strangest anomalies. Occupying a strategically important, well defensible landmark (resulting from the rock) at the entrance to the Mediterranean, this tiny piece of land has fallen into Muslim, Spanish and British hands over the centuries.

It’s importance was first noted by Tariq ibn Ziyad, the Muslim governor of Tangier, who landed her in ad 711 to launch his Islamic invasion of the Iberian Peninsula. Today the Rock still bears the name Jebel Tariq (Tariq's Mountain).

It wasn’t until 1462 that Castilla managed to wrested the Rock from the Muslims and return it to Spain, but they lost it soon after when an Anglo-Dutch fleet captured it during the War of the Spanish Succession (1704). Although Spain formally ceded the Rock to Britain in 1713, it continued trying to rid the British from its peninsula, most famously the great siege of 1779-83.

Britain developed it into an important naval base, but it continued to be remain a point of dispute between the two countries, especially during the Franco era during which the border remained closed between 1967 to 1985. By 1969 the local population was so overwhelmingly British, that a poll resulted 99% voting in favour of British sovereignty.

The British garrison has since withdrawn and Gibraltar now functions under domestic self-government, benefiting as a British protectorate. Apart from its habour activities, tourism is now the main source of income.