Gibraltar: A Modern History

By Gareth Stockey and Chris Grocott

A timely and up-to-date history of a place and people embroiled in an enduring international dispute.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of Wales Press
• Release date: Jun 15, 2012
• ISBN: 9781783165216

Gareth Stockey

Dr Gareth Stockey is a lecturer in modern Spanish at the University of Nottingham.

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Gibraltar: A Modern History

Gibraltar: A Modern History

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Chris Grocott and Gareth Stockey

UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS

CARDIFF

© Chris Grocott and Gareth Stockey, 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the University of Wales Press, 10 Columbus Walk, Brigantine Place, Cardiff CF10 4UP.

www.uwp.co.uk

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-0-7083-2481-3

e-ISBN 978-1-7831-6521-6

The right of Chris Grocott and Gareth Stockey to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77, 78 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Cover image: Gibraltar Border © Kevin Fitzmaurice-Brown / Alamy.

Cover design: Olwen Fowler

Contents

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Acknowledgements

Map

Introduction

1 Gibraltar as British Fortress, 1704–1783

2 Trading Outpost and Naval Base, 1783–1906

3 Emergence of a Civilian Community, c.1865–1954

4 Relations with Spain, 1704–1969

5 Gibraltar and the Gibraltarians, 1954 to the present

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliographical note

Appendix: Article X of the Treaty of Utrecht (1713)

Acknowledgements

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This work builds upon a combined total of twenty-odd years of research into the history of Gibraltar undertaken by the authors. Over this period we have accrued many debts of gratitude. It is, of course, impossible to give sufficient acknowledgement to all such debts, but here we would like to mention a few.

We are grateful for the support we have received in Gibraltar over the years, particularly from Lorna Swift, librarian of the Garrison Library; Tommy Finlayson and Dennis Beiso, archivists at the Gibraltar Government Archive; and to Pepe Rosado for encouraging us in our work.

Closer to home we are also grateful for the support, first as supervisers, and now as fellow academics and friends, of Professor Martin Blinkhorn and Professor Stephen Constantine. Yet still closer to home we acknowledge and are thankful for the help and encouragement of both our families and of, in particular, Dr Jo Grady and Dr Helena Chadderton; without their support this, and many other projects, would not have been completed. As to any errors contained herein, these are entirely our own doing.

Chris Grocott and Gareth Stockey

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Introduction

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In recent years, books and articles dedicated to specific aspects of Gibraltar’s history have proliferated. Ink has flowed on the Rock’s military history, its relations with the Royal Navy, its famous Barbary macaques, its political development, and, with increased vigour in the past twenty-five years, its civilian community. So diverse are the subjects tackled that, in 2001, even a history of the Rock’s telephone and telegraph services was published. In Britain, Gibraltar has traditionally enjoyed an iconic status. As a fortress and as a naval base, the Rock captured the imagination of a nation that, by and large, welcomed its global imperial mission. This led some commentators to hyperbole. At the turn of the twentieth century, the Chairman of the Institute of Civil Engineers, replying to a paper whose subject was the improvements to Gibraltar’s dockyard and military fortifications, went so far as to suggest that ‘it is the duty of every Englishman to go to Gibraltar and see the Empire’s fortress that guards the Mediterranean’.¹ Clearly not everyone followed this advice. Nevertheless, in the twenty-first century the Rock is a popular tourist destination: the Government of Gibraltar’s budget for 2007 estimated that the number of day visitors to the Rock in that year was around 9.5 million people.² While statistics which break down this figure by nationality are not available, it is a safe assumption that the thousands of plates of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding served in Main Street pubs – even in stifling summer heat – are catering largely for British tastes.

Popular interest in Gibraltar is not fuelled solely by the vision of the Rock as an imperial museum-piece, however. True enough, the Rock’s status as one of ‘the last pink bits’ on the world map is certainly a curious relic, and the notion of ‘a bit of Britain in the sun’ can be a lure to tourists.³ Nevertheless, the contested nature of Gibraltar’s sovereignty regularly returns the Rock to the media spotlight. Frequent reports of the diplomatic wrangling between the respective governments of Britain, Spain and, increasingly, Gibraltar itself, remind people of the British presence and that such a presence is not universally accepted. To understand the dispute today, however, we must understand Gibraltar’s history.

This volume examines the various trends that have affected the Rock’s inhabitants since its capture from Spain in 1704 by an Anglo-Dutch force, and its subsequent cession to Britain in 1713. As a British colony, Gibraltar’s impressive fortifications and dockyard played a crucial role in the conduct of war and in imperial communications. This meant that Gibraltar was, at the same time, both a dangerous and a lucrative place to be. It also meant that the Rock’s fortunes, and those of its inhabitants, were dependent upon wider affairs in the British Empire, Iberian Peninsula and Mediterranean world more broadly. In addition, the same factors that made Gibraltar an important strategic possession also caused tension between the British Government, British officials on the Rock, Spain and, increasingly, the Gibraltarians themselves. At the level of international relations, British occupation of a portion of the Iberian Peninsula – which many Spaniards considered to be part of their homeland – generated responses from Madrid which ranged from bitter acceptance to military initiative. At the local level the development of a separate community of Gibraltarians complicated the Gibraltar dispute still further by adding the existence of a third party who called the territory ‘home’ and increasingly asserted their right of self-determination. While British and Anglo-Spanish themes are, therefore, writ large in this volume, it is the development, amid such grand forces, of a distinctive, self-aware and increasingly self-assertive Gibraltarian community which forms the central narrative thread of this volume.

This modern history of Gibraltar is designed to introduce those with little or no knowledge of the history of Gibraltar to the events and people who have shaped today’s Gibraltarians. Nevertheless, the dedicated scholar of the Rock will also find this work of interest. It builds upon new research and upon developments in the historiography of Gibraltar that have occurred in the past twenty-five years or so. Both are recorded in detail throughout the extensive endnotes provided in each chapter. This volume is innovative for reasons other than its use of unused primary and innovative secondary material, however. Herein, new perspectives are proposed on the development of Gibraltar’s, and Gibraltarians’, political affairs and cultural identity. It is worthwhile examining some of these here.

First, a conscious decision has been made to begin our analysis in 1704. Several general works on Gibraltar take their analysis much further back. Both George Hills, in Rock of Contention, and Sir William Jackson, in Rock of the Gibraltarians, began their narratives with the period up to the Islamic capture of Gibraltar in 711.⁴ This volume rejects attempts to study pre-1704 Gibraltar as something akin to the territory that existed after 1704. In place of the region or ‘greater Gibraltar’, British Gibraltar was, by way of administration, law, taxation and sovereignty separate from the region around it and should be studied as such. Any study designed to analyse the creation of modern Gibraltar must therefore begin with the moment of capture from Spain.

Secondly, the lens through which Gibraltar’s society is viewed is a deliberately wide one. Many histories of Gibraltar have been concerned solely with elites or with the influence of certain key figures on Gibraltar’s political development. This is particularly notable in Jackson’s work, cited above, but it can also be seen in the number of histories, autobiographies and biographies of key individuals, families and businesses in Gibraltar.⁵ In a colonial society such as Gibraltar’s there was, of course, direction and coercion from both the colonial authorities and from entrepreneurial elites that affected the lives of Gibraltarians more broadly. Such issues are important. All too often, however, historians have focussed on these numerically small groups while ignoring wider forces within the Rock’s society. By examining the Rock’s history with thought to the lives and ideas of working-class Gibraltarians, as well as members of the colonial administration, and of the merchant elite, we allow a fuller picture of life on the Rock to emerge.

Thirdly, thinking about the lives of ordinary people on the Rock invites us also to think about the extent to which such lives were affected by changes to the British imperial world and to the Rock’s relationship with Spain. Drawn out here are the broad themes of Anglo-Spanish relations over Gibraltar’s contested status, and the way in which Gibraltar’s society interacted with its Spanish neighbour. As will be seen, present-day animosity between Gibraltarians and Spaniards is a relatively new feature in cross-frontier relations.⁶ Throughout the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, Gibraltarians not only travelled regularly between the Rock and Spain (indeed thousands of Gibraltarians lived across the frontier in Spain) but also enjoyed Spanish leisure activities, spoke Spanish and joined Spanish trade unions. Thus, as will be seen, attempts to define Gibraltarian identity against a Spanish ‘other’ are a relatively new feature – dating back to the closure of the frontier between 1969 and 1985. By considering the relationship between Gibraltar and Spain, new perspectives on Gibraltarian identity are suggested.

One other aspect of the writing of the history of Gibraltar is worth considering. As will be seen in chapter 5, interest in the Rock’s history, particularly on the part of Gibraltarians, has often been driven by a desire to understand (and construct) Gibraltarian identity. Sometimes, this has led historians of Gibraltar to posit a particular view of Gibraltarian identity, where evidence is selected on the basis of its usefulness in weaving a teleological narrative. Such an approach can easily become ahistorical. Emphasised here, therefore, is the role of uncertainty and contingency in the Rock’s affairs. Economic crises and booms caused by regional and international affairs, diplomatic wranglings with Spain, and the changing fortunes of British imperialism have all contributed to forging the history of Gibraltar. Those who lived through these crises could not have known how they would play out. At times, spectacular contingencies such as the need to evacuate the civilian population of the Rock during the Second World War, or the closure of the frontier in 1969, acted to bring hardship, as well as opportunities for change, to Gibraltar. Nevertheless, we reject any attempt to see Gibraltar’s political and cultural development as inevitable. Highlighted throughout will be the uncertain way of life that exists in a frontier territory such as the Rock.

In addition to suggesting changes of perspective when thinking about Gibraltar’s history, this work draws on many excellent developments in the writing of the history of Gibraltar that have occurred in the past twenty-five years or so. These are given a more detailed examination in the bibliographical note at the end of this volume. It is important to note here, however, that works on all aspects of the Rock’s history have been crucial in furthering the historiography of Gibraltar. Much of this research has come from within Gibraltar itself, and the Gibraltar Heritage Journal plays a particularly useful role in showcasing the labours of local historians. Works by scholars in Britain are also instrumental in advancing our knowledge of the Rock’s history and two scholars who stand out in this endeavour are Stephen Constantine and Martin Blinkhorn.⁷ The present volume ties together much of this research and fashions a new history of Gibraltar that will allow those unfamiliar with the Rock’s history to sample fresh and up-to-date scholarship. It also provides to those familiar with Gibraltar’s history food for thought on the present state of research.

This volume is based not only on secondary literature but also upon extensive archival research carried out both in Britain and Gibraltar. There is considerably more material available for scholars to avail themselves of now than there was as little as twenty years ago – principally because of the work done to organise a Gibraltar Government Archive (GGA). The documents contained therein, when combined with material held in The National Archives/Public Record Office in London, allows researchers to see a much more complete picture of Gibraltar’s society than hitherto possible. Yet, with a few notable exceptions, these documents are rarely combined. Moreover, in the case of the material held in Gibraltar, historians are only now beginning to scratch the surface of what is available. In this volume, research conducted both in Gibraltar and in London is employed to advance the arguments put forward.

Researching the history of Gibraltar involves some methodological difficulties, however, and these should be recognised. Much of the available documentary evidence comes from official sources. This, in part, explains why historians of Gibraltar have focused their attention on elite individuals. There are ways, of course, to circumvent this difficulty, particularly in reference to political matters. British administrators kept meticulous records, and consequently letters from Gibraltarians to members of the colonial government, newspaper articles about key events on the Rock, or petitions from various organisations, survive and allow the historian of Gibraltar to recreate a Gibraltarian voice. This rereading of existing material has been used throughout to allow for a re-examination of Gibraltar’s society. However, the hope for the twenty-first century is surely that more records will become generally available to assist historians of Gibraltar in their research into the lives of ordinary Gibraltarians. An example of a wonderful source has recently become known. The gifting of the records of the local branch of the Transport and General Workers’ Union to the GGA offers the prospect of historians being able to explore labour relations in Gibraltar more closely. However, this collection is still being catalogued and it may take some time to become available.⁸ It is to be hoped that Gibraltarians will leave personal collections to the GGA so that in future public access to such materials will contribute to the exploration of Gibraltar’s history. It should be noted, however, that this will only be possible if the archive is given the financial resources and physical space to fully exploit and preserve such collections.

The analysis of Gibraltar’s society undertaken in this book is advanced through five substantive chapters. Chapter 1 looks at Gibraltar’s acquisition by the British Crown and its passing into British folklore as a symbol of strength and empire. It examines briefly the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, by which Gibraltar was ceded to Britain, and which still forms the basis of Gibraltar’s status as a British territory. Chapter 2 discusses the foundations of Gibraltar’s civilian population and community in the nineteenth century, set against the background of economic uncertainties and diplomatic acrimony. Chapter 3 demonstrates the emergence of a stable civilian community in Gibraltar between the end of the nineteenth century and the middle of the twentieth, revealing how changes in Gibraltar’s economy, political landscape and status within the British Empire produced an increasingly assertive civilian voice on the Rock. Chapter 4 examines Gibraltar’s relations with Spain and argues that the closure of the frontier in 1969 did not represent a return to traditional Spanish belligerence, but, rather, a new policy of aggression devised by the Spanish dictator, Francisco Franco. Chapter 5 argues that internal political developments on the Rock post-1945, most notably the near-monopoly on power gained by the Association for the Advancement of Civil Rights until the 1980s – combined with a Spanish policy which alienated Gibraltarians from Spain – served to create a Gibraltarian identity which is neither British nor Spanish. As already outlined, within Gibraltar, history and historiography have been used as a tool with which to mould Gibraltarian identity. Chapter 5, therefore, also shows the way in which attempts to construct identity have hidden or obscured events in the Rock’s history. Finally, the bibliographical note at the end of this book outlines trends in the writing of Gibraltar’s history, and directs the reader to further sources.

1

Gibraltar as British Fortress, 1704–1783

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Introduction

Without doubt, the period in the history of Gibraltar that has drawn the greatest attention from scholars from numerous countries, and across the past three centuries, has been the hundred years after the Spanish loss of the territory in 1704.¹ There are a number of reasons for this. Many British writers were quickly enthused after 1704 by tales of martial success and bravery, as ‘their’ fortress successfully repulsed three sieges in the eighteenth century. Subsequent generations of British schoolchildren, and millions more English-language readers around the expanding Anglophone world, were taught to regard Gibraltar as the ultimate symbol of British courage, ingenuity, steadfastness and plucky resolve.² The success and longevity of this popular image, combined with a propensity for English-language works on Gibraltar to be written by military and naval personnel, might thus account for a clear tendency to focus on this particular period. It is in this century, after all, that Gibraltar’s military history is best evidenced, and where the tale might appear to be one of unbroken success against overwhelming odds.

Spanish writers have been no less enthusiastic in focusing on this period, but for rather different reasons. It was in the eighteenth century that Spain ‘lost’ Gibraltar to Britain, when the terms of that cession were codified in Article X of the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), and when Spain was in its best position to reverse the outcome of Utrecht, whether through diplomacy or by force of arms.³ What reason, then, to focus on subsequent periods, when Spain has been unable or unwilling to do anything about its ‘Gibraltar problem’, when the proud (if unsuccessful) efforts of the eighteenth-century Spanish kings offer better reading? A second reason for the Spanish focus on the eighteenth century is the perceived British ‘breaches’ of the Treaty of Utrecht in the years after 1713. Given the centrality of that treaty, even to this day, to the respective Spanish and British claims to sovereignty of Gibraltar, its observance, or lack thereof, is clearly a subject of interest.⁴

The purpose of this chapter is not to disentangle the many competing narratives over this period in Gibraltar’s history, much less to weigh up their respective merits and flaws. Instead, amid the complexity and contingency of war, sieges, diplomatic manoeuvring, legalistic interpretation and confrontation, and three hundred years of polemic, we can identify three key developments in the century under review. First, the capture of Gibraltar in 1704, and its cession to Britain in 1713, created a distinctly new place, and one which provided the foundation for what we now know as ‘Gibraltar’. Secondly, the geographical confines of this ‘new’ Gibraltar, coupled with ongoing hostility with neighbouring Spain throughout the eighteenth century, dramatically altered Gibraltar’s purpose. Put simply, British Gibraltar in the eighteenth century was, to use Finlayson’s phrase, a place where ‘the fortress came first’.⁵ Thirdly, and crucial to present-day debates on the subject, this period marked the origins of a new people in the territory. None of these three developments was clearly predictable in 1704; and arguably, from certain standpoints, none of the three was desirable. It is the task of this chapter to outline how, by the end of the eighteenth century, the first two developments became unquestionable, and the third inevitable.

The Significance of 1704

On 4 August 1704, after a four-day assault,