Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory and city near the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar at the narrow exit of the Mediterranean into the Atlantic. Its 6.8 square kilometres are dominated by the Rock of Gibraltar, at the foot of which lies the densely populated town area. Founded as a permanent watchtower by the Almohads in 1160, the rock switched control between the Nasrids, Castilians and Marinids in the Late Middle Ages, and became part of the Crown of Castile in 1462. In 1704, Anglo-Dutch forces captured Gibraltar from Spain during the War of the Spanish Succession, and in 1713 it was ceded to Great Britain in perpetuity under the Treaty of Utrecht — the beginning of the British period shown on the map. Because it commands the entrance and exit to the Mediterranean, with half the world's seaborne trade passing through the strait, Gibraltar became an important base for the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars and the Second World War. Its sovereignty remains a point of contention in Anglo-Spanish relations, with Spain asserting a claim to the territory; in a 1967 referendum Gibraltarians overwhelmingly rejected proposals for Spanish sovereignty.