GIBRALTAR
Population: 27,776
Area: 6.5 sq. km.
Economy: Standard Monkey statistics are unavailable for Gibraltar; its GDP ranked 199th in the world in 2002, but was an impressive $18,041 on a per capita basis.
Main Language: English
Monkey's Name: The Monkey
Fun Fact: In Gibraltar, the historical use of the Spanish language combined with the later arrival of the English language has resulted in another variation of the phenomenom known as Spanglish: many Gibraltarians speak a Spanish-English hybrid they call Llanito. One particularly cute Llanito phrase is "dar un ring," which uses the Spanish "dar" (to give) and the oh-so-English "ring" and means "to telephone someone."
Gibraltar's Rock houses caves with artifacts that date to prehistorical times, but it is perhaps in the realm of legend that Gibraltar first makes its mark. The Rock of Gibraltar was supposed to be one of the Pillars of Hercules, the portal to the unknown world beyond the Mediterranean (the other Pillar was either Ceuta, a Spanish-controlled promontory on the Moroccan side of the Straits, or Jebel Musa, in Morocco). But the mythical distinction was grounded in reality: control of Gibraltar allowed vigilance over the narrow Straits and thus control of access to the Mediterranean Sea for anyone who could capture the Rock. When the Moors invaded the Iberian peninsula in 711, they seized the Rock (Gibraltar's name comes from Arabic: Jabal-al-Tariq, or the Hill of Tariq, the Moorish leader). The Spanish recaptured Gibraltar while expelling the Moors in the late 15th Century. But, in a move that has generated tension between the two ever since, the British (with Dutch help) captured the Rock in 1704 during the Wars of the Spanish Succession, the wars which signaled the impending demise of Spain as a European, if not yet as a global imperialist, power.
Spain formally ceded control of Gibraltar to the British in 1713, but did attempt to retake it by siege on mutliple occasions. The British fortified the Rock, turning it into an untakeable military bastion of exceedingly important geographical significance. The British naval station at Gibraltar played a key role in both World Wars, but in war and peacetime the Spanish continued to object to British dominion over the territory.
In the past 40 odd years, the people of Gibraltar have repeatedly voted in referenda to remain a British overseas colony rather than join Spain. The Spanish government has offered Gibraltar autonomous status (like Catalunya's) in exchange for rejoining Spain, but the offer has not enticed the culturally-British, English-speaking Gibraltarians to jump ship. In part, they fear being subsumed by Spanish settlers, but they also rather enjoy their tiny enclave's freewheeling economy (aside from shipping, offshore banking and tourism are major boons to Gibraltar). Current discussions focus on British-Spanish "shared sovereignty," but for now Gibraltar retains its odd status as a British colony on the Spanish mainland.
The Monkey and the Rock.
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