Gibraltar: The History of the Rock Across 14 Sieges

this video is brought to you by squarespace from websites and online stores to marketing tools and analytics squarespace is the all-in-one platform to build a beautiful online presence and run your business check out squarespace through the link in the description below more on them in a bit according to the ancient poet homer the demigod heracles used his enormous strength to smash the mountain that connected europe to africa in doing so he opened a passage between two seas guarded by the pillars that bear his name what a realistic story it has been said that whoever controlled both of the pillars of heracles could become the master of trade and naval warfare across the mediterranean and the atlantic the southern pillar may have either been mount hacho or jebel moussa both in morocco the northern pillar is our destination for today's geographics welcome to the rich history of the rock of gibraltar which we are going to explore through it's not one not two but fourteen sieges greeks phoenicians and other peoples of the mediterranean all visited gibraltar but none of them established permanent settlements the carthaginians and the romans happily slaughtered each other for the control of spain from 218 to 204 bc but me the power colonized the rock it's ironic how a land so unwanted for centuries would end up being so disputed the rock of gibraltar began receiving more attention in the very early middle ages it was first occupied by the vandals then the visigoths followed by the byzantine empire and then the visigoths again finally on april the 30th 711 a.d the rock was occupied by an arab and berber army led by general tariq ibn ziyad his allegiance was to the expansionist umayyad caliphate that from damascus had conquered all of north africa and had laid eyes on the iberian peninsula this was the beginning of the arab and berber domination of spain which would last for the next seven centuries in the general's honor the rock was renamed mountain of tariq or gabal al-tariq a name which over time morphed into gibraltar but the umayyads did not establish any major settlement say for a small little fort by the year 1160 the al-mohad caliphate had replaced the umayyads as muslim rulers of southern spain and they built a large fortress over gibraltar over time muslim rule in the south was becoming less monolithic separating into independent principalities known as typhus from 1231 to 1274 gibraltar changed hands three times among these typhers ending up as a possession of the marine kingdom of morocco in the meantime the reconquista the reconquest of spain by the christian kingdoms in the north was well underway by 1309 king ferdinand iv of castile was besieging the nearby port of al jacerus when he ordered his trusted commander alonzo perez de guzman to take gibralta it would be the first of a long series of attacks and you can be sure that a member of the bellicose guzman family would be involved in every single one of them known to spanish histories as guzman the good alonzo perez was well beyond his 50s when he undertook this campaign not exactly a spring chicken in medieval terms concerned about his health alonso's wife voiced her complaint it seems to me my lord that you barely finished waging war against the moors then why do you go back to fighting them guzman replied these wars milady will not be finished until the moors themselves are finished men like me have to finish them or be finished by them so yes he really did mean business at the end of june 1309 the castilians launched the first siege of gibraltar a contingent attacked from the north while guzman and his men staged an amphibious attack from the southern shore they then climbed over the rock which towered over the fortified marine citadel much like another night guzman had the high ground from whence he proceeded to bomb the rock with rocks flung from catapults by early september the marinades had capitulated and gibraltar was a castilian stronghold in the following decades gibraltar was besieged again first unsuccessfully by the emirate of granada and then by the marines again the third siege was the charm and the rock returned to muslim hands king alfonso xi immediately tried to retake gibraltar but failed alfonso the 11th came back for more of the moors in 1349. if you have a good grasp of late medieval history that is a year that should ring a bell a morning bell that is because that's when the black death was absolutely ravaging europe and africa alfonso was certainly not spared and his death in march of 1350 put an end to the siege number five in 1374 gibraltar was handed over to the nasrid emirate by the marines headquartered in granada the nasrids held on to it until 1410 when a mutiny disrupted the long-standing balance the local garrison rebelled against granada declaring allegiance to the marines this rebellion was eventually quashed by prince ahmad of granada in 1411. so how did he do this why of course it was with a siege and that's siege number six in july of 1437 the castilians made another attempt to recapture their favorite andalusian fortress their leader was enrique de guzman a descendant of the earlier guzman the good enrique tried a similar strategy to that of alonso a two-pronged attack by sea and by land enrique led the amphibious assault which was repelled decisively by the nasrids guzman and his knights had to retreat to their ships amidst a high tide when some of them risked drowning guzman tried to rescue them only to then drown himself and thus ended disastrously the seventh siege of gibraltar but the guzman name would be avenged by yet another descendant juan alonso duke of medina cedonia the duke conquered the rock after its eighth siege in 1462 and declared it his own personal property [Music] king henry iv reminded him that the rock was actually property of castile but the guzmans were a tough bunch as they rebelled against the king and launched a ninth siege in 1466. after 15 months they proudly recaptured their rock in the following decade the kingdom of castile was fractured by a civil war which pitched isabelle the first half-sister to the previous king henry against his daughter joanna the guzmans sided with isabelle and offered gibraltar back to the crown in exchange for a new title as marquis of the rock in addition to their existing dukedom the town of gibraltar finally had some years of respite until 1506 when the guzmans came back for some more wall storming fun the new duke juan alfonso perez de guzman attempted to take gibralta back from king philip the first of castile and this was the tenth siege his initial attempt failed and was followed by a blockade which the gibraltars endured out of loyalty to the king the rock was awarded with the title of most loyal city ten years later on march 14 1516 jost of habsburgs united the whole of spain under a single monarchy and this is how after 10 sieges seven centuries of reconquista and countless internal conflicts the northern pillar of hercules became a prized possession of the spanish crown [Music] gibraltar remained as a spanish territory for two centuries but then the harsh rules of genetics put an end to the rule of spain over the rock in 1700 the last habsburg king of spain carlos ii died without heirs known as the bewitched this unlucky king was plagued by rickets and in all likelihood a learning disorder worst of all he was sterile these afflictions were likely the result of decades of inbreeding among his ancestors two of his nephews longed for the throne one was the frenchman philip evangel and the other was the austrian charles of habsburg a testament handed the crown to philip but charles's father emperor leopold the first of austria was just not cool with that neither were england and the dutch united provinces who feared a union between the crowns of spain and france the result was the bloody war of spanish succession which raged from 1701 to 1713 leaving more than a million corpses on the ground in 1704 the allied fleets of england and the united provinces set their sights on gibraltar and its harbor you see controlling the rock and the accompanying straits was a vital strategic objective for the anglo-dutch navies on august 1 1704 a mighty fleet of 61 ships surrounded gibraltar it could count on 9 000 soldiers under the command of english admiral george rook and dutch prince george van hess dermstart holding gibraltar spanish commando diego de salinas could rely on only a plucky force of 80 soldiers supported by a civilian militia of 300. at 5am on the 3rd of august the anglo-dutch opened fire on the rock after 5 hours of heavy bombardment the defenders were still holding on but they had been forced to leave the docks unguarded in order to concentrate on a more defensible position a force of 600 englishmen took advantage of the situation and staged a landing in the harbor they were met by a nasty surprise the spanish had set mines within the leandro tower right by the docks the explosives went off just as the landing was taking place killing 50 attackers further 60 people were injured and seven small vessels were sunk the carnage of the explosion did not prevent more soldiers and artillery from landing though soon the city was targeted with 30 000 cannonballs from all sides as the death toll increased to almost 300 soldiers and civilians alike desalinas decided it was about time to discuss an armistice and he raised the white flag three days later the mayor of gibraltar kyo antonio handed the keys of the city over to prince hessey darmstadt after only one month the franco spanish alliance came back to retake their prized strategic node [Music] the french and spanish could field a formidable force of twelve thousand men while hess darmstadt now defending the rock could count on three thousand troops including several hundred english royal marines the marines distinguished themselves on november 11 1704 when 18 of them successfully rebuffed a surprise attack conducted by 500 spanish grenadiers by february 1706 the procedures managed to breach the city walls but a delay in incoming orders curbed their momentum and they were repelled once again the siege continued for another month until the exhausted defenders were saved by the arrival of a mighty english fleet of 40 ships led by admiral leak caught between the artillery firing from the rock and from the fleet the french ship supporting tess's army had to retreat after this catastrophe louis xiv of france intervened directly asking for tessa to abandon the siege but before we get into that let me tell you a little bit about today's wonderful sponsor squarespace now a couple of simple things maybe you've got an idea for a website or a business a podcast something like that knocking around in your mind or a blog maybe well the only way to figure out whether that is worth doing is to get it out there into the world and i know that can be daunting because 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mailing mailiness social integrations all of that stuff and much more look get started with squarespace do a free trial there's a link below and when you're ready to launch go to squarespace.com forward slash geographics and you'll get 10 of your first purchase of a website or a domain and let's get back to it [Music] after the siege of 1704 gibraltar had been held by english and dutch troops in the name of their ally charles of habsburg rather than in the name of their own countries but in july of 1705 has damstar left gibraltar and admiral george rook remained as the sole garrison commander taking advantage of the absence of his colleague rook lowered the habsburg banner from the main mast above the rock and replaced it with the flag of his monarch queen anne this simple gesture was the first step towards gibraltar becoming a british possession queen anne first declared gibraltar to be a free port basically an independent city allowing for increased trade with mediterranean powers however she made sure to install on the rock the first of a series of english governors one of them in 1711 received an order from london to quietly expel all non-british soldiers from gibraltar patiently one step at a time and with little fuss britain was completing its conquest this de facto rule was formalized on july 13 1713 with the signature of the peace and friendship treaty between spain and great britain part of the better known treaties of ultraact which put an end to the war of spanish succession with these treaties britain and its allies agreed for philip the franco-spanish claimant to sit on the throne in exchange the new king of spain ceded to britain the balearic island of monaca and more importantly gibraltar article 10 states the following the catholic king does hereby for himself his heirs and successors yield to the crown of great britain the full and entire propriety of the town and castle of gibraltar that's very nice but for how long well here goes he gives up the said propriety to be held and enjoyed absolutely with all manner of right forever without any exception or impediment whatsoever the british control over gibraltar may have been ratified by diplomatic means but that didn't prevent spain and its allies from trying to reconquer the rock the next attack took place 14 years after the treaty in 1727. this was the result of a plan concocted by king philip v of spain and his general cristobal de moscow by early february 1727 de moscosa amassed 20 000 soldiers around gibraltar facing a 5 000 strong british garrison de moscosa's officers advised him to initiate the attack by landing on the southern tip of gibraltar a poorly defended side the spanish could have taken gibralta by storm in a quick and decisive action but the general rejected their advice and on the 18th he ordered his generals to dig a long trench to the north of the town what followed was a protracted siege in which the artilleries of both sides fired without paws for months the siege proved to be too costly for the spanish army and eventually king philip v called off the action in june of 1727. a ceasefire between spain and britain was followed by a peace treaty in 1728 which restored the status quo that existed before the war this undecisive conflict was followed by 50 years of relative peace in which a gibraltan could take a rare stroll on top of the rock or the city walls without fear of being blown up by spanish cannons but fear not lovers of action and mayhem for we are heading towards the big one the siege of 1779 to 1783 when the american revolution broke out in 1765 france was supporting the revolutionary cause as were their spanish allies the two allied nations saw the occasion to attack british possessions in europe and recover territories lost during the seven years war a global conflict fought from 1756 to 1763. the spanish war aims included the recapture of monoka and of course everybody's favorite rock gibraltar and thus began on april 24 1779 the biggest and longest siege that gibraltar ever had to face the spanish land forces counted 13 000 soldiers including french and dutch allies they were supported by two fleets and a total of 246 guns the defenders could count on 5400 redcoats and hanoverian soldiers five naval ships and 96 guns under the leadership of governor general george augustus elliott a skilled commander and organizer by the 21st of june the spanish fleets had completed the blockade of gibraltar but some daring runners managed to keep the british garrison supplied through the ordeal on the 12th of september a heated artillery exchange took place with the spanish bombarding the northern defenses the british retaliated by targeting the spanish ships in the bay by the 13th of september the bay of gibraltar was lit by burning ships the bay would be aglow once more in june of 1780. around 1am on the night of the 7th of june an unidentified ship approached the harbor in the darkness heading towards the british vessels the sailors on the mysterious ship were declared to be blockade runners allegedly carrying a precious cargo of fresh beef the captain of the hms enterprise we don't know if it was kirk or picard was suspicious and he opened fire the incoming ship immediately burst into flames admiral aqua would have warned it's a trap because it was the spanish had sent a squadron of nine fire ships loaded with tinder they immediately turned into floating mountains of fire drifting towards the anchored british vessels the royal navy crews reacted quickly braving the fire they grappled the fire ships and towed them away from the harbor on april 12 1781 the british garrison welcomed a genuine delivery of substantial supplies while the cargo was unloaded the spanish unleashed a bombardment from a new gun battery of 114 heavy guns gibraltar suffered heavy damage and the devastation brought to light the secret stashes of supplies hoarded by the civilian population food yes but also alcohol the british troops could not believe their eyes and they soon gave in to looting binging and passing out on the streets the response of governor elliot was draconian he sent a contingent to destroy all the stores of drink that they could find as per the looting soldiers they were hanged on the spot all the while the spanish contributed to the street party with fireworks from their batteries on average both sides fired some 11 000 rounds per week that april spanish and british artillery men also distinguished themselves in quality of tactics and weaponry the spanish guns had a longer range and higher rate of fire which the british countered with tactical innovation a lieutenant cola devised a brilliant gun carriage which enabled cannons to fire at a steep downward angle from high above the rock many of these guns were positioned within the tunnels engineered by sergeant major ince which allowed them to fire directly onto the shore another lieutenant developed a new type of ammunition when fired from a cannon it exploded in lethal fragments above the heads of the enemies this ammo still bears his name shrapnel on november 21 1781 a spanish defector brought precious intel to the british twenty thousand troops in the spanish camp were preparing to assault gibraltar governor elliot resolved to make a sortie into enemy lines to destroy their advanced artillery positions the redcoats personally led by their general moved out at 2 am on november 27th they destroyed the spanish encirclements rigged their ammunition magazines with gunpowder and disabled the enemy guns by driving long iron spikes into the barrels once the destruction of the spanish trenches was complete the sortie party withdrew into gibraltar as spanish magazines began to explode the morale of his garrison was temporarily raised by the success but their material circumstances were deteriorating due to chronic shortages of food and medical supplies more bad news reached gibraltar in february of 1782 the island of menorca the other british possession in the mediterranean had fallen the franco spanish were about to redeploy more troops to gibraltar from march until august the spanish and french carefully prepared their final assault under their new french commander the duke of krillian and his brilliant military engineer mikhail de archon d'arcon developed a new weapon the battering ships these were 10 vessels modified to carry 114 heavy guns and protected with reinforced sloped wooden barriers to deflect british rounds darkhorn also designed a system of hoses and water reservoirs which made his ships unburnable and unsinkable the spanish attack began on the morning of september 13th 1782 the ten battering ships opened fire on gibraltar reducing the town to rubble and destroying whole sections of the seafront the british batteries fired back but their conventional shells did little damage to the ships then at noon elliott deployed a secret tactic small cannon rounds heated in a furnace known as red-hot shot which made for an effective incendiary weapon the incandescent rounds tore through the ship's defenses but they were not set on fire not yet the shot lodged in the woodwork smoldered for an hour and then erupted in a volcanic blaze by 4 am all 10 ships were sunk the spanish did not solely rely on battering ships though their land batteries had fired more than 40 000 rounds and their infantry was amassing in view of the rock on the 14th of september however the expected assault did not take place the commander duke of kriyal had decided to cancel the attack fearing unsustainable losses without the covering fire of the battering ships despite this victory elliot knew that his supplies were dwindling and he sent a request for a relief force 31 vessels under admiral lord ho were dispatched to gibraltar carrying supplies and two infantry regiments when house fleet arrived on the 11th of october the spanish and french navies sailed out to chase him away the pursuit lasted one week which had the effect of relieving gibraltar from the naval blockade at the same time morale seemed to plummet in the siege camp krillian decided to send back home all of his french troops and the number of spanish troops was reduced the fourteenth siege of gibraltar it was coming to an end in january 1783 a treaty was signed between the warring parties britain had to give up bonorca florida and some west indies islands to spain but gibraltar remained british the siege officially ended on february 2 1783 and it was the last formal siege the rock would endure all the way through to the present day recently though the debate on gibraltar's ownership has bubbled up once again and it's the only major bone of contention between two otherwise friendly nations spain and the uk it's not my purpose today to participate in that debate but consider this the importance of gibraltar over time has prompted an incredible 14 sieges which have spilled the blood of arabs berbers castilians dutch english french germans hanoverians italians and more practically the entire alphabet of europe and the mediterranean so all i'll say is this violent sieges may be out of the question in the immediate future but the contention of over who owns gibraltar will likely never go away so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did smash that like button below don't forget to subscribe please do check out our fantastic sponsor squarespace link below and thank you for watching [Music]

Channel: Geographics

Views: 545,644

Keywords: Geographics, Geography Profiles, Gibraltar, Europe, Rock of Gibraltar, Sieges of Gibraltar, Guzman Family, Middle Ages, European History, Mediterranean Warfare

Id: BkW2d1sidko

Length: 23min 10sec (1390 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 09 2020