What exactly *is* Gibraltar? People call it a country, but is it a constituent
country of the UK, is it a British colony, is it a territory like Guam and American Samoa
to the US? Is it like how Hong Kong is to China? Gibraltar is not part of the United Kingdom,
but it is British, as is clear from the double-decker buses to the Gibraltar Pound to the hard border
with Spain. And naturally they use the British type G
plug outlet. No, flip this switch, stupid American! [Plugs it in successfully] There we go. However do note which side of the road they
drive on. Gibraltar is a British territory hemmed in by mountains,
the sea, and a hard border, and which has become insanely wealthy, in part thanks to
its position. Sebastian, do you think it would be fair to
call this place the Hong Kong of the Mediterranean? (Sebastian) I would say that’s the best
comparison I could come up with. So how did Gibraltar even end up in this position? How do things in this tiny territory work? And what could a post-Brexit world look like
for a British territory so reliant on Spain? Gibraltar is a bit of a contradiction at times. It sits in one of the poorest regions in Western
Europe, and yet it has one of the highest GDPs per capita of any territory in the world. It has strong ties to Britain yet thousands
regularly cross the Spanish border to work on either side.. Gibraltar is a British territory that in a
lot of ways acts like an independent country in almost all but name. And the flags you see in the tourist shops,
of course. For hundreds of years Britain has fought to
try to protect this rock and this little peninsula from Spain, and this little territory has
been a thorn in the relations between the two countries ever since. There was a referendum on whether or not Gibraltar
should join Spain, and of the 18,000 people who voted, 187 people voted yes. But in 2016, Gibraltarians again took to the
polls– this time with their British counterparts– on whether or not to leave the European Union,
which 96% of Gibraltarians also voted to remain, which made things a little… awkward. Now first we need to understand the history
behind this place for context, because it’s not just “Britain really wanted it”. Although at the same time, Britain really
wanted it. Now, it doesn’t exactly take a geography
expert to see how important ownership of a territory in this general area is, in fact
Spain owns a couple territories on the other side. This is the Strait of Gibraltar, the so-called
Pillars of Hercules where the world to the Ancient Greeks supposedly ended. As the riches of the Americas drew Spain’s
attention westward by the 16th century, Gibraltar’s defenses had been badly neglected, presumably
as Spanish leaders mothballed the fortress here to save on revenue. But to understand the true catalyst for Gibraltar
falling into British hands, you have to meet one guy, Charles II of Spain. Oh crap he’s dead. And that was the problem, since Charles II
died without an heir to his name, and the closest heirs were either of the French Bourbons
or the Austrian Habsburgs. But there was a balance of power in play amongst
the European monarchies, and with Spain being this giant empire encompassing huge swathes
of the world– and Europe itself– this meant that if one dynasty were to control
the Spanish Empire, it was basically game over for the rest of Europe. So basically Europe just exploded and in 1704
Britain, siding with the Habsburgs, captured the town of Gibraltar for their guy, Charles
VI of Austria. In the Treaty of Utrecht that ended the war,
the Bourbon guy, Philip V, ended up on the Spanish throne, but Gibraltar would be ceded
to the British. Ever since this little scrap of land has been
British territory, though not because Spain was happy to let them have it, as evidenced
by them trying to besiege the city in 1727, and then again from 1779-83, and then Franco’s
blockade of Gibraltar throughout the 70’s and 80’s, and then Spain talking about jointly
governing the territory with Britain after the Brexit referendum, which naturally the
Gibraltarian hive mind strongly voted against. But here’s the somewhat mind blowing thing
about Gibraltar: it only has around 33,000 people, barely half that of La Línea, their
neighboring city on the Spanish side. Though that doesn’t mean only 30,000 people
are in Gibraltar at any given time, as millions of tourists visit the tiny territory every
non-pandemic year, often to make dumb YouTube videos. Gibraltar is a tiny place, only 5km from north-to-south
and 2.5km from east-to-west, one can drive around the territory in barely half an hour. It’s so small you can see the runway of
its airport in its flag map (and yes this is the runway they let people drive across
when a plane isn’t landing). In fact throughout much of its history until
the mid-20th century, Gibraltar was little more than a British military outpost. In addition, hemmed in by the sea, the Spanish
border, the airport, and of course the Rock (no really, that’s what it’s called. Creative name, I know), Gibraltar is the fifth
densest territory on Earth, behind only Hong Kong, Singapore, Monaco, and… oh no, Macau. And like Hong Kong, these geographic constraints
mean that much of modern Gibraltar’s land has been reclaimed from the sea. This ongoing £300 million project has already
reclaimed new neighborhoods from the sea, however even this has ruffled Spanish feathers
as Spain believes the waters surrounding Gibraltar to be Spanish waters, or sorry, águas. Britain’s relationship with Spain has always
been somewhat… rocky. (Get it?) And whenever diplomatic tensions between the
two flare up, for some mysterious reason Gibraltar’s always caught in the crossfires. But despite the drama, Gibraltar still remains
close to Spain in many ways. The border is porous enough to allow people
to live and work on different sides of the border, and there are currently plans to absorb
Gibraltar into the Schengen Area, which wouldn’t be the first time a non-EU area joined the
bloc. In addition the Spanish and British governments
signed a treaty in 2006 to cooperate on affairs involving Gibraltar. While London and Madrid agreed in the end
of 2020 not to make the border checks any stronger, this territory still remains one
of the most important still in the British realm. And even then, Gibraltar still acts very much
like a pseudo-independent country.
