A selection of historical conundrums answered by experts
When did Britain acquire Gibraltar?
Britain officially acquired Gibraltar through article 10 of the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713, which passed sovereignty of the territory from Spain to Britain “for ever”. The treaty ended British involvement in the War of Spanish Succession, a pan-European conflict fought to settle the question of whether a Bourbon or Habsburg claimant would rise to the Spanish throne after the death of Carlos II in 1700.
There is a common myth that ‘the Rock’ (as it soon became popularly known in Britain) had in fact been captured by the British in 1704. Notwithstanding the fact that Britain did not exist as a nation-state until the Act of Union in 1707, the coalition force that assaulted Gibraltar on 4 August 1704 was made up of around 2,000 English, Dutch, Spanish and Catalan servicemen. The commanding officer was the German prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt, and the territory was officially surrendered to Archduke Charles of Austria, the Habsburg claimant to the Spanish throne. Gibraltar’s first three governors after the capture were appointed by Charles and governed in his name. It was therefore in the peace, and not the war, that Gibraltar became a British territory.
From the moment of handing it to Britain, successive Spanish governments have sought to recover El Peñon. In the 18th century, this was through military means – an idea that General Franco also seriously considered during the Second World War. In more recent decades, it has been through diplomatic and economic pressure.
The ambiguities of Utrecht certainly offer scope for alleging British ‘breaches’ of the treaty – not least in relation to land encroachment, territorial waters and airspace – but the unambiguous nature of the term ‘for ever’ is perhaps the most important feature of the treaty for the Gibraltarians who have called the Rock home for centuries.
Gareth Stockey, former lecturer, translator and co-author of Gibraltar: A Modern History (University of Wales Press, 2012)
When did citrus fruits first arrive in Europe?
Despite their association with regions like Italy and Spain, citruses aren’t native to Europe. The first to appear was Citrus medica (the citron), recorded by Theophrastus in the third century BC and apocryphally int
