300 Years of British Gibraltar 1704-2004 [antikvár]

"The whole process ofassimilation of the population into a distinctive people has been a gradual one over a period of three hundredyears.99 Philip Dennis One summer's day in 1704 when Admiral Sir George Rooke threw somé 15,000 shots from his warships into the town of Gibraltar, it appeared that he had taken a sledgehammer to crack a nut. It was militarily understaffed and the Spanish defences were in a sorry state of repair. From that year on, the British flag, despite persistent efforts to dislodge it, has continued to fly over the Rock for three hundred years. The supreme irony of this historic victory by Rooke and his Anglo-Dutch colleagues lies in the fact that Gibraltar was captured on behalf of the Spanish King - or at least on behalf of Archduke Charles of Austria who was a serious claimant to the Spanish throne after Charles II of Spain had married an Austrian Princess and produced no heir. The wars of religion had given way to the wars of dynasties in which men now fought to prevent any single family dominating Europe. The sickly Charles II of Spain had upset the royal applecart by willing his throne to his great nephew Philip (Philip V of Spain) grandson of the Sun King, Louis XIV of Francé. Such an alliance of Spain and Francé would seriously endanger Anglo-Dutch security and world trade prospects, especially in the Middle East. The conflict called the War of Spanish Succession was inevitable. When the French troops had the impertinence to march into the Spanish Netherlands, threatening Holland's independence, the new Queen Anne declared war on Francé in May 1702 "to preserve liberty and balance in Europe". But she was really thinking of her bankroll. The Anglo-Dutch expedition to the Ibérián Peninsula was officially under the command of Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt, a cousin of the Austrian Emperor. They planned to take Cadiz in 1703 which would act as a foothold for soldiers to advance inland and establish Charles as King but Cadiz was too well fortified. The following year Prince George tried Barcelona but this untidy landing alsó failed to promote 'Charles III' as the new King of Spain. Here was < Admiral Rooke and his Anglo-Dutch colleagues capturing Gibraltar in 1704.