In the late 19th century, after the so-called Scramble for Africa, European nations had taken over colonial control of most of the African continent. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/spanish-enclaves-of-north-africa-1435526. Like Ceuta and Melilla, they are a part of Spain, therefore also part of the European Union, and their currency is the euro. Both Melilla and Ceuta are official Spanish territories, home to some 160,000 people between them. During the Reconquista and mainly following the conquest of Granada in 1492, forces of the Castilian and Portuguese kingdoms conquered and maintained numerous posts in North Africa for trade and as a defence against Barbary piracy. Africa, because of its geographic location and its abundance of resources, was seen as a key source of wealth for many of these nations. One reason for the Spanish language’s limited presence in Africa might be that “the scramble for Africa“, when most African territories were claimed by European powers, took place in the 19th century, when the Spanish Empire was on a steep decline. It's one of two Spanish territories in Africa. However, the last Spanish colony to claim independence from Spain in 1968 was a territory in West Africa—Equatorial Guinea—a nation-state where Spanish still serves as the official language. Ceuta, Melilla, Vélez de la Gomera, Alhucemas and the Chafarinas Islands are Spanish territories that lie along Morocco's northern coastline. Although it was not included in the original plans to divide up Africa at the Berlin Conference, France and Spain continued to vie for influence in the region. Only this archipelago and the possessions of Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña (1476–1524), Melilla (conquered by Pedro de Estopiñán in 1497), Villa Cisneros (founded in 1502 in current Western Sahara), Mazalquivir (1505), Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera (1508), Oran (1509–1708; 1732–1792), Algiers (1510–1529), Bugia (1510–1554), Tripoli (1511–1551), and Tunis (1535–1569) remained as Spanish territory in Africa. This drive for control of resources led to the "Scramble for Africa" and eventually the Berlin Conference of 1884. Spanish is also widely spoken in some North African cities like Melilla and Ceuta and the Canary Islands. Ceuta and Melilla are the most accessible territories of Spanish North Africa. You need no special permit to enter on a ferry from Spain; passports are however checked on ferries to Spain. Spain merged these two colonies into Spanish Sahara in the 1920s, and in 1957 ceded much of what had been Saguia el-Hamra to Morocco. In the present, the term refers mainly to the latter. Ceuta, like Melilla, was a free port before Spain joined the European Union. Send a parcel to: Spanish Territories Of North Africa (Ceuta and Melilla) When you send a parcel abroad, you need an international courier you can trust. Morocco was viewed as a strategic trade location because of its position at the Strait of Gibraltar. On 11 July 2002, Morocco stationed six gendarmes on Perejil Island, which was at the time a source of complaint by Spain. Baskerville, Brian. Algiers, in present-day Algeria; Bougie, in present-day Algeria; Spanish Guinea, present-day Ecuatorial Guinea; Sidi Ifni, in present-day Morocco; Spanish Morocco; Oran, in present-day Algeria; Spanish Sahara, present-day Western Sahara [1975] Baskerville, Brian. As of 2011, it has a population of 82,376. Spain argues that its historical presence at these specific locations predates the existence of the modern country of Morocco and therefore refuses to turn over the cities. The tiny Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla sit on the northern shores of Morocco's Mediterranean coast. Spain also claims the British territory of Gibraltar in Southern Spain, which it reclaims for itself, and they have been very busy making Brexit very complicated because of conditions they keep adding on to it vis-a-vis this territory. Ceuta, along with the Spanish exclave Melilla, is one of two permanently inhabited Spanish territories in mainland Africa. Melilla is the smaller of the two cities in land area. At the onset of the Industrial Revolution (circa 1750-1850), European countries began scouring the globe looking for resources to power their economies. They are Alhucemas, Ceuta, the Chafarinas Islands, Melilla (qq.v. The plazas de soberanía (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈplaθas ðe soβeɾaˈni.a], lit. At this meeting, the world powers at the time divided up the regions of the continent that had not already been claimed. Morocco continues to claim possession of both enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta. It is located north and west of Melilla on the Almina Peninsula, near the Moroccan city of Tangier, across the Strait of Gibraltar from mainland Spain. It has two territories in Northern Africa, and both are claimed by Morocco: Ceuta and Melilla. (2020, October 29). Its population is slightly less than 80,000 and it is situated along the Mediterranean coast, surrounded by Morocco on three sides. Outlying territories of European countries, "Ceuta, Melilla, Chafarinas, Vélez y Alhucemas: tomar la iniciativa (ARI)", "Las Plazas Menores de soberanía española en África", "plaza #3 | Diccionario de la lengua española", "Moroccans seize Parsley Island and leave a bitter taste in Spanish mouths", Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plazas_de_soberanía&oldid=1019621464, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox settlement with no map, Pages using infobox settlement with no coordinates, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2020, Articles containing Spanish-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 24 April 2021, at 12:09. Spain was granted lands in the southwest region of the country as well as along the Mediterranean Coast in the North. Although they are part of Spain, for all other purposes they are not part of the EU Customs territory. These cities, enclaves of European heritage in the land the Arabs call "Al-Maghrib al Aqsa," (the farthest land of the setting sun), remain in Spanish control today. ThoughtCo. The empire stretched across the Caribbean These territories are legally part of Spain and the Schengen Area. One Spanish officer reflected, "an hour in Melilla, from the point of view of merit, was worth more than thirty years of service to Spain." Spain had held them well before the establishment of its protectorate. Algeria, Morocco's neighbor to the east, had been a part of France since 1830. Morocco continued to claim the southern portion as well and in 1975 seized control of the territory. The plazas de soberanía are small islands and a peninsula off the coast of Morocco (the only peninsula, Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, was an island until a 1934 storm formed a sand bridge with the mainland). Both Ceuta and Melilla carry with them the marks of western culture. The Treaty of Fez (signed on 30 March 1912) made most of Morocco a protectorate of France, while Spain assumed the role of protecting power over the northern part, Spanish Morocco.[5]. The Spanish Empire began its interest in the Americas upon the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean in 1492. The United Nations recognizes the southern portion, often called Western Sahara, as a non-self-governing territory. The Spanish Armed Forces responded by launching a military operation code-named Operation Romeo-Sierra. He holds a master's degree in geography. Brian Baskerville is a geographer at the United States Department of Agriculture. Two weeks ago, three Russian navy ships - … ), and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, with a combined area of about 12 square miles (31 square Urban development. Hundreds of African migrants tried Thursday to leap a triple-layer border fence around Spain's north African territory of Melilla but only one person made it through, the Spanish government said. "The Spanish Enclaves of North Africa." https://www.thoughtco.com/spanish-enclaves-of-north-africa-1435526 (accessed May 11, 2021). Spain continued its influence in the north, however, with control of two port cities, Melilla and Ceuta. [citation needed], The disputed Perejil Island (Isla Perejil), a small uninhabited islet close to Ceuta, considered by Spain to be a part of Ceuta and not a territory in its own right.[7]. Morocco claims sovereignty over the plazas de soberanía, as well as over Ceuta and Melilla. The attack was carried out by Spanish commandos of Grupo de Operaciones Especiales. Ceuta was especially important as a trade center because of its location near the Strait of Gibraltar. Find the perfect spanish territory in north africa stock photo. 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