Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 24. Chapters: Battle of Minorca (1939), Disputed status of Gibraltar, Disputed status of the isthmus between Gibraltar and Spain, Nootka Crisis, Pedro de Ayala, Simon Renard. Excerpt: Gibraltar is a British overseas territory, near the southernmost tip of the Iberian peninsula, which is the subject of a disputed irredentist claim by Spain. Gibraltar was captured in 1704, during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714). Spain formally ceded the territory in perpetuity to the British Crown in 1713, under Article X of the Treaty of Utrecht. This was confirmed in later treaties signed in Paris and Seville. Spain later attempted to recapture the territory militarily by a number of failed sieges, and reclamation of the territory by peaceful means remains its government's policy. The Gibraltarians themselves reject any such claim and no political party or pressure group in Gibraltar supports union with Spain. In a referendum in 2002 the people of Gibraltar soundly rejected a joint sovereignty proposal on which Spain and Britain were said to have reached "broad agreement." The British government has stated that it would never "enter into an agreement on sovereignty without the agreement of the Government of Gibraltar and their people." 25,000 people demonstrated in Gibraltar on 18 March 2002.In 2000, a political declaration of unity was signed by all present and past members of Gibraltar's Parliament. "In essence the declaration stated that the people of Gibraltar will never compromise, give up or trade their sovereignty or their right to self-determination; that Gibraltar wants good, neighbourly, European relations with Spain; and that Gibraltar belongs to the people of Gibraltar and is neither Spain's to claim or Britain's to give away." The territorial claim was formally reasserted by the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco in...