132-583: The British office of high commissioner for Southern Africa was responsible for governing British possessions in Southern Africa , latterly the protectorates of Basutoland (now Lesotho ), the Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana ) and Swaziland (now Eswatini), as well as for relations with autonomous governments in the area. The office was combined with that of Governor of Cape Colony from 1847 to 1901, with that of
264-594: A 34-year hiatus from 1968 to 2002. Defence of the overseas territories is the responsibility of the United Kingdom. Many of the overseas territories are used as military bases by the United Kingdom- and its allies: As overseas territories were added to the land conquered by the British, a number of towns and villages began to request formal recognition to validate their importance, and would be accorded
396-584: A UK police force, and specialist staff and equipment may be sent to assist the local force. Some territories may have other forces beyond the main territorial police, for instance an airport police, such as Airport Security Police (Bermuda) , or a defence police force, such as the Gibraltar Defence Police . In addition, most territories have customs, immigration, border and coastguard agencies. Territories with military bases or responsibilities may also have "Overseas Service Police", members of
528-576: A brief period in the 1330s and 1340s, Castile tended to be nonetheless "essentially unstable" from a political standpoint until the late 15th century. Merchants from Genoa and Pisa were conducting an intense trading activity in Catalonia already by the 12th century, and later in Portugal. Since the 13th century, the Crown of Aragon expanded overseas; led by Catalans , it attained an overseas empire in
660-467: A colony, at the same time re-designated a British Dependent Territory . This category of citizenship was distinguished from British Citizenship by what it did not include — the rights of abode and free entry to the United Kingdom — and was not specific to any colony but to all collectively, except for Gibraltar and the Falklands Islands, the people of which retained British Citizenship . It
792-535: A different constitutional relationship with the United Kingdom. The British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies are themselves distinct from the Commonwealth realms , a group of 15 independent countries (including the United Kingdom) sharing Charles III as monarch and head of state , and from the Commonwealth of Nations , a voluntary association of 56 countries mostly with historic links to
924-400: A governor is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the British government. Currently (2019) all but two governors are either career diplomats or have worked in other civil service departments. The remaining two governors are former members of the British armed forces. In territories without a permanent population, a commissioner is usually appointed to represent the monarch. Exceptionally, in
1056-599: A permanent trading port in the Gadir colony c. 800 BCE in response to the increasing demand of silver from the Assyrian Empire . The seafaring Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians successively settled along the Mediterranean coast and founded trading colonies there over several centuries. In the 8th century BCE, the first Greek colonies , such as Emporion (modern Empúries ), were founded along
1188-568: A population of 100,000 by the 10th century, Toledo 30,000 by the 11th century and Seville 80,000 by the 12th century. During the Middle Ages, the North of the peninsula housed many small Christian polities including the Kingdom of Castile , the Kingdom of Aragon , the Kingdom of Navarre , the Kingdom of León or the Kingdom of Portugal , as well as a number of counties that spawned from
1320-637: A role in the conflict by providing key naval support to France that helped lead to that nation's eventual victory. After the accession of Henry III to the throne of Castile, the populace, exasperated by the preponderance of Jewish influence, perpetrated a massacre of Jews at Toledo. In 1391, mobs went from town to town throughout Castile and Aragon, killing an estimated 50,000 Jews, or even as many as 100,000, according to Jane Gerber . Women and children were sold as slaves to Muslims, and many synagogues were converted into churches. According to Hasdai Crescas , about 70 Jewish communities were destroyed. During
1452-540: A status if deemed to be deserving such as a borough or as a more prestigious city by the monarch. Many cities were designated over several centuries, and as Anglican dioceses began to be created internationally from the 18th century, the process of city creation became aligned to that used in England, being linked to the presence of a cathedral . Later on, this process became untenable and other selection criteria and royal occasions were used instead. However, mainly from
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#17327721355881584-573: A sudden economic cessation. Many settlements in northern Castile and Catalonia were left forsaken. The plague marked the start of the hostility and downright violence towards religious minorities (particularly the Jews) as an additional consequence in the Iberian realms. The 14th century was a period of great upheaval in the Iberian realms. After the death of Peter the Cruel of Castile (reigned 1350–69),
1716-603: Is impossible to find a jury who will not know the defendant in a small population island. Whilst many are geographically remote, the British Overseas Territories share a direct connection with elements of supervisory governance (as did the now independent Commonwealth Nations) still exercisable by the UK’s Government in London, UK. The 2004 Pitcairn Islands sexual assault trial is an example of how
1848-621: Is testimony to a considerable input from various waves of (predominantly male) Western Steppe Herders from the Pontic–Caspian steppe during the Bronze Age. Iberia experienced a significant genetic turnover, with 100% of the paternal ancestry and 40% of the overall ancestry being replaced by peoples with steppe-related ancestry. In the Chalcolithic ( c. 3000 BCE), a series of complex cultures developed that would give rise to
1980-685: Is the second-largest European peninsula by area, after the Scandinavian Peninsula . The Iberian Peninsula has always been associated with the River Ebro (Ibēros in ancient Greek and Ibērus or Hibērus in Latin ). The association was so well known it was hardly necessary to state; for example, Ibēria was the country "this side of the Ibērus" in Strabo. Pliny goes so far as to assert that
2112-463: Is used elsewhere in Misplaced Pages to refer to all such statuses of various of the British Overseas Territories collectively. This status is neither a nationality nor a citizenship, although it confers rights under local legislation. Prior to 1968, the British government made no citizenship (or connected rights) distinction between its nationals in the United Kingdom and those in the British colonies (as
2244-677: The Ṣaqāliba (literally meaning "slavs", although they were slaves of generic European origin) as well as Sudanese slaves. The Umayyad rulers faced a major Berber Revolt in the early 740s; the uprising originally broke out in North Africa (Tangier) and later spread across the peninsula. Following the Abbasid takeover from the Umayyads and the shift of the economic centre of the Islamic Caliphate from Damascus to Baghdad,
2376-711: The Aurignacian , Gravettian , Solutrean and Magdalenian cultures, some of them characterized by the complex forms of the art of the Upper Paleolithic . During the Neolithic expansion , various megalithic cultures developed in the Iberian Peninsula. An open seas navigation culture from the east Mediterranean, called the Cardium culture , also extended its influence to the eastern coasts of
2508-604: The British Overseas Territories Act 2002 ). Most countries do not recognise the sovereignty claims of any other country, including Britain's, to Antarctica and its off-shore islands. Five nations contest, with counter-claims, the UK's sovereignty in the following overseas territories: The people of the British Overseas Territories are British Nationals. Most of the overseas territories distinguish between those British nationals who have rights reserved under
2640-807: The Commonwealth of Nations through the United Kingdom. The inhabited territories compete in their own right at the Commonwealth Games , and three of the territories ( Bermuda , the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands ) sent teams to the 2016 Summer Olympics . Although the Crown Dependencies of Jersey , Guernsey and the Isle of Man are also under the sovereignty of the British monarch , they are in
2772-720: The Ebro ) as far north as the Rhône , but in his day they set the Pyrenees as the limit. Polybius respects that limit, but identifies Iberia as the Mediterranean side as far south as Gibraltar , with the Atlantic side having no name. Elsewhere he says that Saguntum is "on the seaward foot of the range of hills connecting Iberia and Celtiberia." According to Charles Ebel, the ancient sources in both Latin and Greek use Hispania and Hiberia (Greek: Iberia ) as synonyms. The confusion of
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#17327721355882904-879: The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has the responsibility of looking after the interests of all overseas territories except the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defence . Within the FCDO, the general responsibility for the territories is handled by the Overseas Territories Directorate. In 2012, the FCO published The Overseas Territories: security, success and sustainability which set out Britain's policy for
3036-677: The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and are subject to change. Most of the territories retain permanent civilian populations, with the exceptions of the British Antarctic Territory , South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (which host only officials and research station staff) and the British Indian Ocean Territory (used as a military base). Permanent residency for the approximately 7,000 civilians living in
3168-614: The House of Trastámara succeeded to the throne in the person of Peter's half brother, Henry II (reigned 1369–79). In the kingdom of Aragón, following the death without heirs of John I (reigned 1387–96) and Martin I (reigned 1396–1410), a prince of the House of Trastámara, Ferdinand I (reigned 1412–16), succeeded to the Aragonese throne. The Hundred Years' War also spilled over into the Iberian peninsula, with Castile particularly taking
3300-514: The International Court of Justice , which issued an advisory opinion on 25 February 2019 which supported the position of the government of Mauritius. On 3 October 2024, British prime minister Keir Starmer and Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth jointly announced that an agreement had been reached under which the UK would cede sovereignty over the territory. Under the deal, Diego Garcia will be excluded from any resettlement, and
3432-464: The New Palace of Westminster . Speaker of the House of Commons , Sir Lindsay Hoyle said "The two windows represent part of our United Kingdom family". The head of state in the overseas territories is the British monarch, currently King Charles III. The monarch appoints a representative in each territory to exercise the executive power of the monarch. In territories with a permanent population,
3564-798: The Phoenician alphabet and originated in Southwestern Iberia by the 7th century BCE has been tentatively proposed. In the sixth century BCE, the Carthaginians arrived in the peninsula while struggling with the Greeks for control of the Western Mediterranean. Their most important colony was Carthago Nova (modern-day Cartagena, Spain ). In 218 BCE, during the Second Punic War against the Carthaginians,
3696-602: The Phoenicians , by voyaging westward on the Mediterranean . Hecataeus of Miletus was the first known to use the term Iberia , which he wrote about c. 500 BCE . Herodotus of Halicarnassus says of the Phocaeans that "it was they who made the Greeks acquainted with [...] Iberia." According to Strabo , prior historians used Iberia to mean the country "this side of the Ἶβηρος ( Ibēros ,
3828-859: The Strait of Gibraltar and founded upon a vassalage relationship with the Crown of Castile, also insinuated itself into the European mercantile network, with its ports fostering intense trading relations with the Genoese as well, but also with the Catalans, and to a lesser extent, with the Venetians, the Florentines, and the Portuguese. Between 1275 and 1340, Granada became involved in the "crisis of
3960-466: The United Kingdom were stripped of the rights of abode and free entry in 1968, and, in 1983, the British government replaced Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies with British Citizenship (with rights of abode and free entry to the United Kingdom) for those with a qualifying connection to the United Kingdom or British Dependent Territories Citizenship for those with a connection only to
4092-407: The handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, the British government amended the 1981 Act to give British citizenship without restrictions to all BDTCs (the status was also renamed BOTC at the same time) except for those solely connected with Akrotiri and Dhekelia (whose residents already held Cypriot citizenship ). This restored the right of abode in the UK to residents of overseas territories after
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4224-610: The 15th century, Portugal, which had ended its southwards territorial expansion across the Iberian Peninsula in 1249 with the conquest of the Algarve, initiated an overseas expansion in parallel to the rise of the House of Aviz , conquering Ceuta (1415) arriving at Porto Santo (1418), Madeira and the Azores , as well as establishing additional outposts along the North-African Atlantic coast. In addition, already in
4356-677: The 1920s become known as dominions . The dominions achieved almost full independence with the Statute of Westminster (1931) . Through a process of decolonisation following the Second World War, most of the British colonies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean chose independence. Some colonies became Commonwealth realms , retaining the monarch as their own head of state . Most former colonies and protectorates became member states of
4488-402: The 20th century onwards, increasing levels of states becoming fully independent caused the numbers of remaining cities to reduce substantially. Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( IPA : / aɪ ˈ b ɪər i ə n / ), also known as Iberia , is a peninsula in south-western Europe . Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees , it includes
4620-566: The Antarctic territory is only 18,015 km [6,956 sq mi]), while the two largest territories by population, the Cayman Islands and Bermuda , account for about half of the total BOT population. The Cayman Islands alone comprise 28% of the entire BOT population. At the other end of the scale, three territories have no civilian inhabitants – the Antarctic Territory (currently consisting of five research stations),
4752-479: The British Empire (which also includes all Commonwealth realms). Notably, while not independent Commonwealth realms, the territories are separately represented at the Commonwealth Games on the same basis as independent nation members, as are the three Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man. Full British citizenship has been granted to most 'belongers' of overseas territories (mainly since
4884-606: The British Indian Ocean Territory (whose inhabitants, the Chagossians , were forcibly moved to Mauritius and the United Kingdom between 1968 and 1973), and South Georgia (which actually did have a full-time population of two between 1992 and 2006). Pitcairn Islands , settled by the survivors of the mutiny on the Bounty , is the smallest settled territory, with 49 inhabitants (all of whom live on
5016-423: The British Overseas Territories were then termed). Indeed, the people of Bermuda had been explicitly guaranteed by Royal Charters for the Virginia Company in 1607 (extended to Bermuda in 1612) and the Somers Isles Company (in 1615) that they and their descendants would have exactly the same rights as they would if they had they been born in England. Despite this, British Colonials without a qualifying connection to
5148-422: The British Parliament passed the British Overseas Territories Act 2002 which introduced the current name of British Overseas Territories . This reclassified the UK's dependent territories as overseas territories and, with the exception of those people solely connected with the Sovereign Base Areas on Cyprus, restored full British citizenship to their inhabitants. During the European Union (EU) membership of
5280-441: The British or Commonwealth Armed Forces. A Joint Ministerial Council of UK ministers, and the leaders of the overseas territories has been held annually since 2012 to provide representation between UK government departments and overseas territory governments. The British Antarctic Territory overlaps with territory claims by both Argentina and Chile. However, territorial claims on the continent may not currently be advanced, under
5412-607: The Carolingian Marca Hispanica . Christian and Muslim polities fought and allied among themselves in variable alliances. The Christian kingdoms progressively expanded south taking over Muslim territory in what is historiographically known as the " Reconquista " (the latter concept has been however noted as product of the claim to a pre-existing Spanish Catholic nation and it would not necessarily convey adequately "the complexity of centuries of warring and other more peaceable interactions between Muslim and Christian kingdoms in medieval Iberia between 711 and 1492"). The Caliphate of Córdoba
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5544-445: The Chalcolithic sites of Los Millares, the Argaric culture flourished in southeastern Iberia in from 2200 BC to 1550 BC, when depopulation of the area ensued along with disappearing of copper–bronze–arsenic metallurgy. The most accepted model for El Argar has been that of an early state society, most particularly in terms of class division, exploitation, and coercion, with agricultural production, maybe also human labour, controlled by
5676-412: The Christian Iberian kingdoms by the beginning of the 13th century, in relation to the more or less conflictual border with Muslim lands. By the beginning of the 13th century, a power reorientation took place in the Iberian Peninsula (parallel to the Christian expansion in Southern Iberia and the increasing commercial impetus of Christian powers across the Mediterranean) and to a large extent, trade-wise,
5808-416: The Commonwealth of Nations , a non-political, voluntary association of equal members, comprising a population of around 2.2 billion people. After the independence of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe ) in Africa in 1980 and British Honduras (now Belize ) in Central America in 1981, the last major colony that remained was Hong Kong , with a population of over 5 million. With 1997 approaching,
5940-413: The EU, but they are the only British Overseas Territory to use the Euro as official currency, having previously had the Cypriot pound as their currency until 1 January 2008. On 15 May 2023, the sixteen heraldic shields of the British Overseas Territories and the three coat of arms of the Crown Dependencies were "immortalised" in two new stained-glass windows , unveiled in the Speaker's House at
6072-410: The Early Modern Period, between the completion of the Granada War in 1492 and the death of Ferdinand of Aragon in 1516, the Hispanic Monarchy would make strides in the imperial expansion along the Mediterranean coast of the Maghreb. During the Late Middle Ages, the Jews acquired considerable power and influence in Castile and Aragon. Throughout the late Middle Ages, the Crown of Aragon took part in
6204-423: The FCDO in London. Some territories maintain diplomatic officers in nearby countries for trade and immigration purposes. Several of the territories in the Americas maintain membership within the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States , the Caribbean Community , the Caribbean Development Bank , Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency and the Association of Caribbean States . The territories are members of
6336-436: The Falkland Islands treated as a part of the UK proper through the enactment of British Nationality (Falkland Islands) Act 1983 due to the Falklands War with Argentina; and Gibraltarians, who were given the special entitlement to be registered as British citizens upon request without further conditions because of its individual membership in the European Economic Area and the European Economic Community . Five years after
6468-548: The Greeks had called "the whole of the peninsula" Hiberia because of the Hiberus River. The river appears in the Ebro Treaty of 226 BCE between Rome and Carthage, setting the limit of Carthaginian interest at the Ebro. The fullest description of the treaty, stated in Appian , uses Ibērus. With reference to this border, Polybius states that the "native name" is Ibēr , apparently the original word, stripped of its Greek or Latin -os or -us termination. The early range of these natives, which geographers and historians place from
6600-400: The Hispano-Roman population took place, ( muwalladum or Muladí ). After a long process, spurred on in the 9th and 10th centuries, the majority of the population in Al-Andalus eventually converted to Islam. The Muslims were referred to by the generic name Moors . The Muslim population was divided per ethnicity (Arabs, Berbers, Muladí), and the supremacy of Arabs over the rest of group
6732-474: The Iberian Peninsula reorientated towards the North away from the Muslim World. During the Middle Ages, the monarchs of Castile and León, from Alfonso V and Alfonso VI (crowned Hispaniae Imperator ) to Alfonso X and Alfonso XI tended to embrace an imperial ideal based on a dual Christian and Jewish ideology. Despite the hegemonic ambitions of its rulers and the consolidation of the union of Castile and León after 1230, it should be pointed that, except for
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#17327721355886864-410: The Islamic army landed at Gibraltar and, in an eight-year campaign, occupied all except the northern kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula in the Umayyad conquest of Hispania . Al-Andalus ( Arabic : الإندلس , tr. al-ʾAndalūs , possibly "Land of the Vandals"), is the Arabic name given to Muslim Iberia. The Muslim conquerors were Arabs and Berbers ; following the conquest, conversion and arabization of
6996-416: The Mediterranean coast on the east, leaving the south coast to the Phoenicians. Together with the presence of Phoenician and Greek epigraphy, several paleohispanic scripts developed in the Iberian Peninsula along the 1st millennium BCE. The development of a primordial paleohispanic script antecessor to the rest of paleohispanic scripts (originally supposed to be a non-redundant semi-syllabary ) derived from
7128-557: The Mediterranean during Classical Antiquity having no match until the Industrial Revolution . In addition to mineral extraction (of which the region was the leading supplier in the early Roman world, with production of the likes of gold, silver, copper, lead, and cinnabar ), Hispania also produced manufactured goods ( sigillata pottery, colourless glass , linen garments) fish and fish sauce ( garum ), dry crops (such as wheat and, more importantly, esparto ), olive oil , and wine . The process of Romanization spurred on throughout
7260-431: The Neanderthal Châtelperronian cultural period began. Emanating from Southern France , this culture extended into the north of the peninsula. It continued to exist until around 30,000 BP, when Neanderthal man faced extinction. About 40,000 years ago, anatomically modern humans entered the Iberian Peninsula from across the Pyrenees. On the Iberian Peninsula, modern humans developed a series of different cultures, such as
7392-486: The Overseas Territories, covering six main areas: Britain and the Overseas Territories do not have diplomatic representations, although the governments of the overseas territories with indigenous populations all retain a representative office in London. The United Kingdom Overseas Territories Association (UKOTA) also represents the interests of the territories in London. The governments in both London and territories occasionally meet to mitigate or resolve disagreements over
7524-404: The Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia is limited to citizens of the Republic of Cyprus . Collectively, the territories encompass a population of about 250,000 people and a land area of about 480,000 sq nmi (1,600,000 km ). The vast majority of this land area constitutes the almost uninhabited British Antarctic Territory (the land area of all the territories excepting
7656-437: The Strait", and was caught in a complex geopolitical struggle ("a kaleidoscope of alliances") with multiple powers vying for dominance of the Western Mediterranean, complicated by the unstable relations of Muslim Granada with the Marinid Sultanate . The conflict reached a climax in the 1340 Battle of Río Salado , when, this time in alliance with Granada, the Marinid Sultan (and Caliph pretender) Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Othman made
7788-431: The Suebi kingdom and its capital city, Bracara (modern day Braga ), in 584–585. They would also occupy the province of the Byzantine Empire (552–624) of Spania in the south of the peninsula . However, Balearic Islands remained in Byzantine hands until Umayyad conquest, which began in 703 CE and was completed in 902 CE. In 711, a Muslim army conquered the Visigothic Kingdom in Hispania . Under Tariq ibn Ziyad ,
7920-415: The UK Parliament and the territories. He said that the UK Government's new "Votes for Life" policy mean all Gibraltarians who have previously lived in the UK, for example as students, can now register to vote in its general elections - regardless of how long ago they lived there. However, Fabian Picardo highlighted that, overall, there is no formal mechanism to ensure Gibraltar's interests are represented under
8052-415: The UK Parliament, as well as backbench members of the Conservative Party and Labour Party . The Chief Minister has argued that all British citizens in overseas territories should have the right to vote in UK parliamentary elections. On 29 January 2024, the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, Fabian Picardo, addressed the House of Commons Committee on territorial constitution, looking at the relationship between
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#17327721355888184-444: The UK remains the official administrative power of these territories, and under Article 73 is therefore required "to develop self-government, to take due account of the political aspirations of the peoples, and to assist them in the progressive development of their free political institutions." Historically the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the Colonial Office were responsible for overseeing all British Colonies, but today
8316-438: The UK was replaced by British Dependent Territories citizenship (BDTC) in the newly minted British Nationality Act 1981 , a status that does not come with it the right of abode in the UK or any overseas territory. For these residents, registration as full British citizens then required physical residence in the UK proper. There were only two exceptions: Falkland Islanders, who were automatically granted British citizenship, and with
8448-413: The UK will continue to administer the island for at least 99 years. Of the eleven territories with a permanent population, all except the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia in Cyprus continue to be listed by the UN Special Committee on Decolonization as non-self-governing territories since they were listed as dependent territories by the UK when it joined the UN in 1947. This means that
8580-402: The UK, including: The territories have no official representation in the UK Parliament, but have informal representation through the all-party parliamentary group , and can petition the UK government through the Directgov e-Petitions website. Two national parties, UK Independence Party and the Liberal Democrats , have endorsed calls for direct representation of overseas territories in
8712-398: The United Kingdom , the main body of EU law did not apply and, although certain slices of EU law were applied to the overseas territories as part of the EU's Association of Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT Association), they were not commonly enforceable in local courts. The OCT Association also provided overseas territories with structural funding for regeneration projects. Gibraltar
8844-417: The United Kingdom and China negotiated the Sino-British Joint Declaration , which led to the whole of Hong Kong becoming a special administrative region of China in 1997, subject to various conditions intended to guarantee the preservation of Hong Kong's capitalist economy and its way of life under British rule for at least 50 years after the handover . George Town , Cayman Islands , has consequently become
8976-441: The United Kingdom may choose to provide the legal framework for particular cases where the territory cannot do so alone. The highest court for all the British overseas territories is the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London. The British overseas territories generally look after their own policing matters and have their own police forces . In smaller territories, the senior officer(s) may be recruited or seconded from
9108-436: The United Kingdom retaining responsibility for defence , foreign relations , and internal security, and ultimate responsibility for "good" governance. Three of the territories are chiefly or only inhabited by military or scientific personnel, the rest hosting significant civilian populations. All fourteen have the British monarch as head of state . These UK government responsibilities are assigned to various departments of
9240-522: The United States in relation to Bermuda, with which it has retained close links since Bermuda was founded as an extension of Virginia). In regard to movement within British sovereign territory, only British citizenship grants the right of abode in a specific country or territory, namely, the United Kingdom proper (which includes its three Crown Dependencies ). Individual overseas territories have legislative independence over immigration, and consequently, BOTC status, as noted above, does not automatically grant
9372-406: The War of the Spanish Succession. The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) was the subject of a territorial dispute with Mauritius , the government of which claims that the separation of the Chagos Archipelago from the rest of British Mauritius in 1965, three years before Mauritius was granted independence from the United Kingdom, was unlawful. The long-running dispute was referred in 2017 to
9504-547: The Western Mediterranean, with a presence in Mediterranean islands such as the Balearics , Sicily and Sardinia , and even conquering Naples in the mid-15th century. Genoese merchants invested heavily in the Iberian commercial enterprise with Lisbon becoming, according to Virgínia Rau , the "great centre of Genoese trade" in the early 14th century. The Portuguese would later detach their trade to some extent from Genoese influence. The Nasrid Kingdom of Granada , neighbouring
9636-419: The advice of the UK government. To comply with the court's decision, the territorial governors now act on the advice of each territory's executive and the UK government can no longer disallow legislation passed by territorial legislatures. The role of the governor is to act as the de facto head of state , and they are usually responsible for appointing the head of government, and senior political positions in
9768-535: The aftermath of the conquest increased mining extractive processes in the southwest of the peninsula (which required a massive number of forced laborers, initially from Hispania and latter also from the Gallic borderlands and other locations of the Mediterranean), bringing in a far-reaching environmental outcome vis-à-vis long-term global pollution records, with levels of atmospheric pollution from mining across
9900-713: The archipelago in 1612. St. George's town, founded in Bermuda in that year, remains the oldest continuously inhabited British settlement in the New World (with some historians stating that – its formation predating the 1619 conversion of James Fort into Jamestown – St. George's was actually the first successful town the English established in the New World ). Bermuda and Bermudians have played important, sometimes pivotal, but generally underestimated or unacknowledged roles in
10032-415: The citizenship shown as British Overseas Territories Citizen in order to prove their entitlement to obtain a passport with the citizenship shown as British Citizen , most now have two passports, although the local governments of the territories do not distinguish an individual's local status based on either form of citizenship, and the passport with the citizenship shown as British Citizen consequently shows
10164-518: The constituency system - just the voluntary interest of individual MPs, such as those in the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Gibraltar. The Chief Minister acknowledged the difficulty of finding a system to accommodate Westminster representation and OT's self-governance - but said that the "Pandora's Box" of devolution had opened a window to how this could be addressed. Foreign affairs of the overseas territories are handled by
10296-588: The culture of Los Millares was followed by that of El Argar . During the Early Bronze Age, southeastern Iberia saw the emergence of important settlements, a development that has compelled some archeologists to propose that these settlements indicate the advent of state-level social structures. From this centre, bronze metalworking technology spread to other cultures like the Bronze of Levante , South-Western Iberian Bronze and Las Cogotas . Preceded by
10428-644: The default citizenship was renamed British Overseas Territories Citizenship (except still for Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands, for which British Citizenship remained the default), the immigration bars against its holders were lowered, and its holders were also entitled to obtain British Citizenship by obtaining a second British Passport (something that had previously been illegal) with the citizenship so indicated. As British Overseas Territories Citizens must provide their British Passport with
10560-582: The delineation of Iberia from Gaul ( Keltikē ) by the Pyrenees and included the entire land mass southwest (he says "west") from there. With the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the consolidation of Romance languages , the word "Iberia" continued the Roman word Hiberia and the Greek word Ἰβηρία . The ancient Greeks reached the Iberian Peninsula, of which they had heard from
10692-813: The early fifth century, Germanic peoples occupied the peninsula, namely the Suebi , the Vandals ( Silingi and Hasdingi ) and their allies, the Alans . Only the kingdom of the Suebi ( Quadi and Marcomanni ) would endure after the arrival of another wave of Germanic invaders, the Visigoths , who occupied all of the Iberian Peninsula and expelled or partially integrated the Vandals and the Alans. The Visigoths eventually occupied
10824-780: The feebleness of the taifa principalities, Ferdinand I of León seized Lamego and Viseu (1057–1058) and Coimbra (1064) away from the Taifa of Badajoz (at times at war with the Taifa of Seville ); Meanwhile, in the same year Coimbra was conquered, in the Northeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula, the Kingdom of Aragon took Barbastro from the Hudid Taifa of Lérida as part of an international expedition sanctioned by Pope Alexander II. Most critically, Alfonso VI of León-Castile conquered Toledo and its wider taifa in 1085, in what it
10956-634: The first Roman troops occupied the Iberian Peninsula, known to them as Hispania . After 197, the territories of the peninsula most accustomed to external contact and with the most urban tradition (the Mediterranean Coast and the Guadalquivir Valley) were divided by Romans into Hispania Ulterior and Hispania Citerior . Local rebellions were quelled, with a 195 Roman campaign under Cato the Elder ravaging hotspots of resistance in
11088-566: The first century BC. The peninsula was also the battleground of civil wars between rulers of the Roman republic; such as the Sertorian War , and the conflict between Caesar and Pompey later in the century. During their 600-year occupation of the Iberian Peninsula, the Romans introduced the Latin language that influenced many of the languages that exist today in the Iberian peninsula. In
11220-444: The former Carthaginian territories, the Romans began to use the names Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior for 'near' and 'far' Hispania. At the time Hispania was made up of three Roman provinces : Hispania Baetica , Hispania Tarraconensis , and Hispania Lusitania . Strabo says that the Romans use Hispania and Iberia synonymously, distinguishing between the near northern and the far southern provinces. (The name Iberia
11352-680: The governor based in New Zealand. Following the Lords' decision in Ex parte Quark, 2005, it is held that the King in exercising his authority over British Overseas Territories does not act on the advice of the government of the UK, but in his role as king of each territory, with the exception of fulfilling the UK's international responsibilities for its territories. The reserve powers of the Crown for each territory are no longer considered to be exercisable on
11484-470: The governor of Transvaal Colony 1901 to 1910, and with that of Governor-General of South Africa from 1910 to 1931. The British government appointed the Governor-General as High Commissioner under a separate commission. In addition to responsibility for Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland, he held reserve powers concerning the interests of the native population of Southern Rhodesia . The post
11616-459: The holder to be entitled to all of the same right as does the passport with the citizenship shown as British Overseas Territories Citizen , and is often required to access services in the United Kingdom, and is accepted by the immigration authorities of more foreign countries, many of which have barriers against holders of British Overseas Territories Citizen passport holders that do not apply to British Citizen passport holders (the exception being
11748-715: The holding measures of the Antarctic Treaty System . Gibraltar was captured from Spain in 1704 by a force led by Admiral Sir George Rooke representing the Grand Alliance on behalf of the Archduke Charles, pretender to the Spanish throne. Spanish attempts to regain the territory failed, and it was eventually ceded to the Britain under the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht as part of the settlement of
11880-639: The inhabitants of the territory with the environment. By the Iron Age , starting in the 8th century BCE, the Iberian Peninsula consisted of complex agrarian and urban civilizations, either Pre-Celtic or Celtic (such as the Celtiberians , Gallaeci , Astures , Celtici , Lusitanians and others), the cultures of the Iberians in the eastern and southern zones and the cultures of the Aquitanian in
12012-427: The larger hilltop settlements, and the elite using violence in practical and ideological terms to clamp down on the population. Ecological degradation, landscape opening, fires, pastoralism, and maybe tree cutting for mining have been suggested as reasons for the collapse. The culture of the motillas developed an early system of groundwater supply plants (the so-called motillas ) in the upper Guadiana basin (in
12144-498: The largest city among the dependent territories, partly because of the constant and healthy flow of immigration to the city and the territory as a whole, which saw its population jump 26% from 2010 to 2021, the fastest population growth of any of the territories. Prior to 1 January 1983, the territories were officially referred to as the Crown Colonies . At that time they were renamed British Dependent Territories . In 2002,
12276-429: The last Marinid attempt to set up a power base in the Iberian Peninsula. The lasting consequences of the resounding Muslim defeat to an alliance of Castile and Portugal with naval support from Aragon and Genoa ensured Christian supremacy over the Iberian Peninsula and the preeminence of Christian fleets in the Western Mediterranean. The 1348–1350 bubonic plague devastated large parts of the Iberian Peninsula, leading to
12408-456: The local government for those with a qualifying connection to the territory. In Bermuda, by example, this is called Bermudian status , and can be inherited or obtained subject to conditions laid down by the local government (non-British nationals must necessarily obtain British nationality in order to obtain Bermudian status). Although the expression "belonger status" is not used in Bermuda, it
12540-463: The meanings of the words, including Iber, must also remain unknown. In modern Basque , the word ibar means "valley" or "watered meadow", while ibai means "river", but there is no proof connecting the names with Ebro or Iberia . The word Iberia comes from the Latin word Hiberia originating from the Ancient Greek word Ἰβηρία ( Ibēríā ), used by Greek geographers under
12672-453: The mediterranean slave trade, with Barcelona (already in the 14th century), Valencia (particularly in the 15th century) and, to a lesser extent, Palma de Mallorca (since the 13th century), becoming dynamic centres in this regard, involving chiefly eastern and Muslim peoples. Castile engaged later in this economic activity, rather by adhering to the incipient atlantic slave trade involving sub-saharan people thrusted by Portugal (Lisbon being
12804-530: The middle of the 19th century to the early 20th century, the larger settler colonies – in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa – first became self-governing colonies and then achieved independence in all matters except foreign policy, defence and trade. Separate self-governing colonies federated to become Canada (in 1867), Australia (in 1901), South Africa (in 1910) and Rhodesia (in 1965). These and other large self-governing colonies had by
12936-561: The northeastern Ebro Valley and beyond. The threat to Roman interests posed by Celtiberians and Lusitanians in uncontrolled territories lingered in. Further wars of indigenous resistance, such as the Celtiberian Wars and the Lusitanian War , were fought in the 2nd century. Urban growth took place, and population progressively moved from hillforts to the plains. An example of the interaction of slaving and ecocide ,
13068-490: The overseas territories of Saint Helena, Ascension, Tristan da Cunha and the Pitcairn Islands, an administrator is appointed to be the governor's representative. In the territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, there is an administrator in each of the two distant parts of the territory, namely Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha . The administrator of the Pitcairn Islands resides on Pitcairn, with
13200-570: The peninsula in 1146. Somewhat straying from the trend taking place in other locations of the Latin West since the 10th century, the period comprising the 11th and 13th centuries was not one of weakening monarchical power in the Christian kingdoms. The relatively novel concept of "frontier" (Sp: frontera ), already reported in Aragon by the second half of the 11th century become widespread in
13332-777: The peninsula's first civilizations and to extensive exchange networks reaching to the Baltic , Middle East and North Africa . Around 2800 – 2700 BCE, the Beaker culture , which produced the Maritime Bell Beaker , probably originated in the vibrant copper-using communities of the Tagus estuary and spread from there to many parts of western Europe. The Bronze Age began on the Iberian Peninsula in 2100 cal. BC according to radiocarbon datings of several key sites. Bronze Age cultures developed beginning c. 1800 BCE, when
13464-533: The peninsula, possibly as early as the 5th millennium BCE. These people may have had some relation to the subsequent development of the Iberian civilization . As is the case for most of the rest of Southern Europe, the principal ancestral origin of modern Iberians are Early European Farmers who arrived during the Neolithic. The large predominance of Y-Chromosome Haplogroup R1b, common throughout Western Europe ,
13596-635: The people of the British Dependent Territories (other than those of Gibraltar and the Falklands), which was understood universally as intended to raise a colour bar and had done so given that most white colonials were not affected by it and had made restoration of a single citizenship part of its election manifesto. In 2002, when the British Dependent Territories became the British Overseas Territories ,
13728-526: The permanent English colonisation of North America began officially in 1607 with the settlement of Jamestown , the first successful permanent colony in Virginia (a term that was then applied generally to North America). Its offshoot, Bermuda , was settled inadvertently after the wrecking of the Virginia Company 's flagship there in 1609, with the company's charter extended to officially include
13860-513: The present southern Spain to the present southern France along the Mediterranean coast, is marked by instances of a readable script expressing a yet unknown language, dubbed " Iberian ". Whether this was the native name or was given to them by the Greeks for their residence near the Ebro remains unknown. Credence in Polybius imposes certain limitations on etymologizing: if the language remains unknown,
13992-464: The process of governance in the territories and levels of autonomy. Britain provides financial assistance to the overseas territories via the FCDO (previously the Department for International Development ). As of 2019, only Montserrat, Saint Helena, Pitcairn and Tristan da Cunha receive budgetary aid (i.e. financial contribution to recurrent funding). Several specialist funds are made available by
14124-573: The remaining taifas. The Almoravids in the Iberian peninsula progressively relaxed strict observance of their faith, and treated both Jews and Mozarabs harshly, facing uprisings across the peninsula, initially in the Western part. The Almohads , another North-African Muslim sect of Masmuda Berber origin who had previously undermined the Almoravid rule south of the Strait of Gibraltar, first entered
14256-445: The right of abode in any of the territories, as it depends on the territory's immigration laws. A territory may issue belonger status to allow a person to reside in the territory that they have close links with. The governor or immigration department of a territory may also grant the territorial status to a resident who does not hold it as a birthright. From 1949 to 1983, the nationality status of Citizenship of UK and Colonies (CUKC)
14388-516: The rule of the Roman Empire to refer to what is known today in English as the Iberian Peninsula. At that time, the name did not describe a single geographical entity or a distinct population; the same name was used for the Kingdom of Iberia , natively known as Kartli in the Caucasus , the core region of what would later become the Kingdom of Georgia . It was Strabo who first reported
14520-472: The sense of English subjects residing in lands hitherto outside the control of the English government, were generally known as plantations . The first, unofficial, colony was Newfoundland Colony , where English fishermen routinely set up seasonal camps in the 16th century. It is now a province of Canada known as Newfoundland and Labrador . After failed attempts, including the Roanoke Colony ,
14652-649: The shaping of the English and British transatlantic empires. These include maritime commerce, settlement of the continent and of the West Indies , and the projection of naval power via the colony's privateers , among other areas. The growth of the British Empire in the 19th century, to its territorial peak in the 1920s, saw Britain acquire nearly one quarter of the world's land mass, including territories with large indigenous populations in Asia and Africa. From
14784-463: The southern meseta ) in a context of extreme aridification in the area in the wake of the 4.2-kiloyear climatic event , which roughly coincided with the transition from the Copper Age to the Bronze Age. Increased precipitation and recovery of the water table from about 1800 BC onward should have led to the forsaking of the motillas (which may have flooded) and the redefinition of the relation of
14916-684: The species Homo erectus , Homo heidelbergensis , or a new species called Homo antecessor . Around 200,000 BP , during the Lower Paleolithic period, Neanderthals first entered the Iberian Peninsula. Around 70,000 BP, during the Middle Paleolithic period, the last glacial event began and the Neanderthal Mousterian culture was established. Around 37,000 BP, during the Upper Paleolithic ,
15048-562: The terms 'Spanish Peninsula' or 'Pyrenaean Peninsula'. The Iberian Peninsula has been inhabited by members of the Homo genus for at least 1.2 million years as remains found in the sites in the Atapuerca Mountains demonstrate. Among these sites is the cave of Gran Dolina , where six hominin skeletons, dated between 780,000 and one million years ago, were found in 1994. Experts have debated whether these skeletons belong to
15180-466: The territories of Peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal , comprising most of the region, as well as the tiny adjuncts of Andorra , Gibraltar , and, pursuant to the traditional definition of the Pyrenees as the peninsula's northeastern boundary, a small part of France . With an area of approximately 583,254 square kilometres (225,196 sq mi), and a population of roughly 53 million, it
15312-462: The territory. Each overseas territory has its own legal system independent of the United Kingdom. The legal system is generally based on English common law , with some distinctions for local circumstances. Each territory has its own attorney general and court system. For the smaller territories, the United Kingdom may appoint a UK-based lawyer or judge to work on legal cases. This is particularly important for cases involving serious crimes and where it
15444-534: The territory. The governor is also responsible for liaising with the UK government, and carrying out any ceremonial duties. A commissioner has the same powers as a governor, but also acts as the head of government. Although the British Government is the national government, much of governance within the territories has been delegated to local government, with all of those that have permanent populations having some degree of representative government (which
15576-512: The time of the late Roman Republic called the entire peninsula Hispania . In Greek and Roman antiquity, the name Hesperia was used for both the Italian and Iberian Peninsula; in the latter case Hesperia Ultima (referring to its position in the far west) appears as form of disambiguation from the former among Roman writers. Also since Roman antiquity, Jews gave the name Sepharad to the peninsula. As they became politically interested in
15708-571: The titular island), while the smallest by land area is Gibraltar, which lies on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula . The United Kingdom participates in the Antarctic Treaty System and, as part of a mutual agreement, the British Antarctic Territory is recognised by four of the six other sovereign nations making claims to Antarctic territory . The 14 British Overseas Territories are: Early colonies, in
15840-554: The view of Jaime Vicens Vives , "the most powerful state in Europe". Abd-ar-Rahman III also managed to expand the clout of Al-Andalus across the Strait of Gibraltar, waging war, as well as his successor, against the Fatimid Empire . Between the 8th and 12th centuries, Al-Andalus enjoyed a notable urban vitality, both in terms of the growth of the preexisting cities as well as in terms of founding of new ones: Córdoba reached
15972-553: The western portion of the Pyrenees. As early as the 12th century BCE, the Phoenicians , a thalassocratic civilization originally from the Eastern Mediterranean, began to explore the coastline of the peninsula, interacting with the metal-rich communities in the southwest of the peninsula (contemporarily known as the semi-mythical Tartessos ). Around 1100 BCE, Phoenician merchants founded the trading colony of Gadir or Gades (modern day Cádiz ). Phoenicians established
16104-489: The western province of al-Andalus was marginalised and ultimately became politically autonomous as independent emirate in 756, ruled by one of the last surviving Umayyad royals, Abd al-Rahman I . Al-Andalus became a center of culture and learning, especially during the Caliphate of Córdoba . The Caliphate reached the height of its power under the rule of Abd-ar-Rahman III and his successor al-Hakam II , becoming then, in
16236-678: The words was because of an overlapping in political and geographic perspectives. The Latin word Hiberia , similar to the Greek Iberia , literally translates to "land of the Hiberians". This word was derived from the river Hiberus (now called Ebro or Ebre). Hiber (Iberian) was thus used as a term for peoples living near the river Ebro. The first mention in Roman literature was by the annalist poet Ennius in 200 BCE. Virgil wrote impacatos (H)iberos ("restless Iberi") in his Georgics . Roman geographers and other prose writers from
16368-794: Was a recurrent causal for strife, rivalry and hatred, particularly between Arabs and Berbers. Arab elites could be further divided in the Yemenites (first wave) and the Syrians (second wave). Christians and Jews were allowed to live as part of a stratified society under the dhimmah system , although Jews became very important in certain fields. Some Christians migrated to the Northern Christian kingdoms, while those who stayed in Al-Andalus progressively arabised and became known as musta'arab ( mozarabs ). The slave population comprised
16500-545: Was abolished on 1 August 1964. The high commissioner was responsible for governing the following territories, in each case represented by a resident commissioner : British possessions The British Overseas Territories ( BOTs ) are the fourteen territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom that, while not forming part of the United Kingdom itself, are part of its sovereign territory. The permanently inhabited territories are delegated varying degrees of internal self-governance , with
16632-489: Was ambiguous, being also the name of the Kingdom of Iberia in the Caucasus.) Whatever languages may generally have been spoken on the peninsula soon gave way to Latin, except for that of the Vascones , which was preserved as a language isolate by the barrier of the Pyrenees. The modern phrase "Iberian Peninsula" was coined by the French geographer Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent on his 1823 work "Guide du Voyageur en Espagne" . Prior to that date, geographers had used
16764-433: Was not the case for British Hong Kong ) which have been delegated responsibility for local legislation, irrevocably guaranteed the same rights and representation they would have if born in England, representation in the national Parliament of the United Kingdom has yet to be extended to any overseas territory. The structure of the territorial government appears to be closely correlated to the size and political development of
16896-431: Was seen as a critical event at the time, entailing also a huge territorial expansion, advancing from the Sistema Central to La Mancha . In 1086, following the siege of Zaragoza by Alfonso VI of León-Castile, the Almoravids , religious zealots originally from the deserts of the Maghreb, landed in the Iberian Peninsula, and, having inflicted a serious defeat to Alfonso VI at the battle of Zalaca , began to seize control of
17028-420: Was shared by residents of the UK proper and residents of overseas territories, although most residents of overseas territories lost their automatic right to live in the UK after the ratification of Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 that year unless they were born in the UK proper or had a parent or a grandparent born in the UK. In 1983, CUKC status of residents of overseas territories without the right of abode in
17160-476: Was stated by some Conservative Party backbench MPs that the secret intent of the Conservative government was to restore a single citizenship, with full rights across the United Kingdom and the British Dependent Territories, once Hong Kong and its British Dependent Territories Citizens had been returned to the People's Republic of China in 1997. By that time, the Labour Party was in government with Tony Blair as Prime Minister. Labour had decried discrimination against
17292-406: Was subsumed in a period of upheaval and civil war (the Fitna of al-Andalus ) and collapsed in the early 11th century, spawning a series of ephemeral statelets, the taifas . Until the mid 11th century, most of the territorial expansion southwards of the Kingdom of Asturias/León was carried out through a policy of agricultural colonization rather than through military operations; then, profiting from
17424-559: Was the only overseas territory that was part of the EU, although it was not part of the European Customs Union, the European Tax Policy, the European Statistics Zone or the Common Agriculture Policy. Gibraltar was not a member of the EU in its own right; it received representation in the European Parliament through its being part of the South West England constituency. Overseas citizens held concurrent European Union citizenship, giving them rights of free movement across all EU member states. The Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus were never part of
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