Misplaced Pages

#649350

51-778: Spanish North Africa may refer to: Contemporary Spanish North Africa: Spain's two autonomous cities: Ceuta and Melilla , plus other minor territories ( plazas de soberanía ) Canary Islands Historical Spanish North Africa (1913–1975); former Spanish colonies in Northern Africa, part of the Plazas y Provincias Africanas : Spanish Morocco Spanish Sahara Ifni Cape Juby See also [ edit ] Spanish Africa (disambiguation) Spanish West Africa Ceuta and Melilla (disambiguation) Languages of Africa [REDACTED] Topics referred to by

102-827: A Punic name ("Lofty Mountain" or "Mountain of God ") for Jebel Musa , the southern Pillar of Hercules . The name of the mountain was in fact Habenna ( Punic : 𐤀𐤁‬𐤍‬ , ʾbn , "Stone" or " Stele ") or ʾAbin-ḥīq ( 𐤀𐤁‬𐤍𐤇‬𐤒 , ʾbnḥq , "Rock of the Bay"), about the nearby Bay of Benzú . The name was hellenized variously as Ápini ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Ἄπινι ), Abýla ( Ἀβύλα ), Abýlē ( Ἀβύλη ), Ablýx ( Ἀβλύξ ), and Abilē Stḗlē ( Ἀβίλη Στήλη , "Pillar of Abyla") and in Latin as Abyla Mons ("Mount Abyla") or Abyla Columna ("the Pillar of Abyla"). The settlement below Jebel Musa

153-523: A maritime-influenced Mediterranean climate , similar to nearby Spanish and Moroccan cities such as Tarifa , Algeciras or Tangiers . The average diurnal temperature variation is relatively low; the average annual temperature is 18.8 °C (65.8 °F) with average yearly highs of 21.4 °C (70.5 °F) and lows of 15.7 °C (60.3 °F) though the Ceuta weather station has only been in operation since 2003. Ceuta has relatively mild winters for

204-543: A period of political instability persisted, under competing interests from the Marinids and Granada as well as autonomous rule under the native Banu al-Azafi . The Fez finally conquered the region in 1387, with assistance from Aragon . On the morning of 21 August 1415, King John I of Portugal led his sons and their assembled forces in a surprise assault that would come to be known as the Conquest of Ceuta . The battle

255-462: A small Hindu community that had existed in Ceuta since 1893, connected to Gibraltar's. When Spain recognized the independence of Spanish Morocco in 1956, Ceuta and the other plazas de soberanía remained under Spanish rule. Spain considered them integral parts of the Spanish state, but Morocco has disputed this point. Culturally, modern Ceuta is part of the Spanish region of Andalusia . It

306-582: A small village of Muslims and Christians surrounded by ruins until its resettlement in the 9th century by Mâjakas, chief of the Majkasa Berber tribe, who started the short-lived Banu Isam dynasty. His great-grandson briefly allied his tribe with the Idrisids , but Banu Isam rule ended in 931 when he abdicated in favor of Abd ar-Rahman III , the Umayyad ruler of Córdoba, Spain . Chaos ensued with

357-472: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Ceuta Ceuta ( UK : / ˈ sj uː t ə / , US : / ˈ s eɪ uː t ə / , Spanish: [ˈθewta, ˈsewta] ; Arabic : سَبْتَة , romanized :  Sabtah ) is an autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along

408-694: Is known officially in Spanish as Ciudad Autónoma de Ceuta (English: Autonomous City of Ceuta ), with a rank between a standard municipality and an autonomous community . Ceuta is part of the territory of the European Union . The city was a free port before Spain joined the European Union in 1986. Now it has a low-tax system within the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union . Since 1979, Ceuta has held elections to its 25-seat assembly every four years. The leader of its government

459-603: Is only 113 km (70 mi) distant from the main Spanish naval base at Rota on the Spanish mainland. The Spanish Air Force 's Morón Air Base is also within 135 km (84 mi) proximity. The Civil Guard is responsible for border security and protects both the territory's fortified land border as well as its maritime approaches against frequent, and sometimes significant, migrant incursions. Free port Some special economic zones are called free ports or free trade ports . Sometimes they have historically been endowed with favorable customs regulations, such as

510-700: The Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea , the Strait of Gibraltar is an important military and commercial chokepoint . The Phoenicians realized the extremely narrow isthmus joining the Peninsula of Almina to the African mainland made Ceuta eminently defensible and established an outpost there early in the 1st millennium   BC. The Greek geographers record it by variations of Abyla ,

561-588: The Congress of Deputies , the lower house of the Cortes Generales (the Spanish Parliament). As of the November 2019 election, this post is held by María Teresa López of Vox . Ceuta is subdivided into 63 barriadas ("neighborhoods"), such as Barriada de Berizu, Barriada de P. Alfonso, Barriada del Sarchal, and El Hacho. Ceuta maintains its own police force. The defence of

SECTION 10

#1732772477650

612-707: The Free Port of Trieste that with the signing of the 16th Resolution of the Security Council of the United Nations (10 January 1947) and the signing of the Treaty of Peace with Italy (10 February 1947, ratified 15 September 1947) was put territorially under the sovereignty of the United Nations itself. As cited on Annex VIII, Article 3, paragraph 2: "The establishment of special zones in

663-691: The Iberian Union . During the Iberian Union, 1580 to 1640, Ceuta attracted many settlers of Spanish origin and became the only city of the Portuguese Empire that sided with Spain when Portugal regained its independence in the Portuguese Restoration War of 1640. On 1 January 1668, King Afonso VI of Portugal recognised the formal allegiance of Ceuta to Spain and ceded Ceuta to King Carlos II of Spain by

714-571: The Islamic conquest of the Maghreb around 710. Instead, the rapid Muslim conquest of Spain produced romances concerning Count Julian of Septem and his betrayal of Christendom in revenge for the dishonor that befell his daughter at King Roderick 's court. Allegedly with Julian's encouragement and instructions, the Berber convert and freedman Tariq ibn Ziyad took his garrison from Tangiers across

765-805: The Peninsula of Almina overlooking the port is one of the possible locations of the southern pillar of the Pillars of Hercules of Greek legend (the other possibility being Jebel Musa ). The Ceuta Peninsula has been recognised as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because the site is part of a migratory bottleneck, or choke point, at the western end of the Mediterranean for large numbers of raptors , storks and other birds flying between Europe and Africa. These include European honey buzzards , black kites , short-toed snake eagles , Egyptian vultures , griffon vultures , black storks , white storks and Audouin's gulls . Ceuta has

816-536: The Spanish Army of Africa and rebelled against the Spanish republican government; his military uprising led to the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939. Franco transported troops to mainland Spain in an airlift using transport aircraft supplied by Germany and Italy . Ceuta became one of the first battlegrounds of the uprising: General Franco's rebel nationalist forces seized Ceuta, while at the same time

867-518: The Treaty of Lisbon . The city was attacked by Moroccan forces under Moulay Ismail during the Siege of Ceuta (1694–1727) . During the longest siege in history, the city underwent changes leading to the loss of its Portuguese character. While most of the military operations took place around the Royal Walls of Ceuta , there were also small-scale penetrations by Spanish forces at various points on

918-476: The customs territory ”. According to the World Bank, the main types of special economic zones are: An early type of special economic zone was free ports , these historically were endowed with favorable customs regulations. In modern times, free port has come to mean a specific type of special economic zone, for example LADOL . All "free ports" in the world were permitted by the respective states, save

969-521: The hinterland and made the more defensible Septem their regional capital in place of Tingis. Epidemics , less capable successors and overstretched supply lines forced a retrenchment and left Septem isolated. It is likely that its count ( comes ) was obliged to pay homage to the Visigoth Kingdom in Spain in the early 7th century. There are no reliable contemporary accounts of the end of

1020-455: The province of Cádiz on the Spanish mainland by the Strait of Gibraltar and it shares a 6.4 km (4 mi) land border with M'diq-Fnideq Prefecture in the Kingdom of Morocco . It has an area of 18.5 km (7 sq mi; 4,571 acres). It is dominated by Monte Anyera, a hill along its western frontier with Morocco, which is guarded by a Spanish military fort. Monte Hacho on

1071-581: The "high incidence of corruption, tax evasion, and criminal activity", with a further review to take place in the following year, The European Parliament suggested that increasing demand for free ports could be partly a response to global crackdowns on tax evasion. The European Commission in a report said that free ports were popular for the storage of art, precious stones, antiques, gold, and wine as alternative assets to cash, and posed an emerging threat in multiple ways: allowing counterfeiters to land consignments and tamper with loads and paperwork, then re-export

SECTION 20

#1732772477650

1122-781: The Free Port under the exclusive jurisdiction of any State is incompatible with the status of the Free Territory and of the Free Port" . For example, it was not possible to apply the "Italian Law on Ports" in the extraterritorial free zones of the UN Free Port of Trieste with the effect that all actual territorial concessions were null and void. In 1954, the Free Territory of Trieste was dissolved and given to its neighbours, Italy and Yugoslavia. The European Union, in 2020, introduced new stricter rules to identify and report suspicious activities at free ports and zones in response to

1173-617: The Mauretanian king Ptolemy in AD   40 and seized his kingdom, which Claudius organized in AD ;42, placing Septem in the province of Tingitana and raising it to the level of a colony . It subsequently was Romanized and thrived into the late 3rd century, trading heavily with Roman Spain and becoming well known for its salted fish . Roads connected it overland with Tingis (Tangiers) and Volubilis . Under Theodosius I in

1224-726: The Moroccan coast, and seizure of shipping in the Strait of Gibraltar. During the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) , Spain allowed Britain to occupy Ceuta. Occupation began in 1810, with Ceuta being returned at the conclusion of the wars. Disagreements regarding the border of Ceuta resulted in the Hispano-Moroccan War (1859–60) , which ended at the Battle of Tetuán . In July 1936, General Francisco Franco took command of

1275-614: The Romans eventually accepted his conquests and he continued to raid them anyway, he soon lost control of Tingis and Septem in a series of Berber revolts. When Justinian decided to reconquer the Vandal lands , his victorious general Belisarius continued along the coast, making Septem a westernmost outpost of the Byzantine Empire around 533. Unlike the former ancient Roman administration, however, Eastern Rome did not push far into

1326-609: The Spanish Constitution, henceforth becoming an autonomous city. Ceuta, like Melilla and the Canary Islands , was classified as a free port before Spain joined the European Union . Its population is predominantly Christian and Muslim , with a small minority of Sephardic Jews and Sindhi Hindus , from Pakistan. Spanish is the official language. Spanish and Darija Arabic are the two main spoken languages. The name Abyla has been said to have been

1377-566: The ancient name of nearby Jebel Musa . Beside Calpe , the other Pillar of Hercules now known as the Rock of Gibraltar , the Phoenicians established Kart at what is now San Roque , Spain . Other good anchorages nearby became Phoenician and then Carthaginian ports at what are now Tangiers and Cádiz . After Carthage 's destruction in the Punic Wars , most of northwest Africa

1428-489: The bastions of Coraza Alta, Bandera and Mallorquines. Luís de Camões lived in Ceuta between 1549 and 1551, losing his right eye in battle, which influenced his work of poetry Os Lusíadas . In 1578 King Sebastian of Portugal died at the Battle of Alcácer Quibir (known as the Battle of Three Kings) in what is today northern Morocco, without descendants, triggering the 1580 Portuguese succession crisis . His granduncle,

1479-511: The boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean . Ceuta is one of the special member state territories of the European Union , and it is one of several Spanish territories in Africa , which include Melilla and the Canary Islands . It was a regular municipality belonging to the province of Cádiz prior to the passing of its Statute of Autonomy in March 1995, as provided by

1530-511: The city came under fire from the air and sea forces of the official republican government. The Llano Amarillo monument was erected to honor Francisco Franco ; it was inaugurated on 13 July 1940. The tall obelisk has since been abandoned, but the shield symbols of the Falange and Imperial Eagle remain visible. Following the 1947 Partition of India , a substantial number of Sindhi Hindus from current-day Pakistan settled in Ceuta, adding to

1581-480: The city to pursue further enterprises in the area. From 1415 to 1437, Pedro de Meneses became the first governor of Ceuta. The Marinid Sultanate started the 1419 siege but was defeated by the first governor of Ceuta before reinforcements arrived in the form of John, Constable of Portugal and his brother Henry the Navigator , who were sent with troops to defend Ceuta. Under King John I 's son, Duarte ,

Spanish North Africa - Misplaced Pages Continue

1632-516: The coat of arms derived from that of the Kingdom of Portugal was added to the center; the original Portuguese flag and coat of arms of Ceuta remained unchanged, and the modern-day Ceuta flag features the configuration of the Portuguese shield . John's son Henry the Navigator distinguished himself in the battle, being wounded during the conquest. The looting of the city proved to be less profitable than expected for John I, so he decided to keep

1683-590: The colony at Ceuta rapidly became a drain on the Portuguese treasury. Trans-Saharan trade journeyed instead to Tangier . It was soon realized that without the city of Tangier, possession of Ceuta was worthless. In 1437, Duarte's brothers Henry the Navigator and Fernando, the Saint Prince persuaded him to launch an attack on the Marinid sultanate. The resulting Battle of Tangier (1437) , led by Henry,

1734-541: The commission cited Swiss authorities' 2016 seizure of cultural relics looted from the Middle East being stored in Geneva's free ports. The free port system has been accused of facilitating international art crime, allowing stolen artworks to remain undetected in storage for decades. Freeports' lax regulation enables criminals to operate in secrecy. Freeports may facilitate money laundering and tax evasion by obscuring

1785-404: The elderly Cardinal Henry , succeeded him as King, but Henry also had no descendants, having taken holy orders . When the cardinal-king died two years after Sebastian's death, three grandchildren of King Manuel I of Portugal claimed the throne: Philip prevailed and was crowned King Philip I of Portugal in 1581, uniting the two crowns and overseas empires in what is historically referred to as

1836-648: The enclave is the responsibility of the Spanish Armed Forces ' General Command of Ceuta (COMGECEU). The Spanish Army 's combat components of the command include: The command also includes its headquarters battalion as well as logistics elements. In 2023, the Spanish Navy replaced the Aresa -class patrol boat P-114 in the territory with the Rodman -class patrol boat Isla de León . Ceuta itself

1887-720: The fall of the Caliphate of Córdoba in 1031. Following this, Ceuta and Muslim Iberia were controlled by successive North African dynasties. Starting in 1084, the Almoravid Berbers ruled the region until 1147, when the Almohads conquered the land. Apart from Ibn Hud 's rebellion in 1232, they ruled until the Tunisian Hafsids established control. The Hafsids' influence in the west rapidly waned, and Ceuta's inhabitants eventually expelled them in 1249. After this,

1938-553: The free port of Trieste , or the newer free trade port on Hainan Island . The definition should be understood in meaning The International Convention on the Simplification and Harmonization of Customs Procedures (Revised Kyoto Convention) uses the term “free zones” which the revised convention describes as “a part of the territory of a Contracting Party where any goods introduced are generally regarded, insofar as import duties and taxes are concerned, as being outside

1989-418: The late 4th century, Septem still had 10,000 inhabitants, nearly all Christian citizens speaking African Romance , a local dialect of Latin. Vandals , probably invited by Count Boniface as protection against the empress dowager , crossed the strait near Tingis around 425 and swiftly overran Roman North Africa . Their king, Gaiseric , focused his attention on the rich lands around Carthage ; although

2040-463: The latitude, while summers are warm yet milder than in the interior of Southern Spain, due to the moderating effect of the Straits of Gibraltar. Summers are very dry, but yearly precipitation is still at 849 mm (33.4 in), which could be considered a humid climate if the summers were not so arid. Since 1995, Ceuta is, along with Melilla , one of the two autonomous cities of Spain. Ceuta

2091-459: The position of the city was consolidated with the taking of Ksar es-Seghir (1458), Arzila and Tangier (1471) by the Portuguese. The city was recognized as a Portuguese possession by the Treaty of Alcáçovas (1479) and by the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494). In the 1540s the Portuguese began building the Royal Walls of Ceuta as they are today including bastions , a navigable moat and a drawbridge. Some of these bastions are still standing, like

Spanish North Africa - Misplaced Pages Continue

2142-503: The products without customs formalities, disguising the actual origin and nature of the goods and their supplier. The commission said they were also used for narcotics trafficking, the illegal ivory trade, people smuggling, VAT fraud, corruption and money laundering. "Legal businesses owned by criminals remain key to money-laundering activities... free ports are perceived as facilities that protect their clients'' identity and financial dealings, much as private banks used to." As an example,

2193-438: The same term This disambiguation page lists articles about distinct geographical locations with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spanish_North_Africa&oldid=1164993882 " Category : Place name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

2244-639: The strait and overran the Spanish so swiftly that both he and his master Musa bin Nusayr fell afoul of a jealous caliph , who stripped them of their wealth and titles. After the death of Julian, sometimes also described as a king of the Ghomara Berbers , Berber converts to Islam took direct control of what they called Sebta. It was then destroyed during their great revolt against the Umayyad Caliphate around 740. Sebta subsequently remained

2295-586: Was a debacle. In the resulting treaty, Henry promised to deliver Ceuta back to the Marinids in return for allowing the Portuguese army to depart unmolested, which he reneged on. Possession of Ceuta indirectly led to further Portuguese expansion . The main area of Portuguese expansion, at this time, was the coast of the Maghreb , where there was grain, cattle, sugar, and textiles, as well as fish, hides, wax, and honey. Ceuta had to endure alone for 43 years, until

2346-420: Was almost anticlimactic, because the 45,000 men who traveled on 200 Portuguese ships caught the defenders of Ceuta off guard and suffered only eight casualties. By nightfall the town was captured. On the morning of 22 August, Ceuta was in Portuguese hands. Álvaro Vaz de Almada, 1st Count of Avranches was asked to hoist what was to become the flag of Ceuta , which is identical to the flag of Lisbon , but in which

2397-403: Was attached to the province of Cádiz until 1995, the Spanish coast being only 20 km (12.5 miles) away. It is a cosmopolitan city, with a large ethnic Arab-Berber Muslim minority as well as Sephardic Jewish and Hindu minorities. On 5 November 2007, King Juan Carlos I visited the city, sparking great enthusiasm from the local population and protests from the Moroccan government. It

2448-848: Was later renamed for the seven hills around the site, collectively referred to as the "Seven Brothers" ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Ἑπτάδελφοι , translit.   Heptádelphoi ; Latin : Septem Fratres ). In particular, the Roman stronghold at the site took the name "Fort at the Seven Brothers" ( Castellum ad Septem Fratres ). This was gradually shortened to Septem ( Σέπτον Sépton ) or, occasionally, Septum or Septa . These clipped forms continued as Berber Sebta and Arabic Sabtan or Sabtah ( سبتة‎ ), which themselves became Ceuta in Portuguese ( pronounced [ˈseu̯tɐ] ) and Spanish (locally pronounced [ˈseu̯ta] ). Controlling access between

2499-515: Was left to the Roman client states of Numidia and—around Abyla— Mauretania . Punic culture continued to thrive in what the Romans knew as "Septem". After the Battle of Thapsus in 46 BC, Caesar and his heirs began annexing North Africa directly as Roman provinces but, as late as Augustus , most of Septem's Berber residents continued to speak and write in Punic . Caligula assassinated

2550-642: Was the Mayor until the Autonomy Statute provided for the new title of Mayor-President . As of 2011 , the People's Party (PP) won 18 seats, keeping Juan Jesús Vivas as Mayor-President, which he has been since 2001. The remaining seats are held by the regionalist Caballas Coalition (4) and the Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE, 3). Owing to its small population, Ceuta elects only one member of

2601-583: Was the first time a Spanish head of state had visited Ceuta in 80 years. Since 2010, Ceuta (and Melilla) have declared the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha , or Feast of the Sacrifice, an official public holiday. It is the first time a non-Christian religious festival has been officially celebrated in Spanish ruled territory since the Reconquista . Ceuta is separated by 17 km (11 mi) from

SECTION 50

#1732772477650
#649350