Community and identity

This fluent, accessible and richly informed study, based on much previously unexplored archival material, concerns the history of Gibraltar following its military conquest in 1704, after which sovereignty of the territory was transferred from Spain to Britain and it became a British fortress and colony. Unlike virtually all other studies of Gibraltar, this book focuses on the civilian population. It shows how a substantial multi-ethnic Roman Catholic and Jewish population derived mainly from the littorals and islands of the Mediterranean became settled in British Gibraltar, much of it in defiance of British efforts to control entry and restrict residence. With Gibraltar’s political future still today contested this is a matter of considerable political importance. Community and identity: The making of modern Gibraltar since 1704 will appeal to both a scholarly and a lay readership interested particularly in the ‘Rock’ or more generally in nationality and identity formation, colonial administration, decolonisation and the Iberian peninsula.

This fluent, accessible and richly informed study, based on much previously unexplored archival material, concerns the history of Gibraltar following its military conquest in 1704, after which sovereignty of the territory was transferred from Spain to Britain and it became a British fortress and colony.

This fluent, accessible and richly informed study, based on much previously unexplored archival material, concerns the history of Gibraltar following its military conquest in 1704, after which sovereignty of the territory was transferred from Spain to Britain and it became a British fortress and colony.Unlike virtually all other studies of Gibraltar, this book focuses on the civilian population. It shows how a substantial multi-ethnic Roman Catholic and Jewish population derived mainly from the littorals and islands of the Mediterranean became settled in British Gibraltar, much of it in defiance of British efforts to control entry and restrict residence.With Gibraltar’s political future still today contested this is a matter of considerable political importance. Community and identity: The making of modern Gibraltar since 1704 will appeal to both a scholarly and a lay readership interested particularly in the ‘Rock’ or more generally in nationality and identity formation, colonial administration, decolonisation and the Iberian peninsula.

List of tablesList of abbreviationsMap of Gibraltar, 1952Foreword: Professor Martin BlinkhornIntroduction and acknowledgements1 The demographic roots of Gibraltarian identity, 1704 to18192 A fortress economy, 1704 to 18153 Government and politics, 1704 to 18194 Demographic management: aliens and us, 1815 to the 1890s5 Economy and living standards in the nineteenth century6 Governors and the governed, 1815 to 19147 Demography and the alien in the twentieth century: creating the Gibraltarian8 Earning a living in the twentieth century9 Government and politics in the twentieth century, 1915 to 194010 Big government and self-government, 1940 to 196911 Towards the future: Constructing a Gibraltarian IdentityGuide to sources and a select bibliographyIndex