The Last Place in Europe : A History of Gibraltar

A sweeping history of the tiny but politically significant territory of Gibraltar from antiquity to the presentSince classical times, sailors, poets, and geographers have seen Gibraltar as a natural monument separating the Mediterranean from the Atlantic and Europe from Africa.Ancient Greeks and Romans recounted how the hero Hercules, sent on a mission to the end of the Earth, discovered an isthmus linking Africa and Europe.He destroyed it, leaving Gibraltar and an adjacent peak in Africa as the only remaining fragments of the demolished land bridge.By 1492, the strait between the continents was associated with the separation of faiths, serving as a boundary line between Christendom and Islam.After Spain's expulsions of Muslims and Jews, Gibraltar became, in the eyes of the Spanish, a fortress city on the frontier of European Christendom.The Anglo-Dutch seizure of Gibraltar in 1704 created a new border cutting the small peninsula off from Spain.Today, Gibraltar is the only territory in