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Ceuta
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Autonomous City of Ceuta
Ciudad Autónoma de Ceuta
— Autonomous City —
Flag
Coat of arms
Coordinates: 5°19′W / 35.883°N 5.317°W / 35.883; -5.317Coordinates: 5°19′W / 35.883°N 5.317°W / 35.883; -5.317
Capital Ceuta
Government
- President Juan Jesús Vivas Lara (PP)
Area (0.0056 of Spain; Ranked)
- Total 19.5 km2 (7.5 sq mi)
Population (2006)
- Total 78,320
- Density 4,016.4/km2 (10,402.5/sq mi)
ISO 3166-2 ES-CE
Parliament Cortes Generales
Congress seats 1
Senate seats 2
Website Ciudad Autónoma de Ceuta
Ceuta is an autonomous city of Spain located on the North African side of the Strait of Gibraltar, on the Mediterranean, which separates it from the Spanish mainland. The area of Ceuta is approximately 19 square kilometres (7.3 sq mi).
Ceuta is dominated by a hill called Monte Hacho, on which there is a fort used by the Spanish army. Monte Hacho is one of the possible locations for the southern of the Pillars of Hercules of Greek legend, the other possibility being Jebel Musa.
The state, together with the other autonomous city of Melilla and a number of Mediterranean islands, is claimed by Morocco. The amateur radio call sign used for both cities is EA9.[1]
History
Ceuta's strategic location has made it the crucial waypoint of the trade and military ventures of many cultures — beginning with the Carthaginians in the 5th century BC, who called the city Abyla. It was not until the Romans took control in about A.D. 42 that the port city (then named Septem) assumed an almost exclusive military purpose. Approximately 400 years later, the Vandals ousted the Romans from control. Later it would fall to the Visigoths of Hispania and the Byzantines.[2]
In 710, as Muslim armies approached the city, its governor Julian, count of Ceuta, (also described as "king of the Ghomara") changed sides and urged them to invade the Iberian Peninsula. Under the leadership of Berber general Tariq ibn Ziyad, Ceuta was used as a prime staging ground for an assault on Visigothic Hispania soon after.
After Julian's death the Arabs took direct control of the city; this was resented by the surrounding indigenous Berber tribes, who destroyed it in a Kharijite rebellion led by Maysara al-Haqir in 740. It lay in waste until refounded in the 9th century by Majakas, chief of the Majkasa Berber tribe, who started the short-lived dynasty of the Banu Isam. Under his great-grandson they briefly paid allegiance to the Idrisids. The dynasty finally ended when he abdicated in favour of the Umayyad Caliph of Cordoba Abd ar-Rahman III in 931, so the city returned to the Hispanic Andalusian rule like Melilla in 927 and Tangier in 951.
Chaos ensued with the fall of the Umayyad caliphate in 1031, but eventually Ceuta, together with the rest of Muslim Spain, was taken over by the Almoravids in 1084. The Almoravids were succeeded by the Almohads who conquered Ceuta in 1147 ruling it, apart from Ibn Hud's rebellion of 1232, until the Hafsids of Tunisia took it in 1242. The Hafsids' influence in the west rapidly waned, and the city expelled them in 1249. After this, it went through a period of political instability during which the city was disputed between the Kingdom of Fez and the Kingdom of Granada. In 1387, Ceuta was conquered for the last time by the Kingdom of Fez, with Aragonese help.
In 1415, during the Battle of Ceuta, the city was captured by the Portuguese during the reign of John I of Portugal. The King of Spain seized the Portuguese throne in 1580 and held it for 60 years. During this time Ceuta gained many residents of Spanish origin.[3] Thus Ceuta became the only city of the Portuguese Empire that sided with Spain when Portugal regained its independence in 1640 and war broke out between the two countries.
The formal allegiance of Ceuta to Spain was recognized by the Treaty of Lisbon by which, on January 1, 1668, King Afonso VI of Portugal formally ceded Ceuta to Carlos II of Spain. However, the originally Portuguese flag and coat of arms of Ceuta remained unchanged and the modern-day Ceuta flag features the configuration of the Portuguese shield. The flag's background is also the same as that of the flag of Lisbon.
When Spain recognized the independence of Spanish Morocco in 1956, Ceuta and the other plazas de soberanía remained under Spanish rule as they were considered integral parts of the Spanish state. Culturally, modern Ceuta is considered part of the Spanish region of Andalusia. Indeed, it was attached to the province of Cádiz until 1925 — the Spanish coast being only 20 km away. It is a cosmopolitan city, with a large ethnic Berber Muslim minority as well as Sephardic Jewish and Hindu[4] minorities.
On November 5, 2007, King Juan Carlos I visited the city, sparking great enthusiasm from the local population and protests from the Moroccan government.[5] It was the first time a Spanish head of state had visited Ceuta in 80 years.
Administration
Ceuta is known officially in Spanish as Ciudad Autónoma de Ceuta (lit., Autonomous City of Ceuta), with a rank between a standard Spanish city 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 European Monetary System. As of 2006, its population was 75,861.
Ceuta does not have an airport. There is, however, a regular helicopter service from Ceuta Heliport linking it to Málaga Airport. All other access to and from Ceuta is by ferry or land.
Political status
Since 1995, Ceuta is, along with Melilla, one of the two autonomous cities of Spain.[6]
The government of Morocco has repeatedly called for Spain to transfer the sovereignty of Ceuta and Melilla, along with uninhabited islets such as the islands of Alhuceima, Velez and the Perejil islet, drawing comparisons with Spain's territorial claim to Gibraltar. In both cases, the national governments and local populations of the disputed territories reject these claims by a large majority. The Spanish position states that both Ceuta and Melilla are integral parts of the Spanish state, and have been since the 15th century, centuries prior to Morocco's independence from Spain in 1956, whereas Gibraltar, being a British Overseas Territory, is not and never has been part of the United Kingdom.[7] Morocco denies these claims and maintains that the Spanish presence in Ceuta and the other presidios on its coast is a remnant of the colonial past which should be ended. However, the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories do not consider those Spanish territories to be colonies, whereas it does declare Gibraltar as a non-decolonized territory.
Ceuta is subdivided into 63 barriadas (neighborhoods), such as Barriada de Berizu, Barriada de P. Alfonso, Barriada del Sarchal, and El Hacho.[8][9][10]