Spanish Strongholds of Africa

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Strongholds of Spain and Portugal in North Africa in 1519.

The Spanish Strongholds of Africa (Plazas Fuertes de África) were the first settlements of Christian Europeans in Mediterranean Africa since the Middle Ages.

The Strongholds were created mainly by Spain and Portugal in the centuries of the Renaissance, although there were also English (Tangier) and Italian ones (Gerba and Tabarka).

Background

Around the year 1000, Christendom began to penetrate the Muslim territories of Mediterranean Africa. First it was the Italian maritime republics (especially Pisa and Amalfi) that opened small trading posts in the Maghreb, and then the Normans appeared in Tunisia.

In 1167 the Pisans obtained from the King of Tunis Abdallah-Bockoras the island of Tabarka (near Bizerte) for their coral trade, and later they allied themselves with Roger II of Sicily, who created on the Tunisian coast the so-called Kingdom of Africa of the Normans. This small stronghold of Tabarka remained in Pisan hands (thanks to its coral trade, and although the Tunisian Arabs reconquered the whole Norman area around 1200) until it was acquired in 1540 by the Republic of Genoa. The island subsequently became, with the construction of a fort, a true Stronghold associated with those of Charles V.[1]

History

The origins of the so-called Strongholds lie in the Castilian and Portuguese attempts at expansion in North Africa, mainly in the Maghreb[2] (there were none east of Tripolitania).

During the second half of the 15th century and the first half of the 16th, Castile successively occupied Melilla (1497), Cazaza and Mers-el-Kébir (مرسى الكبير) (1505), the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera (1508), Oran (1509), the Peñón of Algiers, Bougie and Tripoli (1510), Bona, Bizerte, Tunis and La Goulette (1535), while Portugal focused its expansion on the Atlantic coast, taking Ceuta (1415), Tangier (1471), Mazagan (1502), Mogador (1516) and Agadir (1505).

Nevertheless, most of the strongholds were lost during that same 16th century, so that when Philip II assumed the Portuguese Crown, the only strongholds in the hands of the Hispanic kings were Melilla, the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, Oran-Mers-el-Kébir[3] (on the Castilian side) and Ceuta, Tangier and Mazagan (on the Portuguese side).

The Genoese island of Tabarka in the 17th century.

In 1540 the island of Tabarka near Bizerte was acquired by the Republic of Genoa thanks to the Lomellini family, which had received it from a colony of Pisa established on the island three centuries earlier. A Genoese fort was built during 1553 at the request of Charles V of Castile and Aragon.[4] During their rule, the Genoese devoted themselves to coral fishing and turned the island into a Mediterranean commercial emporium that also served as a place for the exchange of Christian captives for ransom until 1741.

Although during the reign of Philip III Larache (1610) and La Mámora (1614) were also obtained, the rise of the Alaouite dynasty meant the conquest of most of the Strongholds in the hands of Western countries. At the death of Sultan Ismail (1672–1727), only Mazagan (Portugal), Tangier (England) and Ceuta (which had preferred to remain on the side of the Spanish kings in 1640, when Portugal became independent), Melilla, the Alhucemas Islands (occupied in 1673) and the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, in Spanish hands, escaped his rule.

In order to secure their alliance with England, the Portuguese negotiated the marriage of the Infanta Catherine of Braganza, daughter of the queen mother Luisa of Braganza, to King Charles II of England, Tangier becoming part of the dowry that the Infanta brought to the marriage (1661). King Charles II declared in Parliament: «The acquisition of Tangier must be regarded as a jewel of incalculable value for the British crown». In 1679 Sultan Ismail of Morocco tried unsuccessfully to occupy the city, but he maintained a long blockade that finally led to the British withdrawal on February 6, 1684. Before withdrawing, the English destroyed the city and its port (and began to turn to the possibility of occupying Gibraltar some years later).

In this way, in North Africa only Ceuta, Melilla, the Alhucemas Islands and the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera remained in European (that is, Spanish) hands in the second half of the 18th century (apart from the so-called "Oranesado" in Algeria, which was Spanish for almost three centuries with the Spanish reconquest in 1732: 1509-1708, 1732-1791).

The "Strongholds" always retained the character of presidios, whose expansion had been a constant during the 18th century. In 1774, Sultan Sidi Mohamed attacked Melilla, which was subjected to a siege that lasted three months. However, the siege was unsuccessful and the Sultan of Morocco decided from then on to adopt a friendly policy toward Spain.

Images of the Stronghold of Melilla and of the Peñón de Alhucemas in 1909.

On October 9, 1790, an earthquake devastated the cities of Oran and Mers-el-Kébir. On October 14 the city was attacked by the Algerians, with British support, ending in a Spanish victory. Between June 29 and July 3, 1791, the city was attacked again by the Algerians, with another Spanish victory. The Count of Floridablanca carried out diplomatic peace negotiations with Algeria. The Council of Castile, the Council of War, the Council of State and the prosecutors of the Court were consulted, and most believed that the cities of Oran and Mers-el-Kébir should be ceded, because they generated no profit and the war against the Algerians brought no benefit. On November 12, 1791, an agreement was signed under which they would abandon the two cities in exchange for being the only ones who could trade with those strongholds. The last Spanish troops left these cities in February 1792.[5][6][7][8]

In the 19th century, the weakness of the Arab sultanates (and of the Ottomans in crisis) in North Africa led to a progressive commercial and military intervention by Western countries (notably France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain). France, which until then had had only small commercial concessions in Algeria and Tunisia, began from 1830 to take possession of all of Algeria.

In the Spanish case, on the pretext of responding to an attack on Ceuta carried out by some neighboring tribes (the tribes of Anyera), Spain unleashed the War of Africa. This war led to the Battle of Los Castillejos, the taking of Tetouan and the signing of the Treaty of Wad-Ras of 1860 (Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Spain and Morocco). Through this treaty:

  • Spain extended the boundaries of Ceuta and Melilla in perpetuity.
  • Spain was granted some territories at Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña (what would later be Sidi Ifni in southern Morocco, which would not be occupied until 1934) to establish a trading post.
  • Morocco indemnified Spain with 100 million pesetas.
  • Tetouan would remain under temporary Spanish administration until the sultanate paid the debt to Spain.
  • A series of trade agreements were agreed, Spain being declared the most favored nation.

From then on began the period of European colonial conquests throughout Mediterranean Africa, which was completed in the first decades of the 20th century with the total defeat of the Ottoman Empire (which had been responsible for the almost total loss of the "Strongholds" at the end of the Renaissance).

Spanish possessions

What remains today of the Strongholds of Spain in the North African Maghreb.

Portuguese possessions

Main article: Portuguese presence in North Africa
Portuguese possessions in Morocco.

Italian possessions

  • Gerba (1135 - 1158); (1284 - 1334) and (1338 - 1392) Kingdom of Sicily, island in southern Tunisia.
  • Tabarka (1540-1741) Republic of Genoa, island in northern Tunisia.

English possessions

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ It was part of the Spanish protectorate in Morocco between 1912-1956
  2. ↑ It was part of the Spanish protectorate in Morocco between 1912-1956

References

  1. ↑ "Corallo e Tabarka" (in italiano).
  2. ↑ "Los enclaves norteafricanos de España y Portugal" (PDF) (in español). Archived from the original (PDF) on November 23, 2011. Retrieved October 26, 2012.
  3. ↑ "La presencia española en Orán (1509-1792)" (in español).
  4. ↑ Giovanni Tescione. Italiani alla pesca del corallo p. 195
  5. ↑ "Oranesado" (in español).
  6. ↑ Juan Manuel López Marinas y Rosa Salord (1990). "El periodo sísmico oranés de 1790 a la luz de la documentación de los archivos españoles" (PDF). Mopu. Instituto Geográfico Nacional (in español) (6). ISSN 0213-1749
  7. ↑ Ismet Terki-Hassaine. "Problemática cuestión de las posesiones españolas en la Argelia del siglo XVIII: caso de Orán y Mazalquivir". Aldaba (in español) (25): 135–158. ISSN 0213-7925
  8. ↑ De la Cierva 1980, p. 24.
  9. ↑ Morgado García, Arturo Jesús (1998–1999). "Las relaciones entre Cádiz y el norte de África en el siglo XVII". Trocadero: Revista de historia moderna y contemporánea (in español). 10–11: 75. ISSN 0214-4212.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)

Bibliography

  • Alonso Acero, Beatriz. Orán-Mazalquivir, 1589-1639: una sociedad en la frontera de Berbería. Publisher: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Madrid, 2000.
  • Elbl, M. Reclaiming Walls: The Fortified Médina of Tangier under Portuguese Rule (1471–1661) and as a Modern Heritage Artefact. Portuguese Studies Review 15 (1–2) (2007; publ. 2009)
  • Fey, H. Historia de Orán: antes, durante y después de la dominación española. Editorial Algazara. Málaga, 1999
  • García, José Manuel (2003). Breve Historia dos Descobrimentos e Expansão de Portugal. Lisboa: Presença. ISBN 9722325248.
  • Kamen, Henry. Imperio (el imperio español) Editorial Santillana. Madrid, 1990 ISBN 84-03-09316-0
  • Russell-Wood, AJ. The Portuguese Empire 1415–1808. Johns Hopkins University Press. London, 1998 ISBN 0-8018-5955-7 ([1])
  • Sánchez Doncel, Gregorio. Presencia de España en Orán, 1509-1792. Estudio teológico de San Ildefonso. Editorial I.T. San Ildefonso. Madrid, 1991 ISBN 8460076148
  • Tescione, Giovanni. Italiani alla pesca del corallo. Editoriale Fiorentino. Napoli, 1968
  • De la Cierva, Ricardo (1980). Historia general de España (in español). Vol. VIII. Planeta. ISBN 84-85753-03-8.
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