Disputed status of Gibraltar

Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory, located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula, is the subject of a irredentist territorial claim by Spain. It was captured in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714). The Spanish Crown formally ceded the territory in perpetuity to the British Crown in 1713, under of the Treaty of Utrecht. Spain later attempted to recapture the territory during the thirteenth siege (1727) and the Great siege (1779–1783). British sovereignty over Gibraltar was confirmed in later treaties signed in Seville (1729) and the Treaty of Paris (1783). Reclamation of the territory became government policy under the regime of the dictator General Franco and has remained in place under successive governments following the Spanish transition to democracy.

The Gibraltarians themselves reject any such claim and no political party or pressure group in Gibraltar supports union with Spain. In a referendum in 2002 the people of Gibraltar rejected a joint sovereignty proposal on which Spain and the United Kingdom were said to have reached "broad agreement". The British Government has stated that it would "never ... enter into an agreement on sovereignty without the agreement of the Government of Gibraltar and their people".

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