Carlos Gomez

WHY CEUTA IS EVERY BIT AS SPANISH AS CÁDIZ OR OVIEDO (or even more so) Where Does Its Sovereignty Come From? Does Morocco Have a Legitimate Claim? Let’s begin with the dates. Ceuta entered the Iberian sphere on August 21, 1415, when King John I of Portugal captured the city alongside his sons, including Prince Henry the Navigator, in the campaign that is often regarded as the beginning of European overseas expansion. In 1580, with the union of the Portuguese and Spanish crowns under Philip II, Ceuta became part of the Spanish Monarchy, just like Lisbon and Porto. That might have been the end of the story in 1640, when Portugal revolted under the House of Braganza and regained its independence. Here’s the interesting part: Ceuta was the only territory in the entire Portuguese Empire that chose to remain with Spain. It was neither conquered nor occupied by a Spanish army. Rather, it was Ceuta’s own garrison and inhabitants who pledged their allegiance to Philip IV. That act of loyalty earned the city the title “Most Faithful” (Fidelísima), which still appears on its coat of arms. The Treaty of Lisbon (1668)—the very treaty in which Spain recognized Portugal’s independence—made this exception explicit. All Portuguese possessions reverted to Portugal except Ceuta, which remained under Spanish sovereignty, as it had already been for twenty-eight years by its own choice. Even today, Ceuta’s flag preserves this heritage: it is the black-and-white gyronny banner of Lisbon with the Portuguese quinas at its center, a reminder of the city’s origins flying over a Spanish city. No other city in Spain can claim quite the same distinction: to be Spanish because it consciously chose to be, a decision documented in writing, backed by six centuries of continuous Iberian history. Now let’s look across the Strait. The Alaouite dynasty, which still reigns in Morocco today, came to power when Moulay Rashid entered Fez in 1666—two years before the Treaty of Lisbon. In other words, Spain’s sovereignty over Ceuta is as old as the Moroccan state that now claims it, while the Iberian presence in the city predates that state by roughly two and a half centuries. The Alaouites also tried repeatedly to take the city by force. Sultan Moulay Ismail besieged Ceuta beginning in 1694, maintaining the siege—with interruptions—until 1727, a total of thirty-three years, often cited as one of the longest sieges in history. Yet the city never fell. The historical fact is straightforward: the dynasty that claims Ceuta today has never governed it for a single day in its history. When Morocco gained independence in 1956, Ceuta had already been under formal Spanish sovereignty for 288 years, and had enjoyed 541 consecutive years of Iberian rule. That is why Ceuta was never part of the Spanish Protectorate of Morocco (1912–1956). Its status as Spanish territory predated the protectorate and was explicitly excluded from it. It is also why Ceuta does not appear on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories awaiting decolonization. Gibraltar DOES appear on that list. The comparison that Rabat frequently makes does not withstand scrutiny when the legal histories are examined side by side. Gibraltar was seized from Spain during a war and ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Utrecht (1713). Ceuta, by contrast, passed from Portugal to Spain through dynastic union, the voluntary loyalty of its inhabitants, and a treaty between the two crowns—at a time when the modern Moroccan state did not yet exist. That leaves geography, arguably Rabat’s strongest argument. ⬇️