Slavery, Warfare, and the Sanctification of Spanish Gibraltar, 1492–1704

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Chapter Three examines Gibraltar from 1492 until the Anglo-Dutch conquest in 1704. Despite the Spanish conquest of Granada and the expulsion of the Jews, in the decades after 1492 Spain remained religiously diverse. Local religious tensions and violent raids by Muslim and Christian corsairs reached a climax with an assault on Gibraltar in 1540. The chronicle of that event reveals complex patterns of relations between Muslims, Christians, Jews, and conversos in Gibraltar and throughout the region. The chronicle also reveals the prominence of slavery as a feature of daily life in Gibraltar and as a threat facing Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike. After 1540, the Shrine of Our Lady of Europa, which had been sacked by the corsairs, became a widely recognized symbol of defiant Christianity and liberation from slavery. Spanish Gibraltar in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was a fortified imperial outpost. The townspeople were almost constantly engaged in conflict, negotiation, and trade along the northern coast of Africa. They also celebrated victories against English shipping and Spanish missionary activity in Mexico and Venezuela. After 1607, when Dutch naval forces destroyed a Spanish fleet in the Bay of Gibraltar, the townspeople frequently feared the invasion of rival European imperial powers. Chapter Three concludes with Dutch and English operations within the strait, including the English occupation of Tangier in the 1660s, 1670s, and 1680s, and the Anglo-Dutch conquest of Gibraltar in 1704.</jats:p>