Melilla

Autonomous City of Melilla Ciudad Autónoma de Melilla
Autonomous City
Flag Coat of arms
Map of Melilla
Government
• President	Juan José Imbroda Ortíz (PP)
Area ( of Spain; Ranked)
• Total	12.3 km2 (4.7 sq mi)
Population  (2006)
• Total	72,000
• Density	5,900/km2 (15,000/sq mi)
• Percent	0.15% of Spain
Demonym
ISO 3166-2	ES-ML
Official languages	Spanish
Statute of Autonomy	1995-03-14
Parliament	Cortes Generales
Congress seats	1
Senate seats	2
Website	Ciudad Autónoma de Melilla

Melilla (Tarifit: Tamelilt/Mritch, meaning "the white one") is an autonomous Spanish city located on the Mediterranean, on the north coast of North Africa. It was regarded as a part of Málaga province prior to 14 March 1995, when the city's Statute of Autonomy was passed.

Melilla was a free port before Spain joined the European Union. As of 2008 it has a population of 71,448. Its population consists of Christians, Muslims (chiefly Berber), and small minorities of Jews. Spanish, Tarifit-Berber and Haketia are widely spoken. Spanish is the official language, while there have been calls to recognize Berber and Haketia as well.

Political status

Melilla is, along with Ceuta, one of the two Spanish autonomous cities located in mainland North Africa.

Morocco claims Melilla, along with Ceuta and various small Spanish islands off the coast of Africa (Plazas de soberanía) that are sovereign posts. Morocco bases its claim on the fact that the area was part of the Idrisid and other succeeding Muslim dynasties from 791 until 1497, when the city was taken by Castile.

The government of Morocco has also drawn comparisons with Spain's territorial claim to Gibraltar, which is a British Overseas Territory situated on the mainland of Spain. In both cases, the national governments and local populations of the contended territories reject these claims by a wide margin. Spanish sources claim that unlike the Protectorate territories included in former Spanish Morocco Melilla has been a constituent part of Spain since the very dawn of Spain as an independent country, the city being a part of Castile for longer than even other current Spanish regions such as Navarre.

These sources also dispute any ties between the former Muslim dynasties ruling the city and the present day Kingdom of Morocco, noting that if those latter dynasties were to be considered, most of present day Spain would be a part of Morocco, as well.

The history of Melilla is similar to that of Moroccan towns in the region of the Rif and southern Spanish towns, passing through Amazigh, Phoenician, Punic, Roman, Ummayyad, Idrisid, Hammudid, Almoravid, Almohad, Merinid, and then Wattasid rulers before being annexed by Spain five years after the latter kingdom completed the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula in 1492.

Melilla and Ceuta are the only two European-Union territories located in mainland Africa. The amateur radio call sign used for both cities is EA9.

Subdivisions

Melilla is subdivided into eight wards or neighborhoods (barrios):

1. Barrio de Medina Sidonia
2. Barrio del Real
3. Barrio de la Victoria
4. Barrio de los Héroes de España
5. Barrio del General Gómez Jordana
6. Barrio del Príncipe de Asturias
7. Barrio del Carmen
8. Barrio de La Paz

Climate

Climate data for Melilla
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Source: Weatherbase

Economy

Melilla city

The principal industry is fishing; cross-border commerce (legal or smuggled) and Spanish and European grants and wages are the other income sources.

Melilla is regularly connected to the Peninsula by plane and vessels and also economically connected to Morocco: most of its fruits and vegetables are imported across the border. Also, Moroccans in the city's influence area are attracted to it: 36,000 Moroccans cross the border daily to work, shop, or trade goods.

Map of Melilla, Spain

History

Melilla was a Phoenician and later Punic establishment under the name of Rusadir. Later it became a part of the Roman province of Mauretania Tingitana. As centuries passed, it went through Vandal, Byzantine and Hispano-Visigothic hands. Melilla was part of the Kingdom of Fez until The Catholic Monarchs (Spanish: los Reyes Católicos) Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon requested Juan Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, known as Guzmán el Bueno, the 3rd Duke of Medina Sidonia to take the city. The duke sent Pedro Estopiñán who conquered the city virtually without a fight in 1497, a few years after (1492) Castile had taken control of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, the last remnant of Al-Andalus. Melilla was immediately threatened with reconquest and was besieged 1694–1696 and 1774–1775. One Spanish officer reflected, "an hour in Melilla, from the point of view of merit, was worth more than thirty years of service to Spain." The Spaniards also experienced much trouble with the neighboring tribes—the turbulent Rif, independent Berbers (Amazighs) hardly subject to the sultan of Morocco.

The current limits of the Spanish territory around the fortress were fixed by treaties with Morocco in 1859, 1860, 1861, and 1894. In the late 19th century, as Spanish influence expanded, Melilla became the only authorized centre of trade on the Rif coast between Tetuan and the Algerian frontier. The value of trade increased, goat skins, eggs and beeswax being the principal exports, and cotton goods, tea, sugar, and candles being the chief imports.

In 1893, the Rif berbers besieged Melilla, and 25,000 men had to be dispatched against them. In 1908 two companies, under the protection of El Roghi, a chieftain then ruling the Rif region, started mining lead and iron some 20 kilometers from Melilla. A railway to the mines was begun. In October of that year the Roghi's vassals revolted against him and raided the mines, which remained closed until June 1909. By July the workmen were again attacked and several of them killed. Severe fighting between the Spaniards and the tribesmen followed.

In 1910, the Rif having submitted, the Spaniards restarted the mines and undertook harbour works at Mar Chica, but hostilities broke out again in 1911. In 1921 the Berbers under the leadership of Abd el Krim inflicted a grave defeat on the Spanish (see Battle of Annual), and were not pacified until 1926, when the Spanish Protectorate finally managed to control the area again.

General Francisco Franco used the city as one of his staging grounds for his rebellion in 1936, and a statue of him - the last statue of Franco in Spain - is still prominently featured.

On 6 November 2007, King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia visited the city, which caused a previously unknown jubilee in the city, expressed by a massive support demonstration while, on the other side, it also sparked protests from the Moroccan government. It was the first time a Spanish monarch had visited Melilla in 80 years.

City culture and society

Lighthouse of Melilla

Melilla's Capilla de Santiago or James's Chapel, by the city walls, is the only genuine Gothic architecture in Africa.

In the first quarter of the 20th century, Melilla became a thriving port benefitting from the recently established Protectorate of Spanish Morocco in the contiguous Rif. The new architectural style of Modernisme was expressed by a new bourgeois class. This style, frequently referred to as the Catalan version of Art Nouveau, was extremely popular in the early part of the 20th century in Spain.

The workshops inspired by the Catalan architect, Enrique Nieto, continued in the modernist style, even after Modernisme went out of fashion elsewhere. Accordingly, Melilla has the second most important concentration of Modernist works in Spain after Barcelona.

Melilla has been praised as an example of multiculturalism, being a small city in which one can find up to three major religions represented. However, the Christian majority of the past, constituting around 65% of the population at one point, has been shrinking, while the number of Muslims has steadily increased to its present 45% of the population.

Jews, who had lived in Melilla for centuries, have been leaving the Spanish North African city in more recent years (from 20% of the population before World War II to less than 5% today). There is a small, autonomous, and commercially important Hindu community present in Melilla, as well. The culture in this little city is thus virtually divided into two halves; one being European and the other Amazigh. While the first is represented all over the rest of the country, the second, being represented only in this little part of Spain, is considered by some, especially in the mainland, to be foreign.

Immigration

There is considerable pressure by African refugees to enter Melilla, a part of the European Union. The border is secured by the Melilla border fence, a six-meter-tall double fence with watch towers, yet refugees frequently manage to cross it illegally, avoiding the attempts by Spanish police to take them back to their home countries. Detection wires, tear gas dispensers, radar, and day/night vision cameras are planned to increase security and prevent illegal immigration. In October 2005, over 700 sub-Saharan migrants tried to enter Spanish territory from the Moroccan border.

Transportation

Melilla is connected to the Spanish cities of Málaga, Madrid and Almería by air as well as to Málaga and Almería by ferry. It is possible to travel from Melilla to Morocco on foot, however an ONCF train from nearby Beni Ansar is probably the most convenient method of travel.

International relations

Main article: List of twin towns and sister cities in Spain

Twin towns — Sister cities

Melilla is twinned with:

• Almería, Spain
• Ceuta, Spain
• Montevideo, Uruguay
• Motril, Spain

See also

• Roman Catholic Diocese of Málaga
• Melilla (Spanish Congress Electoral District)
• Ceuta
• UD Melilla
• List of Spanish Colonial Wars in Morocco
• Spanish Morocco

References

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

• Template:Es Official pages
• Official Tourism
• Template:Es Melilla en Internet Journal
• Template:Es Monuments of Melilla Official
• Spain's North African enclaves
• A Childhood Lost in the Cracks of Europe's Border
• Melilla in Google Maps
• Map of Melilla
• Melilla photo gallery
• Template:Es Easter of Melilla