The business of buying and selling places,

Yesterday got a little busy and the blogpost got lost along the way. Here are some thoughts for today, which has also been busy but slightly less so than yesterday.

Buying and selling countries used to be quite a thing in the past, or so it seems. The Europeans went out into the world and just took over places and then argued or fought with each other about who owned what.

Someone suggested to me that Gibraltar was “given” to Britain by Spain but, from what I have read, I’m not so sure. It’s only six square kilometres, and most of that a great big rock! The Moors settled it in 711, around the same time as they took over a lot of the Iberian Peninsula. One source tells me this:-

“The position of Gibraltar guarding the entrance to the Mediterranean is unrivalled, and has for many years been fought over by Spain, France and Britain, all claiming possession. Gibraltar was captured by the British Fleet in 1704 during the war of the Spanish Succession.

On 4th August 1704, an Anglo-Dutch fleet under the command of Admiral George Rooke took Gibraltar from the Spanish. From dawn on that day and for the next five hours, some 15,000 canons were fired from the fleet into the city. The invaders, led by the English majority, landed the same morning and not surprisingly encountered little opposition.


Under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 Gibraltar was ceded to Britain. This treaty stated “the town, castle and fortifications were to be held and enjoyed for ever without any exception or impediment whatsoever.”

This treaty was renewed again in 1763 by the Treaty of Paris, and in 1783 by the Treaty of Versailles.” It seems that everyone wanted it. The people who live on Gibraltar have had their say. 

“In 1968 a Referendum was taken on whether the people of Gibraltar wanted to remain with Britain or with Spain. 12,762 voted to stay with Britain and ONLY 44 voted for Spanish sovereignty. In the more recent referendum of November 2002, the people of Gibraltar again showed their desire to remain British by an overwhelming margin.

The Chief Minister of Gibraltar at the time, Peter Caruana eloquently summed up the feeling of the its people when he commented “There is more chance of hell freezing over than the people of Gibraltar accepting Spanish sovereignty in any shape or form.”

Whether Gibraltar will remain a British rock however appears another question! Recent events have suggested that the current British government may want to abandon the Treaty of Utrecht and subject the 30,000 people of Gibraltar to Spanish rule against their will.”

Well, the government of the UK taking such a decision would come as no surprise to me.

And just as Spain would like to claim Gibraltar, so Morocco would like to claim Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa. But like Gibraltar they have been bandied about. Here’s a thing: “On 1 January 1668, King Afonso VI of Portugal recognized the formal allegiance of Ceuta to Spain and formally ceded Ceuta to King Carlos II of Spain by the Treaty of Lisbon.”

“Ownership” of these places is more the result of battle than buying and selling though. But on the other side of the Atlantic selling countries has been going on.

Louisiana is a case in point.

“For a mere $15 million, Thomas Jefferson doubled the size of the United States, buying 800,000 square miles from the French that stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains in 1803.”

 It is a patch of land which has changed hands a fair few times. “The French controlled this region from 1699 until 1762 when it became Spanish property because France gave it to Spain as a present, since they were allies. But under Napoleon Bonaparte, France revived the aspirations to build an empire in North America so the territory was taken back in 1800. However, those big plans were not meant to be because Napoleon needed to concentrate on preparations for war with the British Empire and so the land was sold to the United States.”

 I bet the French are a bit peeved about that.

 Then in 1867 the United Staes bought Alaska. 586,412 square miles, from Russia and made America greater than it was before. And I understand that this was before they discovered oil and other riches. 

And now Donald Trump has suggested that he would like to buy Greenland and make America even greater. The Danes have said that Greenland is not for sale. More importantly, Greenland has said it is not for sale. Consequently, or so we are given to believe, Donald Trump has cancelled a state visit to Denmark.

I wonder what we could refuse to sell him so that he would decline to come to the UK.