Plazas de soberanÃa
A Plaza de Soberanía [ plaθa de soβeɾania ] (Spanish for "place of sovereignty," "Your Highness place " ) is a small territory belonging to Spain, which is not associated with the autonomous region and thus the Spanish government under the direct authority.
Spain managed five plazas de Soberanía located in the immediate vicinity of Morocco. These areas are:
- Ceuta
- Melilla
- Islas Chafarinas
- Alhucemas Islands
- Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera
Politically to the Plazas de soberania, but nevertheless also geographically to Africa part of the Isla de Alborán.
Ceuta and Melilla, as inhabited, as ciudades autónomas ( " autonomous cities " ) referred.
The Chafarinas archipelago east of Melilla consists of three small islands (Isla del Congreso, Isla Isabel II, Isla del Rey ) and was captured in 1848 in a race against the French Navy by Spain. The archipelago Alhucemas ( Islas Alhucemas ) consists of three small islands ( Peñón de Alhucemas, Isla de Mar and Isla de Tierra ) and in 1560 ceded during the wars against Turkish naval forces from the Moroccan Sultan of the Spanish king. Velez de la Gomera was conquered in 1508 by a Spanish military expedition against the Rifpiraten. She was up to the Spanish Rifkrieg fought repeatedly and temporarily occupied by Moroccan forces. Velez de la Gomera and Alhucemas served temporarily as a state prison.
When the colonial powers of France and Spain, Morocco in 1956 dismissed the independence, the areas in question were not included with the return area. Spain justified this by saying that the areas were Spanish since the 16th century. Morocco nonetheless calls for a transfer of the territories.
The Plazas de Soberanía belong to the European Union and the euro zone.
For more information regarding the tensions between Spain and Morocco due to the Plazas de Isla Perejil Soberanía see and parsley war.
Ägypten1 | Algeria | Angola | Equatorial Guinea | Ethiopia | Benin | Botswana | Burkina Faso | Burundi | Djibouti | Ivory Coast | Eritrea | Gabon | Gambia | Ghana | Guinea | Guinea- Bissau | Cameroon | Cape Verde | Kenya | Comoros | Congo (Dem. Republic) | Congo ( Republic) | Lesotho | Liberia | Libya | Madagascar | Malawi | Mali | Morocco | Mauritania | Mauritius | Mozambique | Namibia | Niger | Nigeria | Rwanda | Zambia | São Tomé and Príncipe | Senegal | Seychelles | Sierra Leone | Zimbabwe | Somalia | South Africa | Sudan | Sudan | Swaziland | Tanzania | Togo | Chad | Tunisia | Uganda | Central African Republic
Other regions: Îles Éparses | Canary Islands | Madeira | Mayotte | Plazas de soberanía ( with Ceuta and Melilla ) | Réunion | Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
Disputed territories: Somaliland | Western Sahara
1 If partly in Asia.