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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 on the
frontier of the Kingdom of Tlemcen and the Kingdom
of Fes when Juan Alfonso Pérez de Guzmán
(also known as Guzmán El Bueno), the 3rd
Duke of Medina Sidonia reconquered it in 1497,
a few years after Castile had taken control of
the Nasrid kingdom of Granada, the last remain
of Al-Andalus.
The limits
of the Spanish territory round 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.
The Spaniards
had had much trouble with the neighboring tribes-the
turbulent Rif, independent Berbers (Amazighs)
hardly subject to the sultan of Morocco. 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 Rif revolted from the Roghi and
raided the mines, which remained closed until
June 1909. On the July 10 the workmen were again
attacked and several of them killed. Severe fighting
between the Spaniards and the tribesmen followed.
The Rif having submitted, the Spaniards, in 1910,
restarted the mines and undertook harbour works
at Mar Chica. But hostilities broke out again
in 1911 and the Rif, inflicting grave defeats
on the Spanish (see Disaster of Annual), were
not pacified until 1927.
General
Francisco Franco used the city as one of his staging
grounds for his rebellion in 1936, and a statue
of him is still prominently featured.
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