ABSTRACT
Some Gibraltarians argue that Gibraltar is not a colony in the normal sense; they are not a conquered people in a country colonized by the British. When the AngloDutch fleet under Admiral Sir George Rooke occupied the Rock for England in 1704, the Spanish population, with a few exceptions, left Gibraltar and moved to San Roque, some miles inside Spain. What was taken in 1704 was virtually empty territory. Those people who eventually became native Gibraltarians were in-comers of one type or another or, more precisely, the children of in-comers. They chose to come to Gibraltar. They came from a variety of places, at different times and for a variety of reasons. They came and went, sometimes to return or to be replaced by others. If there is a Gibraltarian nation today, it is the result of the assimilation of these immigrant groups over a long period of time.
