English Tangier

Tangier is a city in northwestern Morocco, situated on the Atlantic coast, though some would like to (erroneously) claim that it is also part of the Mediterranean. Tangier has the best natural harbour on the western end of the Strait of Gibraltar, allowing its occupier to control naval access to the Mediterranean. A rather forgotten episode of English history is that Tangier once was part of the British Empire.

Starting as a small, strategic Phoenician town and trading centre, Tangier has been occupied many times during its history.

The Portuguese were able to occupy Tangier in 1471 though it remained 'unquiet' in the surrounding areas. Tangier became part of the dowry of the marriage of King Charles II of England (1630-1685) to Catarina de Bragança (1638-1705). I suppose the Portuguese were rather glad to get rid of the city and its troublesome countryside. Another part of this dowry was the Indian island of Bombay (now Mumbai).

At its peak, Tangier’s population ranged from some 600 to more than 2000 inhabitants, including Portuguese, Spaniards, French, Dutch, Italians, and Jews, until the latter were accused of spying and expelled in 1677. Some 80 slaves, mostly captured Moors and Turks, added to the labour. Only a handful of free Moroccans lived within city walls.

The English sent a garrison and fortified the city against (still) hostile Moroccan forces. They also planned to improve the harbour by building a 440 meters long breakwater. The improved harbour was to be 550 meters long and nine meters deep at low tide. It would be capable of keeping out the roughest of seas. Work began on the fortified harbour at the end of November 1662, and work on the breakwater in August 1663. The work continued for some years under a succession of governors. With an improved harbour the town would have played the same role that Gibraltar later played in British naval strategy.

[Leonardo de Ferrari's plan of the breakwater]

But the exclave was hideously expensive to defend and to fortify. In the end, it would offer neither commercial nor military advantage to England. When Morocco was later united, the cost of maintaining the garrison against Moroccan attacks vastly increased. The English Parliament refused to provide funds for its upkeep, which forced Charles II to give up his possession. In 1684, the English blew up the city's harbour and defensive works that they had been constructing and evacuated the city, which was swiftly occupied and annexed by Moroccan forces.

Some of the departing high-ranking soldiers were rewarded with large land grants in the newly acquired Province of New York. Thomas Dongan, 2nd Earl of Limerick, a lieutenant-governor of Tangier, became New York provincial governor and William "Tangier" Smith, the last mayor of Tangier, obtained 50 miles of Atlantic oceanfront property on Long Island.