Source:EL PAÍS, 09/09/2012
Without a doubt, Spain was the first world power during the 16th century and part of the 17th. From the second half of that century and during the eighteenth century, it became a second-rate power on the international scene. This situation changed radically with the loss of the American colonies at the beginning of the 19th century. It then became a second, no longer on the international scene but simply on the European scene. The only colonial remains that, in the 19th century, remained in Spanish hands were Guinea (the future Eucatorial Guinea), the coastal strip of Western Sahara, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, some archipelagos in the Pacific and the cities and rocks of the Moroccan coast. An insignificance that worsened with the loss in 1898 of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and the Pacific archipelagos (see entry:http://jomroshe.blogspot.com.es/2012/08/el-final-del-empire- espanol-de-ultramar.html). As a way of compensating and increasing the lost imperial glory, the governments of the early 20th century focused their interest on Morocco, expanding the area controlled by Spain (see entries on Sidi Ifni and on Annual on the blog). Most of these territories were lost after the independence of Morocco (1956) and the delivery of the Spanish Sahara to the Alaouite king in 1975. From that moment on, the remains of the Spanish empire are limited to the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, from large and historical Spanish settlement, and numerous rocks and islands located along the Moroccan coast and that currently lack any strategic or economic value, conserving exclusively a symbolic asset. Recently, journalists Mónica Ceberio, Ignacio Cembrero and Miguel González have published in the newspaper EL PAÍS an interesting article entitled The rubble of the empire that makes an analysis of these Spanish possessions in North Africa. It is worth knowing the history of these now Spanish territories.
The Rubble Of The Empirehttp://www.scribd.com/embeds/108034655/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-1qlibyfrodkat58jcnjm