Ceuta and Melilla (Spain)
Ceuta and Melilla are the two permanently inhabited Spanish cities on mainland Africa. On August 21, 1415, King John I of Portugal led his sons and their army on the Conquest of Ceuta and captured it. Over 200 years later, on January 1, 1668, King Afonso VI of Portugal recognized the formal allegiance of Ceuta to Spain and formally ceded Ceuta to King Carlos II of Spain by the Treaty of Lisbon. In 1497, Pedro Estopiñán attacked and took the city of Melilla on behalf of the 3rd Duke of Medina Sidonia, who was also ordered by Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon.
The government of Morocco has requested from Spain the sovereignty of the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, Perejil Island, and some other small territories but Spain maintains that both Ceuta and Melilla are integral parts of the Spanish state, not considered colonies and have been since the 15th century and that they were established before the creation of the Kingdom of Morocco. Morocco, however, disputes these claims and insists that the Spanish are continually perpetrating the colonial past by remaining along their borders.
