Ceuta and Melilla: Between a “Stress Test” and Europe’s Centuries-Old Outpost.

A few days ago, the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in North Africa once again became the focus of international attention. An incident that made clear within a very short time how sensitive the situation is at Europe’s southernmost external border. While Brussels held its breath and Madrid ultimately sent military security forces, one thing became clear once again: Ceuta and Melilla are far more than remote Spanish cities on the edge of Europe. The recent events in Ceuta highlighted what the German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul described as a “stress test” for Europe: the question of how resilient Europe’s external border actually is in a time of increasing geopolitical tensions.

When people think of Ceuta and Melilla today, they usually have images of several-meter-high border fences, migration movements, and political tensions between Spain and Morocco in mind. The two Spanish enclaves on the African continent are regarded as symbols of European migration policy and as focal points of humanitarian crises.

But this perspective does not go far enough.

Ceuta and Melilla are centuries-old European outposts at the intersection of Africa and the Mediterranean. They are places where history, religion, and security policy overlap within an unusually small area. To understand their significance today, it is not enough to look only at current border issues. One has to travel back to the beginnings of Islamic expansion, to the history of al-Andalus, to the Reconquista, and to the religious upheavals that shaped the Iberian Peninsula for more than a thousand years.

Alhambra - symbol of al-Andalus

From Arabia to Europe: Islamic Expansion

With the emergence of Islam in the 7th century, not only a new religion but also a new political order developed on the Arabian Peninsula. After the death of Muhammad in 632, an extraordinarily rapid expansion began. Within only a few decades, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and large parts of North Africa came under Muslim rule. This development was facilitated by the weakness of the two major powers of the time: the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire. Both had been exhausted by decades of warfare and were able to offer only limited resistance to the new Arab conquests.

In 711, Muslim forces under Tariq ibn Ziyad crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and defeated the Visigothic Kingdom. Within only a few years, a large part of the Iberian Peninsula fell under Muslim rule. The territory became known as al-Andalus and for several centuries developed into a major center of Islamic culture in Europe. In 732, the conquerors, who at the time were referred to as Moors or Saracens, encountered the heavily armored Frankish cavalry forces of Charles Martel at Tours and Poitiers. The Frankish Empire successfully secured its borders and halted the further advance northward.

Al-Andalus, the Arabic name – whose exact origin remains uncertain – for the Islamic-influenced realm on the Iberian Peninsula, still represents an era in which religions, cultures, and competing claims to power encountered one another over many centuries.

Al-Andalus: Cultural Flourishing and Political Reality

The history of al-Andalus is one of the most differently interpreted chapters of European history.

On the one hand, Muslim Spain represents an extraordinary cultural development. Córdoba, in particular, became one of Europe’s most important cities under the Umayyads. Science, medicine, philosophy, and architecture experienced a period of flourishing. Libraries, centers of scholarship, and translation institutions contributed to the spread of knowledge from the Greek and Arab worlds throughout Europe.

The coexistence of different religious groups is also part of this history. Christians and Jews were allowed to practice their religion and maintain their own communities under many rulers. However, this coexistence must not be equated with religious freedom. Christians and Jews were considered so-called dhimmis – protected, but legally unequal religious minorities. They had to pay special taxes and were subject to certain restrictions. The situation varied considerably depending on the ruler and the period. While the Umayyad period was often characterized by political pragmatism, religious pressure increased under later North African Berber dynasties, particularly under the Almohads. Many Jews and Christians fled, had to convert, or left the Muslim-controlled territories.

Al-Andalus was therefore neither a permanent model of peaceful coexistence nor a continuous religious war. The reality was more complex: There was cultural exchange, economic cooperation, and scientific collaboration, but also power struggles, social inequality, and religious repression.

The Reconquista: Reconquest and a New Claim to Power

The Reconquista cannot be explained through a simple narrative either. The Reconquista was the centuries-long expansion of Christian rule on the Iberian Peninsula. In 1492, with the conquest of Granada, it brought an end to the last Muslim state in Europe. At the same time, it was more than a religious conflict: it was a complex interaction of power politics, dynastic struggles, and religious legitimation, the consequences of which remain visible today – for example in Ceuta and Melilla.

For centuries, changing alliances existed between Christian and Muslim rulers. Political interests were often more important than religious affiliation. It was only with the strengthening of Castile and Aragon that the balance of power shifted permanently. The Catholic Monarchs Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon sought religious unity within their realm. In the same year, 1492, the Alhambra Decree forced the Jewish population of Spain to choose: conversion to Christianity, meaning forced conversion, or leaving the country. Many Jews fled. They later formed the Sephardic communities in the Mediterranean region and in the Ottoman Empire.

Ceuta and Melilla: Europe’s Centuries-Old Outposts

The special position of Ceuta and Melilla emerged directly from this historical development. Ceuta was conquered by Portugal in 1415 and developed into a strategic base on the North African coast. After the union of the Portuguese and Spanish crowns, the city remained permanently under Spanish rule. Melilla was occupied by Castile in 1497, only a few years after the fall of Granada. The two cities were therefore not only border locations but also expressions of European power projection over the Strait of Gibraltar. This strategic importance has remained until today.

More Than Migration: The Security Policy Dimension

In public debate, Ceuta and Melilla are often associated exclusively with migration. However, their significance extends far beyond this issue. Both cities are located on the Strait of Gibraltar, one of the most important maritime connections between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Whoever controls this region holds influence over a central area of transportation and security. As Spanish territory, Ceuta and Melilla also represent the only land border of the European Union on the African continent. As a result, various security challenges converge in these two cities within a very limited geographical space. These include the protection of the EU’s external borders, combating organized crime and smuggling networks, counterterrorism efforts, as well as political tensions between Spain and Morocco. In addition, the growing importance of hybrid influence has become increasingly relevant, with state and non-state actors attempting to exert influence through political, economic, or social means. The enclaves are therefore not only border locations but also strategic observation points for the stability of Europe’s southern flank.

A Border Fence and Three Religions

Beyond their strategic importance, Ceuta and Melilla also possess a religious dimension that is often barely recognized outside Spain.

Jewish communities have existed there for centuries. They are a reminder that this region was never shaped exclusively by Christianity or Islam. Rather, it has always been a space of both encounter and conflict between the three major monotheistic religions. A particularly striking example of this can be found in Melilla.

For most people, the city’s twelve-kilometer-long border fence is a symbol of European border security, as I learned today. For the Jewish community, however, it also has an additional religious significance. Rabbi Aaron Peretz regularly inspects the condition of the enclosure together with the Spanish Guardia Civil because the fence also serves as a so-called eruv – a halachic boundary that allows observant Jews to carry certain objects within this area on the Sabbath.

What is a security structure for the state thus becomes part of religious life at the same time. Few examples demonstrate better how many layers of meaning exist simultaneously in Ceuta and Melilla.

The Past Continues to Shape the Present

The history of Jews on the Iberian Peninsula is also a sensitive issue in today’s relations between Spain and Israel. Questions of historical memory and responsibility remain part of public debates. The political relationship between Madrid and Jerusalem has become more strained in recent years. Spanish criticism of Israeli policy has led to reactions from Israel. In this context, historical comparisons involving colonialism, displacement, and state violence have also been made. Such comparisons are politically controversial and cannot easily be transferred from one historical context to another. Nevertheless, they demonstrate how strongly historical experiences influence the perception of contemporary conflicts.

Ceuta and Melilla make particularly visible how closely history and the present are connected: the memory of al-Andalus, the Reconquista, the expulsion of the Jews, the continued Jewish presence in North Africa, and Europe’s current security policy all converge here.

Conclusion

Ceuta and Melilla are far more than two Spanish cities behind a border fence. What often appears in current headlines as a migration or border issue is, in reality, a historical and geopolitical focal point where major European fault lines come together. They are historical crossroads between Europe and Africa, between Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. And they are at the same time strategic key positions along one of the most important straits in the world.

Their significance is not based solely on their geographical location, but on a history in which competing claims to power, religions, trade routes, and security interests have intersected for centuries. The history of Ceuta and Melilla therefore cannot be understood as a simple narrative of tolerance or conflict. The border fence of Melilla symbolizes the ambiguity of these places: it is part of securing an external border but it is also part of a religious and historical reality.

Ceuta and Melilla are not only Europe’s border with Africa. They are a mirror of European history and a “stress test” of how Europe deals with its own historical, political, religious, and security-related challenges.