Spain's 1872 Proposal to Blow Up Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera

In 1872 the Spanish Minister of War, Fernando Fernández de Córdoba, presented a bill to the Cortes calling for the destruction of the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, a small rocky outpost on the African coast near Morocco. The proposal argued that the fortification was costly, of little strategic value and would inevitably fall into ruin, and it called for the army’s engineers to use explosives to “make the rock fly”. The draft law was approved by both the Congress and the Senate, but a handful of senators, including Ramón de Cala and Manuel María José de Galdo, voiced opposition, warning of possible humanitarian consequences for shipwrecked sailors.

The measure was ultimately abandoned after the proclamation of the First Spanish Republic, which halted the plan to abandon the territory. The Peñón remains under Spanish control today, marking the shortest land border Spain shares with Morocco.