evidence: The Spanish made several attempts to reclaim Gibraltar from the British government. From 1779 to 1783 Spain maintained a military siege of the peninsula that was ultimately unsuccessful. Gibraltar officially became a British crown colony in 1830. [...] In 1969 a new constitution was drafted for Gibraltar that explicitly reaffirmed Gibraltar’s link with Britain while also granting it full internal self-government. In response, the Spanish government closed its border with Gibraltar. This deprived the territory of Spanish goods and labor. This blockade ended in 1985. The status of Gibraltar has remained a source of friction between the Spanish and British governments. In a nonbinding referendum in 2002 recognized by neither government, 99 percent of Gibraltar’s voters rejected joint British-Spanish sovereignty. Both governments subsequently allowed Gibraltar to represent itself in negotiations on its future.