evidence: Melilla, a Spanish city on the northern coast of Morocco, has an interesting history which involves colonization, uprising, autonomy and immigration. [...] More than 400 years later, the Spanish modernized Melilla’s port and made the city into a garrison post. Although Moroccan tribes led by Abd el-Krim almost captured the territory in 1921, Melilla survived and became the first Spanish town to rise against the Popular Front government – a coalition of parties which was encouraged to create a common front against fascism in 1936. When Morocco achieved independence in 1956, Spain retained Melilla as an exclave. 39 years later, it authorized rules of autonomy for the city, endowing it with similar attributes as those of other Spanish autonomous communities.