Why Ceuta is European, and what came of it

Ceuta, the small Spanish enclave on the coast of North Africa, has been in the news lately. And I’ve seen a couple of articles mentioning that Ceuta has been a Spanish possession since 1668. Which triggered my inner history nerd, because on one hand actually Ceuta has been under the Spanish crown since 1560, not 1668. And also, Ceuta has been under European control for even longer, because the Portuguese conquered it way back in 1415. That’s knights-and-castles time, most of a century before Columbus. [a long day of street-fighting with swords and axes] So why 1668? Because in 1560, Spain took over Portugal and all Portuguese possessions. Then eventually the Portuguese rebelled against Spanish rule. Which led to a protracted war of independence that wasn’t resolved until 1668 when, as part of the final treaty / divorce settlement, Spain got Ceuta. Meanwhile, in Alaska, archeologists have found about a dozen glass beads of European origin. They’re either Venetian glass beads, or French…