Wrong, these towns existed before Spain was even formed as a nation. i.e. it's not Spanish by origin. Take Ceuta, it was settled essentially by a power from wha

Wrong, these towns existed before Spain was even formed as a nation. i.e. it's not Spanish by origin. Take Ceuta, it was settled essentially by a power from what is now Tunisia, which itself was a colony of a middle-eastern power (mostly what is now Lebanon), this was hundreds of years before christ. Spain was formally formed more than two thousand years later. Since then, it's changed hands many times. Fact is, it sits in a region that for thousands of years prior to the concept of the nation state was inhabited by berbers, the Moroccan people. To consider it somehow morally 'theirs' isn't unreasonable, to consider it a remnant of European imperialism is also not unreasonable. But to consider it, politically, Spanish today, is also fully reasonable. Just like North America isn't the land of native americans anymore, and as sad as that history may be, it's something that must be accepted today and moved on from. I see Ceuta and Melilla similarly, they were once part of Moroccan territories but have been in Spanish hands for the last four hundred years, and developed by Spain for so long, inhabited by Spaniards for so long, it's simply Spain. That won't change anytime soon. But to say it was Spanish long before Morocco existed is silly, because Morocco predates Spain (depending on your definitions of states) by a thousand years, and it wasn't Spaniards that first settled Ceuta either. That's Ceuta, as for Melilla, it was a berber (read: north-african, in this case moroccan) village by origin, not an Iberian or Spanish or Andalusian village or w/e. Just prior to Spain taking Melilla, it was part of the kingdom of fez. Which is a Moroccan kingdom.