On 711 April 30, the Umayyad general Tariq ibn Ziyad, leading a Berber-dominated army, sailed across the Strait from Ceuta. He first attempted to land on Algeciras but failed. Upon his failure, he landed undetected at the southern point of the Rock from present-day Morocco in his quest for Spain. Little was built during the first four centuries of Moorish control. (See Islamic conquest of Iberia, Reconquista.)

The first permanent settlement was built by the Almohad Sultan Abd al-Mu'min. Gibraltar then passed to a successive line of empires, becoming a part of Castile and then Spain. Admiral Sir George Rooke, commander of the confederate fleet captured the territory in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession.

In the Treaty of Utrecht which ended the war, Spain ceded Gibraltar and Minorca to the United Kingdom, which has retained sovereignty over the former ever since, despite early attempts by Spain to recapture the territory.

Gibraltar then became an important naval base for the Royal Navy, playing an important part in the Battle of Trafalgar. Its strategic value increased with the opening of the Suez Canal, as it controlled the important sea route between the UK and its colonies in India and Australia. During World War II, the civilian residents of Gibraltar were evacuated, and the Rock was turned into a fortress. An airfield was built over the civilian racecourse.

Plans by Nazi Germany to capture the Rock were frustrated by Spain's reluctance to allow the German Army onto Spanish soil.

In the 1950s, Spain – then under "Generalísimo" Francisco Franco – renewed its claim to sovereignty over Gibraltar, sparked in part by the visit of Queen Elizabeth II in 1954 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Rock's capture.

For the next thirty years, Spain restricted movement between Gibraltar and Spain. A referendum was held on September 10, 1967 in which Gibraltar's voters were asked whether they wished to either pass under Spanish sovereignty, or remain under British sovereignty, with institutions of self-government. The vote was overwhelmingly in favour of continuance of British sovereignty, with 12,138 to 44 voting to reject Spanish sovereignty. In response Spain completely closed the border with Gibraltar and severed all communication links.

In 1981 it was announced that The Prince and Princess of Wales would fly to Gibraltar to board the Britannia as part of their honeymoon. In response the Spanish King, Juan Carlos I refused to attend their wedding in London.

In 1988, SAS troops foiled an attempted terrorist attack on the British Army Garrison by members of the IRA.

The border with Spain was partially reopened in 1982, and fully reopened in 1985 after Spain's accession into the European Community. Joint talks on the future of the Rock held between Spain and the United Kingdom have occurred since the late 1980s, with various proposals for joint sovereignty discussed. However, another referendum organised in Gibraltar rejected the idea of joint sovereignty by 17,900 votes to 187.