Spanish Sahara

For the song by Foals, see Spanish Sahara (song).

Provincia Ultramarina del Sáhara Español في الخارج اقليم الصحراء الاسبانية Overseas province of Spanish Sahara Colony of Spain (1884–1958) Overseas province of Spain (1958–1975) ← 1884–1976 →   →   → Green: Spanish Sahara Dark gray: Other Spanish possessions Darkest gray: Spain Capital El Aaiún Royal Commissioner  - 1885-1886 Emilio Bonelli Hernando Governor  - 1903-1925 (first) Francisco Bens Argandoña  - 1974-1976 (last) Federico Gómez de Salazar y Nieto History  - Established December 26 1884  - Madrid Accords November 14, 1975  - Disestablished February 26 1976

Spanish Sahara (Spanish: Sáhara Español or Sahara Español; Arabic: الصحراء الاسبانية‎ Al-Sahrā'a Al-Isbānīyah) was the name used for the modern territory of Western Sahara when it was ruled as a territory by Spain between 1884 and 1975. The territory represented one of the last remnants of the Spanish Empire, and was abandoned following international pressure, mainly UN decolonisation resolutions, as well as internal pressure from native populations and the external claims of Morocco and Mauritania. Its sovereignty remains under dispute.

Colonization

In 1884, Spain was awarded the coastal area of present-day Western Sahara at the Berlin Conference, and began establishing trading posts and a military presence. In the summer of 1886, under the sponsorship of the Spanish Society of Commercial Geography (Sociedad Española de Geografía Comercial), Julio Cervera Baviera, Felipe Rizzo (1823–1908), and Francisco Quiroga (1853–1894) traversed the colony of Rio de Oro, where they made topographical and astronomical observations in a land whose features were barely known at the time to geographers. It is considered the first scientific expedition in that part of the Sahara.

The borders of the area were not clearly defined until treaties between Spain and France in the early 20th century. Spanish Sahara was then created from the Spanish territories of Río de Oro and Saguia el-Hamra in 1924. It was not part of, and administered separately from, the areas known as Spanish Morocco.

Entering the territory in 1884, Spain was immediately challenged by stiff resistance from the indigenous Sahrawi tribes. A 1904 rebellion led by the powerful Smara-based marabout, shaykh Ma al-Aynayn, was put down by France in 1910, but it was followed by a wave of uprisings under Ma al-Aynayn’s sons, grandsons and other political leaders.

Modern history

Because of tribal uprisings, Spain found it difficult to control parts of the country's hinterland until 1934. With its independence in 1956, Morocco laid claim on Spanish Sahara as part of its alleged pre-colonial territory. In 1957, the Moroccan Army of Liberation nearly occupied the small territory of Sidi-Ifni, north of Spanish Sahara, during the Ifni War. The Spanish sent a regiment of paratroopers from the nearby Canary Islands and were able to repel the attacks. Control was soon re-established in the entire area, including the actual Spanish Sahara which was also threatened, with the assistance of the French. Later several punitive actions were undertaken to prevent future military actions. Some of the previously nomadic inhabitants of Spanish Sahara were forced to settle in certain areas, and the urbanization of towns and villages was sped up. In the same year, Spain united the territories of Saguia el Hamra and Río de Oro to form the province of Spanish Sahara, and ceded the provinces of Tarfaya and Tantan (Cape Juby strip) to Morocco.

In the 1960s, Morocco continued to claim Spanish Sahara and succeeded in having it added to the list of territories to be decolonized; and while in 1969 Spain returned Ifni to Morocco, still withheld the whole Spanish Sahara.

In 1967, Spanish rule was further challenged by a protest movement secretly organized by the Moroccan government, the Marcha Verde or Harakat Tahrir. After its suppression in the 1970 Zemla Intifada, Sahrawi nationalism reverted to its militant origins, with the 1973 formation of the Polisario Front. The Front’s guerrilla army grew rapidly, and Spain had lost effective control over most of the countryside in early 1975. An attempt at sapping the strength of Polisario by founding a modern political rival, the Partido de Unión Nacional Saharaui (PUNS), met with little success.

Spain proceeded to co-opt tribal leaders by setting up the Djema’a, a political institution loosely based on traditional Sahrawi tribal leaderships. The Djema’a members were hand-picked by the authorities, but given privileges in return for rubber-stamping Madrid’s decisions.^{[citation needed]}

Immediately before the death of Francisco Franco in the winter of 1975, however, Spain was confronted with an intensive campaign of territorial demands from Morocco, and to a lesser extent Mauritania, culminating in the Green March. Spain then withdrew its forces and settlers from the territory, after negotiating the Madrid Accords, a tripartite agreement, with Morocco and Mauritania in 1975, under the terms of which the latter countries took control of the region. Mauritania later surrendered its claim after fighting an unsuccessful war against the Polisario. Morocco engaged in a war with the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, although a cease-fire came into effect in 1991, and the sovereignty of the territory remains under dispute.

Present status

This postage stamp was issued in 1924.

The United Nations considers the former Spanish Sahara a non-self-governing territory, with Spain as the formal administrative power, and Morocco as the current administrative power since the 1970s. UN peace efforts have aimed at holding a referendum on independence among the Sahrawi population, but this has not yet taken place. The African Union and at least 81 governments consider the territory a sovereign, albeit occupied, state under the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), with an exile government backed by the Polisario Front.

See also

• List of colonial heads of Spanish Sahara
• International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on Western Sahara
• History of Western Sahara
• Saharan Liberation Army
• Southern Provinces
• Tarfaya Strip
• Tiris al-Gharbiyya
• Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
• Spanish Morocco