As a result of international pressure, Spain acceded to Moroccan demands, and entered bilateral negotiations. This led to the Madrid Agreement and the Western Sahara partition agreement, treaties that divided the administration of the territory between Morocco and Mauritania, but did not impact the sovereignty debate.
Spain gave up its Saharan possession following Moroccan demands and international pressure, mainly from United Nations resolutions regarding decolonisation. There was internal pressure from the native Sahrawi population, through the Polisario Front, and the claims of Morocco and Mauritania.
Spain withdrew its troops from Spanish Sahara on January 12, 1976, and Spain's presence in the territory formally ended on February 26, 1976. Morocco immediately claimed sovereignty over the territory. Some 5,000 individuals were killed during the conflict.
In 1957 the territory was claimed by Morocco, which itself had just reached independence the previous year. Spanish troops succeeded in repelling Moroccan military incursions into the territory, and in 1958 Spain formally united Río de Oro and Saguia el-Hamra into a Spanish province known as Spanish Sahara.
According to the United Nations, Western Sahara is one of the 17 Non-Self-Governing Territories in the world. Spain relinquished its power over the colony of Western Sahara in 1976 and conceded the territory to Morocco and Mauritania.
Since a United Nations-sponsored ceasefire agreement in 1991, two-thirds of the territory, including most of the Atlantic coastline, has been administered by the Moroccan government, with tacit support from France and the United States. The remainder of the territory is administered by the SADR, backed by Algeria.
Western Sahara, formerly the Spanish colony of Spanish Sahara, is a disputed territory claimed by both the Kingdom of Morocco and the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario Front), which is an independence movement based in Algeria.
Overview. Morocco has claimed authority over Western Sahara since 1975, but the United Nations (UN) does not recognize Moroccan control, calling Western Sahara a “non-self-governing territory.” Morocco controls the most populous area along the Atlantic coastline, more than three-quarters of the territory.
Western Sahara has been on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories since 1963 following the transmission of information on Spanish Sahara by Spain under Article 73 e of the Charter of the United Nations.
Ma al-Aynayn the Saharan pro-Moroccan caïd of Tindouf and Smara named by the Moroccan sultan started an uprising against the French in 1910 in response to French attempts to expand their influence and control in North-West Africa.
The French and Spanish protectorates ended in 1956, and the fully independent Kingdom of Morocco became the successor state to the Sultanate of Morocco. Spain retains to the present the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, over which Morocco claims sovereignty. World Digital Library.
However, the last Spanish colony to claim independence from Spain in 1968 was a territory in West Africa—Equatorial Guinea—a nation-state where Spanish still serves as the official language. A few years before Spanish Guinea's independence in 1968, exports per capita were the highest in Africa.
Moorish sultans ruled in Spain for almost 800 years until Granada's fall in 1492, an occupation that engendered a fear and suspicion of the “moro” that more than 600,000 Moroccans now living in Spain have to contend with.
Coupled with its destabilizing civil war at the end of the 1930s, Spain was no longer a world power and thus was no longer able to keep or obtain new colonies during the "Scramble for Africa", nor in the wake of the two world wars.
Spanish Sahara was a Spanish protectorate, located on the Atlantic coast of Africa to the south of the French protectorate of Morocco and north of the French-controlled territory of Mauretania (present-day Mauritania).
Prior to the 1975 Moroccan invasion of the territory, Western Sahara had been known as 'Spanish Sahara. ' As well as exploiting the territory's rich fisheries, the Spanish built a phosphate mine in their North African colony, which is still the world's number one source of phosphates.
Western Sahara is a sparsely-populated area of mostly desert situated on the northwest coast of Africa. A former Spanish colony, it was annexed by Morocco in 1975. Since then it has been the subject of a long-running territorial dispute between Morocco and its indigenous Sahrawi people, led by the Polisario Front.
The US maintains its support for Morocco's proposal on Western Sahara.
Today 82 countries recognize the independence of Western Sahara. In Latin America, the first country to establish diplomatic relations with the Sahrawi Arab Republic was Panama, back in 1978.
Is Western Sahara a wealthy country? Western Sahara has a small market-based economy whose main industries are fishing, phosphate mining, tourism, and pastoral nomadism. The territory's arid desert climate makes sedentary agriculture difficult, and much of its food is imported.
The desert encompasses most of North Africa, spanning the countries of Morocco, Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan and Tunisia.
The Sahara (/səˈhɑːrə/, /səˈhærə/) is a desert on the African continent. With an area of 9,200,000 square kilometres (3,600,000 sq mi), it is the largest hot desert in the world and the third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Arctic.
The United Nations has long been engaged in the search for a peaceful solution to the conflict over Western Sahara. On 6 October 2021, the Secretary-General appointed Staffan de Mistura as his Personal Envoy for Western Sahara to provide good offices on behalf of the Secretary‑General.
Membership application
In 1987, Morocco applied to join the European Communities (the precursor to the European Union). The application was rejected on the grounds that Morocco was not considered to be a "European country" and hence could not join.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office advises against all travel to: areas of Western Sahara within 30km north/west of the Berm. areas of Western Sahara south/east of the Berm.