Tangier International Zone

The Tangier International Zone ( ''Minṭaqat Ṭanja ad-Dawliyya'', , es, Zona Internacional de Tánger) was a international zone centered on the city of Tangier, Morocco, which existed from 1924 until its reintegration into independent Morocco in 1956, with special status lasting until April 1960. Surrounded on the land side by the Spanish protectorate in Morocco, it was governed under a complex system that involved various European nations, the United States, and the Sultan of Morocco, himself under a French protectorate.

Background

Tangier had developed since the 18th century as the main point of contact between the Moroccan monarchy and European commercial interests, leading to the establishment of a number of consulates in the city by the main European nations. By 1830, Denmark, France, Portugal, Sardinia, Spain, Sweden, Tuscany, the United Kingdom, and the United States all had consulates in Tangier. In 1856, its role as Morocco's diplomatic capital was made official, and the existing consulates were elevated to legations.

Tangier's unique governance took further shape around 1880. That year, it was granted a monopoly of importation of tobacco and opium into Morocco. In 1879, a '' Dahir'' (decree) of the Sultan of Morocco established a Hygiene Commission, which was actually established in 1884 and further organised in 1892. The Commission was chaired by the foreign consuls, on three-months turns with succession based on alphabetical order of nationality. One of them, the Greek-American Ion Perdicaris, in 1887 advocated a special status for Tangier as a neutral free port under the great powers' joint control. In 1893, the Commission's role was broadened to public roads, with authority to raise levies.

In 1904, Tangier was chosen as location of the French-led Moroccan Debt Administration. The Algeciras Conference of 1906 prepared the ground for the colonisation of Morocco and specifically for the creation of the State Bank of Morocco which would be established in Tangier the following year; it did not, however, define the status of Tangier itself. Both France and Spain wanted to control the city, and the United Kingdom wanted to neutralise it to maintain its dominance of the Strait of Gibraltar. In 1912, Article 7 of the Treaty Between France and Spain Regarding Morocco stipulated that Tangier would be granted a special status. An agreement to that effect was signed in Madrid in 1914, but its implementation was suspended by World War I. Negotiations restarted after the end of the war, in Cannes in 1922. Meanwhile, Tangier still operated under the ancient regime of Capitulations under which the Sultan of Morocco delegated wide administrative duties in the town to the foreign consulates established there.

Establishment and history

Eventually, France, Spain and the UK reached agreement on the Tangier Protocol on 18 December 1923. Tangier was made a neutral zone under a joint administration. In line with UK wishes, it was entirely free from any military presence. It was also made into a tax haven, with no tariffs on imported or exported goods or gold, no exchange controls, no income or revenue taxes, and unlimited freedom of establishment. Although misgivings remained about the agreement, ratifications were exchanged in Paris on 14 May 1924. The convention was amended on 25 July 1928, when the governments of Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden joined the international framework.

The initial economic effect of the creation of the zone was sharply negative, because the Spanish protectorate authorities discouraged commerce with it and thus Tangier lost most of its traditional hinterland. Tangier had handled nineteen percent of Morocco's imports in 1906, but only four percent in 1929. With time, however, the service activities favoured by the zone's special status enabled a gradual recovery. The Zone had a reputation for tolerance, diversity of culture, religion, and bohemianism. It became a tourist hotspot for literary giants and gay men from Western countries. Many of the latter were able to live an openly "out" life in the Zone.

Spanish troops occupied Tangier on 14 June 1940, the same day Paris fell to the Germans. Despite calls by the writer Rafael Sánchez Mazas and other Spanish nationalists to annex "''Tánger español''", the Francoist State publicly considered the occupation a temporary wartime measure. A diplomatic dispute between Britain and Spain over the latter's abolition of the city's international institutions in November 1940 led to a further guarantee of British rights and a Spanish promise not to fortify the area. Tangiers was annexed to the Spanish Protectorate of Morocco on 23 November 1940. In May 1944, although it had served as a contact point between himself and the later Axis Powers during the Spanish Civil War, Franco expelled all German diplomats from the Zone.

The territory was restored to its pre-war status on 11 October 1945. The activity of Tangier as an offshore financial centre and tax haven took off in the postwar period. In 1950, there were 85 banks in Tangier, up from 4 in 1900 and 15 in 1939. Its practice of banking secrecy was extreme, with effectively no bank licensing, no prudential supervision, no accounting obligations, and no transparency whatsoever about a bank's ownership. In some cases, the senior management of a Tangier bank would not even know who the bank's owners were. One author wrote that "the authorities of Tangier had pushed to an unequaled degree of perfection the art of non-governing by reciprocal annulment of rival sovereignties. They took care, better than elsewhere, of the rigorous application of an almost total non-taxation". In July 1952 the protecting powers met at Rabat to discuss the Zone's future, agreeing to abolish it. Tangier joined with the rest of Morocco following the restoration of full sovereignty in 1956. At the time of the handover, Tangier had a population of around 40,000 Muslims; 31,000 Christians; and 15,000 Jews.

On 29 October 1956, the foreign nations involved in the zone and the Moroccan government, represented by Foreign Minister Ahmed Balafrej, signed a joint declaration that returned Tangier to full Moroccan sovereignty. Mohammed V granted it a charter to smooth the transition and extend its tax and other privileges on a temporary basis. In October 1959, that charter was abrogated with a six-month notice period. The expiration of that transition on 11 April 1960 marked the final end of Tangier's special status.

Government

Executive

Executive power was vested in an Administrator. In the interwar period all Administrators were French, until the Spanish takeover of June 1940. They had two deputies, one French and one British. After the re-establishment of the international regime in 1945, the Administrators were from other nationalities, namely Portuguese (1945–1948 and 1951–1954), Dutch (1948–1951), and Belgian (1954–1956).

In the zone's early years and until 1937, the Administrator and his staff worked in the building of the Moroccan Debt Administration, on Boulevard Pasteur. From 1937 to the Spanish takeover, they appear to have been located at the nearby French Consulate. A new building constructed to house the International Administration was completed in the early 1950s. After Moroccan independence, that building was repurposed as the seat of the local Prefecture (''Wilaya''), now of the region of Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima.

The zone's Muslim and Jewish communities were not directly administered by the foreign nations but by a personal representative of the Sultan, the Mendoub. The Mendoub had his seat and main residence in the former German consulate, now known as the Mendoubia. From 1929 he also had a secondary residence in the Marshan neighbourhood, also known as the Mendoub Palace, now part of Marshan Palace.

Legislature

The zone's legislature was the International Legislative Assembly, which was subject to supervision by a Committee of Control consisting of the Consuls of Belgium, France, Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain, with rotating chair similarly as in the former Hygiene Commission. The assembly's 26-strong membership was set as follows: 4 French, 4 Spanish, 3 British, 3 Italians, 1 Belgian, 1 Dutch, 1 Portuguese, 6 Muslims, and 3 Jews.

After World War II, a new home was built for the Legislative Assembly, which is now the main building of Marshan Palace.

Judiciary

Judicial power resided in a Mixed Court of five judges, respectively appointed by the Belgian, British, Spanish, French, and Italian governments. As a result of the creation of the Mixed Court, the various European powers withdrew the consular courts that previously exercised jurisdiction there. From its start, the Mixed Court was considered a unique experiment given its international setup. Unlike other institutions of the zone, it continued to function under the Spanish occupation of Tangier during World War II. It was reformed in 1952 but remained affected by shortcomings that included inadequate representation of Muslim Moroccans and an insufficient number of judges. Its activity ceased in 1957.

The Mixed Court was initially located together with the International Administration on Boulevard Pasteur. In 1937, it moved to purpose-built art deco courthouse on (now ), which after Moroccan independence became the city courthouse (french: link=no, palais de justice). In 2021 the court moved to a new building in the outskirts of Tangier.

See also

* Dejima
* Concessions in China
* Panama Canal Zone
* Free City of Danzig
* Corpus separatum (Jerusalem)

References

Works cited

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Further reading

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International Zone
States and territories disestablished in 1956
20th century in Morocco
Port cities and towns on the Moroccan Atlantic Coast
Francoist Spain
Condominia (international law)
Former territorial entities in Africa
Former countries of the interwar period
1956 disestablishments in Africa