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Mauritania–Western Sahara Border
The Mauritania–Western Sahara border is in length and runs from the tripoint with Algeria in the north-east to the Atlantic Ocean in the south-west. Description The border starts in the north at the tripoint with Algeria, proceeding south in a straight of , then turning west following the 26th parallel north for , then turning south along the 12th meridian west for . The border then turns to the south-west via a broad arc down to 21°20'N, following this parallel westwards for . Just south of Guerguerat the border turns south, bisecting the Ras Nouadhibou peninsula and terminating at its tip on the Atlantic Coast. History The border emerged during the 'Scramble for Africa', a period of intense competition between European powers in the later 19th century for territory and influence in Africa. The process culminated in the Berlin Conference of 1884, in which the European nations concerned agreed upon their respective territorial claims and the rules of engagements going for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saguia El-Hamra
Saguia el-Hamra ( , ) is the northern geographic region of Western Sahara. It was, with Río de Oro, one of the two territories that formed the Spanish province of Spanish Sahara after 1969. Its name comes from a waterway that goes through the capital. The wadi is inhabited by the Oulad Tidrarin Sahrawi tribe. Occupying the northern part of Western Sahara, it lay between the 26th parallel north and 27°50'N. The city of Cape Bojador served to divide the regions. Its colonial capital was El Aaiún (Laâyoune), and it also included the city of Smara. The territory takes its name from an intermittent river, the Saguia el-Hamra, the route of which runs west from south of El Farsia to reach the Atlantic at Laayoune Laayoune or El Aaiún (, Latn, ar, al-ʕuyūn , , ) is the largest city of the disputed territory of Western Sahara, with a population of 271,344 in 2023. The city is the ''de jure'' capital of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, though it .... The area is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Choum
Choum () is a town in northern Mauritania, lying in the Adrar Region close to the border with Western Sahara. In the year 2000, Choum had a population of 2,735. History The town grew from its position on trans-Saharan trading routes. It declined with the trade, and, in 1977, was attacked by French troops as a suspected base of the Polisario Front, the rebel organization fighting for independence for the Western Sahara. Fortifications from the period survive around the town. Transport Choum is a stop on the Mauritania Railway from Nouadhibou on the Atlantic coast to Zouérat, and a transport interchange for access to the Adrar Plateau and the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott. Railway tunnel The town stands on a spur of land which carries the major turning-point in the border between Mauritania and the Western Sahara. In the early 1960s, the French colonial authorities in Mauritania wished to build the line from Nouadhibou to Zouérat to exploit the iron or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mauritania Railway
The Mauritania Railway is the national railway of Mauritania. Construction of the line began in 1960, with its opening in 1963. It consists of a single, railway line linking the iron mining center of Zouérat with the port of Nouadhibou, via Fderik and Choum. The state agency Société nationale industrielle et minière (SNIM) controls the railway line. Since the closure of the Choum Tunnel, a section of the railway cuts through the Polisario Front- controlled part of the Western Sahara (). History The line was a success and provided a major portion of Mauritania's GDP; as a result, the line was nationalized in 1974. Following Mauritania's annexation of southern Western Sahara in 1976, the line came under constant attack by Polisario militia, effectively putting the line out of use and thereby crippling Mauritania's economy. This played a major role in prompting the army to overthrow Mauritanian President Moktar Ould Daddah in 1978, followed by a withdrawal from We ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greater Mauritania
Greater Mauritania () is a term for the Mauritanian irredentist claim that generally includes the Western Sahara and other Sahrawi-populated areas of the western Sahara Desert. The term was initially used by Mauritania's first President, Mokhtar Ould Daddah, as he began claiming the territory then known as Spanish Sahara even before Mauritanian independence in 1960. Its main competing ideologies have been Berberism, Sahrawi nationalism, Moroccan irredentism, Mali federationism and Tuareg nationalism. History and background The idea evolved in the 1950s in tandem and response to the above-mentioned ideas of Greater Morocco. Its main proponents were among the '' beidane'' (light-skinned) community. In 1957, the future first President of Mauritania, Mokhtar Ould Daddah, stated that: :''"I therefore call on our brothers in the Spanish Sahara to dream of this economic and spiritual Greater Mauritania of which we cannot speak at present. I address to them, and I ask you to r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ifni War
The Ifni War, sometimes called the Forgotten War (''la Guerra Olvidada'') in Spain, was a series of armed incursions into Spanish West Africa by Morocco, Moroccan insurgents that began in November 1957 and culminated with the abortive siege of Sidi Ifni. The city of Sidi Ifni had been ceded to the Spanish Empire in 1860 at the end of the Hispano–Moroccan War (1859–1860), Hispano-Moroccan War. After Morocco achieved independence in 1956, it sought to claim Spain's remaining possessions in West Africa. Violent demonstrations against Spanish rule broke out in Ifni in April 1957, and in October Moroccan militias began converging near the territory. Moroccan forces attacked in November, forcing the Spanish to abandon most of the territory and retreat to a defensive perimeter around Ifni. Supplied by the Spanish Navy from the sea, the Spanish garrison was able to resist the siege, which lasted into June 1958. In Spanish Sahara, Moroccan units, now reorganised as the Moroccan Ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Treaty Of Angra De Cintra
The Treaty of Angra de Cintra, signed by Spain and Morocco on 1 April 1958, ended the Spanish protectorate in Morocco and helped end the Ifni War. The Spanish foreign minister, Fernando María Castiella y Maíz, and his Moroccan counterpart, Ahmed Balafrej, as well as their respective secretaries, met on the Bay of Cintra in the Spanish colony of Río de Oro between 31 March and 2 April in utmost secrecy to negotiate an end to the clashes between Spain and Moroccan-supported rebels that had begun in October 1957.María Concepción Ybarra Enríquez de la Orden, ''España y la descolonización del Magreb: rivalidad hispano-francesa en Marruecos, 1951–1961'' (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, 1998), pp. 353–54. The resulting treaty was signed on 1 April. By its terms, Spain would return to Moroccan control the southern zone of its protectorate, which it had retained even after handing over the northern zone in 1956. This zone, called Cabo Juby or the Tarfaya Strip ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spanish Sahara
Spanish Sahara (; ), officially the Spanish Possessions in the Sahara from 1884 to 1958, then Province of the Sahara between 1958 and 1976, was the name used for the modern territory of Western Sahara when it was occupied and ruled by Spain between 1884 and 1976. It had been one of the most recent acquisitions as well as one of the last remaining holdings of the Spanish Empire, which had once extended from the Americas to the Spanish East Indies. Between 1946 and 1958, the Spanish Sahara was amalgamated with the nearby Spanish-protected Cape Juby and Spanish Ifni to form a new colony, Spanish West Africa. This was reversed during the Ifni War when Ifni and the Sahara became provinces of Spain separately, two days apart, while Cape Juby was ceded to Morocco in the peace deal. 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greater Morocco
Greater Morocco is a label historically used by some Moroccan nationalist political leaders protesting against Spanish, French and Portuguese rule, to refer to wider territories historically associated with the Moroccan sultan. Current usage most frequently occurs in a critical context, accusing Morocco, largely in discussing the disputed Western Sahara, of irredentist claims on neighboring territories. The main competing ideologies of the Greater Morocco ideology have been Sahrawi nationalism, Mauritanian irredentism, Spanish nationalism, Berber separatism and Pan-Arabism. Irredentist, official and unofficial Moroccan claims on territories viewed by Moroccans as having been under some form of Moroccan sovereignty (most frequently with respect to the Spanish exclaves), are rhetorically tied back to an accused expansionism. However, Moroccan government claims make no current reference to the Greater Morocco concept. History In 1963, following the Independence of Algeria ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plazas De Soberanía
The (), meaning "strongholds of sovereignty", are a series of Spanish overseas territories scattered along the Mediterranean coast bordering Morocco, or that are closer to Africa than Europe. This term is used for those territories that have been a part of Spain since the formation of the modern country (1492–1556), as opposed to African territories acquired by Spain during the 19th and early 20th centuries in the Scramble for Africa. Historically, a distinction was made between the so-called "major places of sovereignty", comprising the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, and the "minor places of sovereignty", referring to a number of uninhabited islands and a small peninsula along the coast. Now the term refers mainly to the latter. Ceuta in particular was also historically part of the so-called "African Algarve" (, ) within the Kingdom of the Algarves, a title which the Spanish monarchs still hold in pretense. Morocco has claimed those territories (except the isla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spanish West Africa
Spanish West Africa (, AOE) was a grouping of Spanish colonies along the Atlantic coast of northwest Africa. It was formed in 1946 by joining the southern zone (the Cape Juby Strip) of the Spanish protectorate in Morocco with the colonies of Ifni, Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro into a single administrative unit. Following the Ifni War (1957–58), Spain ceded the Cape Juby Strip to Morocco by the Treaty of Angra de Cintra, and created separate provinces for Ifni and the Sahara in 1958. Spanish West Africa was formed by a decree of 20 July 1946. The new governor sat at Ifni. He was ''ex officio An ''ex officio'' member is a member of a body (notably a board, committee, or council) who is part of it by virtue of holding another office. The term '' ex officio'' is Latin, meaning literally 'from the office', and the sense intended is 'by r ...'' the delegate of the Spanish high commissioner in Morocco in the southern zone of the protectorate, to facilitate its government al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Draa River
:''Dra is also the abbreviation for the constellation Draco.'' The Draa (, ; also spelled Dra or Drâa, in older sources mostly Darha or Dara, ) is Morocco's longest river, at . It is formed by the confluence of the Dadès River and Imini River. It flows from the High Atlas mountains, initially south-eastward to Tagounite, and from Tagounite mostly westwards to its mouth in the Atlantic Ocean somewhat north of Tan-Tan. In 1971, the (El) Mansour Eddahabi dam was constructed to service the regional capital of Ouarzazate and to regulate the flow of the Draa. Most of the year the part of the Draa after Tagounite falls dry. In the first half of the 20th century, the lowest course of the Draa marked the boundary between the French protectorate of Morocco and the area under Spanish rule. The valley contains the Fezouata formations, which are Burgess shale-type deposits dating to the Lower Ordovician, filling an important preservational window between the common Cambrian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
