The plazas de soberanía are a series of Spanish overseas minor territories scattered along the Mediterranean coast bordering Morocco in Africa, 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.
The 'Alawi dynasty – also rendered in English as Alaouite, 'Alawid, or Alawite – is the current Moroccan royal family and reigning dynasty. They are an Arab Sharifian dynasty and claim descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandson, Hasan ibn Ali. Their ancestors originally migrated to the Tafilalt region, in present-day Morocco, from Yanbu on the coast of the Hejaz in the 12th or 13th century.
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.
The French protectorate in Morocco, also known as French Morocco, was the period of French colonial rule in Morocco that lasted from 1912 to 1956. The protectorate was officially established 30 March 1912, when Sultan Abd al-Hafid signed the Treaty of Fez, though the French military occupation of Morocco had begun with the invasion of Oujda and the bombardment of Casablanca in 1907.
The Spanish protectorate in Morocco was established on 27 November 1912 by a treaty between France and Spain that converted the Spanish sphere of influence in Morocco into a formal protectorate.
The Treaty of Fes, officially the Treaty Concluded Between France and Morocco on 30 March 1912, for the Organization of the French Protectorate in the Sharifian Empire, was a treaty signed by Sultan Abd al-Hafid of Morocco under duress and French diplomat Eugène Regnault on 30 March 1912. It established the French protectorate in Morocco, and remained in effect until the Franco-Moroccan Joint Declaration of 2 March 1956.
Léon Marcel Isidore Geoffray (1852–1927) was a French diplomat and was later Ambassador to Madrid.
Moroccan nationality law is regulated by the Constitution of Morocco, as amended; the Moroccan Nationality Code, and its revisions; the Mudawana (Family Code; the Civil Liberties Code; and various international agreements to which the country is a signatory. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of Morocco. The legal means to acquire nationality, formal legal membership in a nation, differ from the domestic relationship of rights and obligations between a national and the nation, known as citizenship. Nationality describes the relationship of an individual to the state under international law, whereas citizenship is the domestic relationship of an individual within the nation. Moroccan nationality is typically obtained under the jus sanguinis, i.e. by birth in Morocco or abroad to parents with Moroccan nationality. It can be granted to persons with an affiliation to the country, or to a permanent resident who has lived in the country for a given period of time through naturalization.
The military history of Morocco covers a vast time period and complex events. It interacts with multiple military events in a vast area containing North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula.
Manuel García Prieto, 1st Marquis of Alhucemas was a Spanish politician who served as prime minister several times in his life and as the 30th Solicitor General of Spain. He was a member of the Liberal Party. During his last term, he was deposed by Miguel Primo de Rivera.
The Western Sahara War was an armed struggle between the Sahrawi indigenous Polisario Front and Morocco from 1975 to 1991, being the most significant phase of the Western Sahara conflict. The conflict erupted after the withdrawal of Spain from the Spanish Sahara in accordance with the Madrid Accords, by which it transferred administrative control of the territory to Morocco and Mauritania, but not sovereignty. In late 1975, the Moroccan government organized the Green March of some 350,000 Moroccan citizens, escorted by around 20,000 troops, who entered Western Sahara, trying to establish a Moroccan presence. While at first met with just minor resistance by the Polisario Front, Morocco later engaged a long period of guerrilla warfare with the Sahrawi nationalists. During the late 1970s, the Polisario Front, desiring to establish an independent state in the territory, attempted to fight both Mauritania and Morocco. In 1979, Mauritania withdrew from the conflict after signing a peace treaty with the Polisario Front. The war continued in low intensity throughout the 1980s, though Morocco made several attempts to take the upper hand in 1989–1991. A cease-fire agreement was finally reached between the Polisario Front and Morocco in September 1991. Some sources put the final death toll between 10,000 and 20,000 people.
The French conquest of Morocco began with the French Republic occupying the city of Oujda on 29 March 1907. The French launched campaigns against the Sultanate of Morocco which culminated in the signing of the Treaty of Fes and establishment of the French Protectorate in Morocco on 30 March 1912. France later concluded, on the 27th November, the Treaty of Madrid with the Kingdom of Spain which established the Spanish protectorate in Morocco. The French still conducted a series of military operations to pacify rebellions in Morocco until 1934.
The Tangier International Zone was a 382 km2 (147 sq mi) international zone centered on the city of Tangier, Morocco, which existed from 1925 until its reintegration into independent Morocco in 1956, with interruption during the Spanish occupation of Tangier (1940–1945), and special economic status extended until early 1960. Surrounded on the land side by the Spanish protectorate in Morocco, it was governed under a unique and complex system that involved various European nations, the United States, and the Sultan of Morocco, himself under a French protectorate. Due to its status as an international zone, Tangier played a crucial role for Moroccan Nationalists, who wanted independence, to establish international contacts and recruit allies as well as organising gatherings and events.
Events in the year 1912 in Spain.
The Morocco–Spain land border consists of three non-contiguous lines totalling 18.5 km around the Spanish territories of Ceuta, Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera and Melilla. Spanish islets such as the Chafarinas or the Alhucemas are located off the Moroccan coast.
The Morocco–Western Sahara border is 444 kilometres (276 mi) in length and runs from Atlantic Ocean in the west, to the tripoint with Algeria in the east. The border has existed purely in a de jure sense since Morocco's annexation of Western Sahara in 1976–1979.
The Mauritania–Western Sahara border is 1,564 kilometres (972 mi) in length and runs from the tripoint with Algeria in the north-east to the Atlantic Ocean in the south-west.
The Algeria–Western Sahara border is 41 kilometres (25 mi) in length and runs from the tripoint with Morocco in the north to the tripoint with Mauritania in the south.
The Revolution of the King and the People was a Moroccan anti-colonial national liberation movement with the goal of ending the French and Spanish protectorates in Morocco in order to break free from colonial rule. The name refers to the coordination between the Moroccan monarch Sultan Mohammed V and the popular Moroccan Nationalist Movement in their efforts against colonialism and toward independence, particularly after the French authorities forced Sultan Mohammed V into exile on 20 August 1953. 20 August is considered a national holiday in Morocco, in remembrance of the Revolution of the King and the People. After Morocco had regained independence from the French, the movement effectively ceased to exist, as the Sultan managed to take control of the state. Meanwhile, the Moroccan Nationalist Movement was turned into an opposition party.
