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Greater Morocco is the name for those areas believed by most Moroccan nationalists to have historically formed a part of the country. It is supported by the Kingdom of Morocco. The Greater Morocco ideology caused Morocco to refuse to recognize of most of its post-colonial borders, and has contributed to difficult relations with neighbouring countries, especially Algeria, with which a war was fought in 1962. It has been the driving force behind the invasion and controversial annexation of Western Sahara in 1975-79 - another sore point in relations between Morocco and Algeria. The Kingdom still today spends much of its diplomatic capital trying to gain recognition for its hold over these areas, which it terms its "Southern Provinces".
Today, Morocco has dropped its claims to most of the lands included in the Greater Morocco vision, but it still claims the entire Western Sahara and the Spanish enclaves on its northern coast, Ceuta and Melilla. Morocco's refusal to accept its post-colonial borders in the case of Western Sahara has, however, put it on a collision course with the African Union, which holds this as one of its most sacred principles (in the interest of avoiding massive border strife). As a consequence, Morocco is the only African country not part of the union, while Western Sahara is represented by its Sahrawi exile government, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
Origin of the Greater Morocco ideology
In the early 1940's, the Moroccan nationalist party - Istiqlal - used the irredentist concept of "Greater Morocco" as a propaganda tool to rally support of Moroccan citizens against French colonial rule. After Morocco gained independence in 1956, and the death of King Mohammed V, the monarchy of King Hassan II revived the "Greater Morocco" as a continuation of the ongoing independence process. This has been successful, as Morocco quickly (re)acquired possessions such as the Tarfaya Strip (after a brief war with Spain), and much of the territory between Ceuta and Melilla, which have been after the Algeciras Conference.
Territorial boundaries
The area of "Greater Morocco" composed a far larger territory than current Morocco, though, including: all of Western Sahara, the whole of Mauritania along with the Bechar and Tindouf and the Touat areas in Algeria, portions of western Mali and northern Senegal; its aspirations include the Spanish 'plazas de soberanía', which include the cities of Ceuta and Melilla .
Effect on Moroccan policy
The Greater Morocco doctrine has contributed strongly to poor relations with all Morocco's neighbours, although its importance as a cause of conflict has sharply decreased since the early independence years.
Mauritania
Morocco withheld recognition of the Mauritanian republic from its independence in 1960 until 1969, and persuaded most of the Arab League to do similarly. The reluctant recognition of Mauritania's sovereignty didn't appease Mauritanian fears, and Morocco continued to suggest proposals of union and federation between Morocco and Mauritania, and back Mauritanian opposition groups who worked for Moroccan control over the country.
Therefore, in 1975, the Nouakchott government of Ould Daddah maneouvered to annex a share of Western Sahara, in order to use it as a buffer against Moroccan expansionism. This contributed strongly to the outbreak of hostilities there. Morocco was outraged when Mauritania pulled out of the war in 1979, and after surging into the rump of Western Sahara right up to the Mauritanian border and annexing it, the government immediately set about to try to overthrow the republic and install a pro-Moroccan government. This rift has since healed, and the two countries now enjoy generally friendly relations.
Algeria
A brief border war took place between Morocco and Algeria in 1963 (immediately after Algeria became independent from France, after an eight-year war) over Tindouf, Béchar and the surrounding, mineral-rich territories. Morocco failed to gain any territory, and a cease-fire was concluded with no border modifications. The attack caused the previously good relations between the National Liberation Front-led Algerian government and Morocco to plummet, and they would be further inflamed when Algeria stepped in as the main supporter of Western Sahara's independence movement (Polisario) in the 1970s. Although the common border was regulated in 1972 (in favor of the established border, at the cost to Algeria of sharing mineral wealth with Morocco), the two governments remain at odds. Their common border is frequently closed, and they regularly trade harsh words over the Western Sahara question, although the risk of open war between them has diminished since the 1980s.
Western Sahara
- Main article: History of Western Sahara
Morocco claimed Spanish Sahara from Spain at its accession to independence in 1956. Spanish colonial possessions within Morocco were given to Moroccan sovereignty. First, Tarfaya-Tantan province in 1958, and then the sovereignty of Ifni in 1969 was transferred from Spain, following the UN General Assembly Resolution 2072.
In the middle of an economic crisis and after three failed coups d'état, Hassan II decided to send more than 350,000 unarmed civilians towards Spanish-colonized Sahara in what became known as the Green March. His intentions were to capture these territories as part of Greater Morocco, and gain the support of nationalist elements of the opposition. This was resisted by the Polisario Front, a guerrilla group which had fought Spain for independence since 1973, and which was since hosted and supported by Algeria.
During the Madrid Accords in 1975, Morocco negotiated with Spain and Mauritania on how to evacuate Spanish troops and partition the territory. Morocco was willing to cede the lower one-third in favor of the rich phosphates in the north – this acquisition could at once revive nationalistic confidence in the monarchy and give the economy a shot in the arm. Spain received 35% of the income from phosphate mining, primarily in Laayoune and Bou Craa, as well as preferential fishing rights along the coast. Mauritania would gain the lower third of the territory for itself, while the UN's demand for a referendum to allow the Sahrawi people to exercise its right of self-determination was ignored.
This prevented Western Sahara's formal decolonization and led to the Western Sahara conflict, which is still on-going today. In 2006, Morocco controls most of the territory, with a smaller portion under Polisario control, and a cease-fire holding between the two armies. The United Nations still views the area as a non-sovereign territory and remains involved in trying to organize a referendum on independence, but Morocco refuses to allow it. It is unclear if the dispute can be resolved without a return to armed hostilities.
Greater Maghreb
The term "Greater Morocco" or Greater Maghreb is occasionally used in the press and royal proclamations as a sign of political unity between the Kingdom of Morocco proper and the other North African nations: Mauritania, Algeria and Tunisia. The term is slightly ambiguous since the term Maghreb" in the Arabic language can be used both for the region of North-west Africa and for the Kingdom of Morocco.
Further reading
- Hodges, Tony (1983), Western Sahara: The Roots of a Desert War, Lawrence Hill Books (ISBN 0-88208-152-7)
- Mercer, John (1976), Spanish Sahara, George Allen & Unwid Ltd (ISBN 0-04-966013-6)
- Pazzanita, Anthony G. and Hodge, Tony (1994), Historical Dictionary of Western Sahara, Scarecrow Press (ISBN 0-8108-2661-5)
- Thompson, Virginia and Adloff, Richard (1980), The Western Saharans. Background to Conflict, Barnes & Noble Books (ISBN 0-389-20148-0)
See also
- Inventory of Conflict and Environment
- Richard Knight on the Sahara
- The U.S. government on the Madrid Accords
- An article and bibiliography on the conflict
- Map of Greater Morocco