Spanish Morocco
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Spanish Morocco (Arabic: المغرب الإسباني), was the area of Morocco (Protectorado español de Marruecos in Spanish) under colonial rule by Spain, established by the Treaty of Fez in 1912 and ending in 1956, when both France and Spain recognized Moroccan independence.
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[edit] Territorial borders
The territories of Spanish Morocco included northern Morocco (the territory in between the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, which have been Spanish since the 16th century and 15th century respectively), also the Tarfaya Strip, and Ifni. The capital of Spanish Morocco was Tetuán (Tétouan).
The rest of the country was ruled by France under the name of French Morocco also in 1912–56.
The disputed city of Tangier was declared international zone (this status was suspended during the World War II period, 1940-1945, when it was provisionally occupied by Spanish troops) and flourished economically and culturally in a multicultural and hectic activity including a large community of European and American expatriates (see Paul Bowles).
The Republic of the Rif led by the guerilla leader Abd El-Krim was a break away state that existed in the Rif region from 1921 to 1926, when it was dissolved by joint expedition of the Spanish Army of Africa and French forces.
[edit] Spanish historical claims
Ceuta had been Portuguese before becoming Spanish in 1580. The city of Melilla had been part of Spain since 1497. As for the rest of territories others than the plazas de soberanía, most of them they were only gained after by the middle of the 19th century and, specially, after 1912 and the First Moroccan Crisis.
In the late 19th century, Queen Isabella II of Spain encouraged the officers of southern Spain to curb the migration of unauthorized poor Spaniards to the new territories.
[edit] The protectorate
The legal basis of the Protectorate system was established during the Second Spanish Republic, technically it didn't include the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, which had been part of Spain from an early moment of its history and so were regarded as Spanish proper territory.
The legal Islamic qadis system was formally maintained.
The Moroccan Sephardi Jews -many of them living in this part of the Maghreb after being expelled from Spain and Portugal in 1492 and 1497 during the Reconquista process respectively- flourished in commerce, profiting from the similarity of Spanish and Ladino language and benefitting from the tax-exempt area in Tangier and a flourishing trading activity in the area.
The inaccessibility of Muslim women led to several marriages between Spanish men and Jewish women. After the pacification, a coexistence developed, with members of all the urban communities being invited to the celebrations of the others.
After Francisco Franco came to power in Spain, paradoxically, the protectorate enjoyed more political freedom than Franco-era Spain proper, allegedly because local Muslim troops were loyal from the very beginning to Franco, who was serving in África -as the Protectorate was informally known in the Spanish military parlance. Franco was the military commander of the Spanish Morocco at the time of his uprising and from there he started it. He was backed by a noticeable number of Moroccan Muslim troops in the following Spanish Civil War. Franco was based in Tetouan.
Thus, there were political parties in the Protectorate -unlike in the rest of Spain- and the Moroccan nationalist press would criticize the Spanish authorities, contrasting with the Spanish single party and state-controlled press in the rest of the country.
[edit] Morocco gains sovereignty
In 1956, when French Morocco became independent, Spain discontinued the Protectorate and surrendered most of its occupied territories to the newly independent Morocco, but retained control of Ceuta, Melilla and the rest of plazas de soberanía, also of Sidi Ifni and Tarfaya region. Morocco responded by supporting the Moroccan Army of Liberation uprising in these areas, and also extending the conflict to Spanish Sahara. As a result of this war, Spain in 1958 returned Tarfaya to Morocco. Morocco continued to demand the restitution of Spanish Sahara, and in 1969, it got back the region of Ifni.
Spain keeps Ceuta and Melilla and the lesser plazas de soberanía; Morocco claims them as integral parts of the country, considering them to be under foreign occupation, comparing their status to that of Gibraltar, while Spain regards them as a constituent part of itself on the grounds that these cities have been Spanish since the constitution of the Spanish kingdom and in a time when the kingdom of Morocco did not encompass the Rif area[citation needed].
[edit] List of High Commissioners
- Felipe Alfau y Mendoza (April 3, 1913 to August 15, 1913)
- José Marina Vega (August 17, 1913 to July 9, 1915)
- Francisco Gómez Jordana, 1st term (July 9, 1915 to January 1919)
- Dámaso Berenguer (January 1919 to July 13, 1922)
- Ricardo Burguete Lana (July 15, 1922 to January 22, 1923)
- Luis Silvela y Casado (February 16, 1923 to September 14, 1923)
- Luis Aizpuru (September 25, 1923 to October 16, 1924)
- Miguel Primo de Rivera (October 16, 1924 to November 1925)
- Jose Sanjurjo Sacanell Buenrostro, 1st term (November 1925 to 1928)
- Francisco Gómez Jordana, 2nd term (1928 to 1931)
- Jose Sanjurjo Sacanell Buenrostro, 2nd term (April 19, 1931 to June 20, 1931)
- Luciano López Ferrer (June 20, 1931 to May 1933)
- Juan Moles Ormella, 1st term (May 1933 to January 23, 1934)
- Manuel Rico Avello (January 23, 1934 to March 1936)
- Juan Moles Ormella, 2nd term (March 1936 to July 1936)
- Arturo Álvarez-Buylla, acting (from July 18, 1936)
- Eduardo Sáenz de Buruaga (1936)
- Francisco Franco (1936)
- Luis Orgaz y Yoldi, 1st term (1936 to 1937)
- Juan Beigbeder y Atienza (August 1937 to 1939)
- Carlos Asensio Cabanillas (February 1940 to May 12, 1941)
- Luis Orgaz y Yoldi, 2nd term (May 12, 1941 to March 4, 1945)
- José Enrique Varela Iglesias (March 4, 1945 to March 24, 1951)
- Rafael García Valiño y Marcén (March 1951 to April 7, 1956)
[edit] See also
- History of Morocco
- History of Spain
- Plazas de soberanía
- List of Spanish Colonial Wars in Morocco
- Spanish Legion
- Regulares
- Spanish Sahara
- Spanish Guinea
[edit] Further reading
- Hardman, Frederick (2005). The Spanish Campaign in Morocco. W. Blackwood and sons. (download book)
