| Spanish West Africa África Occidental Española |
||||
| Spanish colony | ||||
|
||||
| Northwestern African territories under Spanish control in 1912, some of which would later be grouped to form Spanish West Africa. | ||||
| Capital | Villa Cisneros | |||
| Language(s) | Spanish, Arabic | |||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism, Islam | |||
| Political structure | Colony | |||
| Royal Commissioner | ||||
| - 1885-1886 | Emilio Bonelli Hernando | |||
| Governor | ||||
| - 1946-1949 (first) | José Bermejo López | |||
| - 1958 (last) | José Héctor Vázquez | |||
| High Commissioner | ||||
| - 1939-40 (first) | Juan Beigbeder y Atienza | |||
| - 1951-56 (last) | Rafael García Valiño y Marcén | |||
| History | ||||
| - Established | December 26, 1884 | |||
| - Disestablished | April 10, 1958 | |||
| Currency | Spanish peseta | |||
Spanish West Africa (Spanish: (Territorios de) África Occidental Española) is a former possession in the western Sahara Desert that Spain ruled after giving much of its former northwestern African possessions to Morocco. As a political entity, it included Ifni, on the western coast of Morocco, the Tarfaya Strip, at its southern border, and a stretch of land including and connecting the cities of Ceuta and Melilla. The area between the two cities is under Moroccan sovereignty today, but the ports themselves are autonomous communities of Spain.
Spain also controlled Spanish Sahara (now known as Western Sahara), and the Canary Islands, off the coast, comprise two Spanish provinces.