This article discusses the political history of Western Sahara from the early history down to the Islamic and colonial era and the politics.
EARLY HISTORY
The history of Western Sahara can be traced back to the times of Carthaginian explorer Hanno the Navigator in the 5th century BC. Though few historical records are left from that period, Western Sahara’s modern history has its roots linked to some nomadic groups (living under Berber tribal rule and in contact with the Roman Empire) such as the Sanhaja group, and the introduction of Islam and the Arabic language at the end of the 8th century AD.
Western Sahara has never been a nation in the modern sense of the word. It was home to Phoenician colonies, but those disappeared with virtually no trace. Islam arrived there in the 8th century, but the region, beset with desertification, remained little developed. From the 11th to the 19th centuries, Western Sahara was one of the links between the sub-Saharan and North African regions.
ANCIENT AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY
Contacts with Roman Empire
What is now Western Sahara was a dry savanna area during classical antiquity, where independent tribes like the Pharusii and the Perorsi led a semi-nomadic life facing a growing desertification.
Read: POLITICAL HISTORY OF MOROCCO
Romans made explorations toward this area and probably reached, with Suetonius Paulinus, the area of Adrar. There is evidence (e.g., coins, fibulas) of Roman commerce in Akjoujt and Tamkartkart near Tichit.
The western Sahara population (in those first centuries of the Roman Empire) consisted of nomads (mainly of the Sanhaja tribal confederation) in the plains and sedentary populations in river valleys, in oases, and in towns like Awdaghust Tichitt, Oualata, Taghaza, Timbuktu, Awlil, Azuki, and Tamdult.
Some Berber tribes moved to Mauritania in the third and fourth century, and after the 13th century some Arabs entered the region as conquerors.
ISLAMIC ERA
Islam arrived in the 8th century AD between the Berber population who inhabited the western part of the Sahara. The Islamic faith quickly expanded, brought by Arab immigrants, who initially only blended superficially with the population, mostly confining themselves to the cities of present-day Morocco and Spain.
The Berbers increasingly used the traditional trade routes of the Sahara. Caravans transported salt, gold and slaves between North Africa and West Africa, and the control of trade routes became a major ingredient in the constant power struggle between various tribes.
ZAWIYAS
An important role was played by the zawiyas. As centres of Islamic education under the supervision of an Islamic scholar, the ‘saih’, they became centres of new communities. In many tribal groups we see a split when a part of their members distanced themselves from the traditional leading group and formed a zawiya, following the Islamic example. These newly formed communities separated themselves from traditional, military society. Until then matrilinear ancestry had been important. They stressed the importance of patrilinear ancestry in which they tried to show their descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad (the Shurfa), his tribe (the Quraysh) or his companions (Ansar). They put spiritual ideals higher than the ideals of battle. They preferred religious influence over military pressure, equal membership over dependency.
ARABIZATION OF THE MUJAHIDEEN (13TH AND 14TH CENTURY)
In the time of the Almoravids professional warriors had fought as mujahideen in their holy war. Just like the people who had united in zawyas, the mujahideen began to form tribes based on their specific occupations. This development was accelerated by the arrival of Maqil Arab tribes. In the 13th and 14th century, these tribes migrated westwards along the Sahara’s northern border to settle in the Fezzan (Libya), Ifriqiya (Tunisia), Tlemcen (Algeria), Jebel Saghro (Morocco), and Salgia el-Hamra (Western Sahara). In the time of the Almoravids professional warriors had fought as mujahideen in their holy war. Just like the people who had united in zawyas, the mujahideen began to form tribes based on their specific occupations. This development was accelerated by the arrival of Maqil Arab tribes. In the 13th and 14th century, these tribes migrated westwards along the Sahara’s northern border to settle in the Fezzan (Libya), Ifriqiya (Tunisia), Tlemcen (Algeria), Jebel Saghro (Morocco), and Saguia el-Hamra (Western Sahara). The Maqil tribes, who entered the domains of the Sanhaja Berber tribe, sometimes intermarried with the Berber population; the Arabo-Berber people of the region are now known as Saharawi. An exonym sometimes used to describe the Banu Hassan tribes of present-day of the region was Moors. The Arabic dialect, Hassaniya, became the dominant mother-tongue of the Western Sahara and Mauritania. Berber vocabulary and cultural traits remain common, despite the fact that many Saharawi people today claim Arab ancestry.
COLONIAL ERA (1884–1975)
In the second half of the 19th century, several European powers attempted to get a foothold in Africa. France occupied Tunisia and Britain Egypt. Italy took possession of parts of Eritrea, while Germany declared Togo, Cameroon and South West Africa to be under its protection. At the invitation of Germany 14 countries attended the Berlin Conference in 1884–1885 to come to an agreement amongst them about the division of the territories. At the time of the conference, 80% of Africa was still under African control. What resulted of the conference was a new map with geometric, often arbitrary, boundaries. Western Sahara came under Spanish rule, despite attempts by the Moroccan sultan Hassan I to repel the European incursions on the territory in 1886. The oases of Tuat in the south-east went to the immense territory of the French Sahara. In 1898, in the aftermath of the Spanish–American War, Spain attempted to sell Spanish Sahara to Austria-Hungary; Spain wished to recoup its losses from the conflict and several Austrian ministers wished to obtain an overseas colony to justify naval expansion. However, as Austria-Hungary operated as a dual monarchy with Austria and Hungary having joint control over financial and foreign policy matters, the Hungarian House of Magnates vetoed the purchase and the colony was retained by Spain.
In 1912, Morocco itself became a protectorate of Spain and France. When Morocco gained its independence in the 1950s, the country also restated its claims over the still Spanish Western Sahara. In 1958, the Moroccan King Mohammed V in an address at El Ghizlan called for a renewal of the “everlasting allegiance” that some Saharan tribes had pledged to Moulay Hassan I and promised that Morocco would mobilize itself to see the Western Sahara brought under Moroccan rule.
Spanish Sahara
In 1884, Spain claimed a protectorate over the coast from Cape Bojador to Cap Blanc. Later, the Spanish extended their area of control. In 1958 Spain joined the previously separate districts of Saguia el-Hamra (in the north) and Río de Oro (in the south) to form the province of Spanish Sahara.
WESTERN SAHARA CONFLICT
From 1973 the colonizers gradually lost control over the countryside to the armed guerrillas of the Polisario Front, a nationalist organization. Successive Spanish attempts to form loyal Sahrawi political institutions (such as the Djema’a -many members of the Yemaa are today in Polisario Movement- and the PUNS party) to support its rule, and draw activists away from the radical nationalists, failed. As the health of the Spanish leader Francisco Franco deteriorated, the Madrid government slipped into disarray, and sought a way out of the Sahara conflict. The fall in 1974 of the Portuguese Estado Novo-government after unpopular wars in its own African provinces seems to have hastened the decision to pull out.
POLITICS OF WESTERN SAHARA
The politics of Western Sahara take place in a framework of an area claimed by both the partially recognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and Morocco.
Occupied by Spain from 1884 to 1975, as Spanish Sahara, the territory has been listed with the United Nations as a case of incomplete decolonization since the 1960s, making it the last major territory to effectively remain a colony, according to the UN. The conflict is largely between the Kingdom of Morocco and the national liberation movement known as Polisario Front (Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro), which in February 1976 formally proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), now basically administered by a government in exile in Tindouf, Algeria.
Following to the Madrid Accords, the territory was partitioned between Morocco and Mauritania in November 1975, with Morocco acquiring the northern two-thirds. Mauritania, under pressure from the POLISARIO guerrillas, abandoned all claims to its portion in August 1979, with Morocco moving to annex that sector shortly thereafter and has since asserted administrative control over the majority of the territory. A portion is administered by the SADR. The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic was seated as a member of the Organization of African Unity in 1984, and was a founding member of the African Union. Guerrilla activities continued until a United Nations-monitored cease-fire was implemented September 6, 1991 via the mission MINURSO. The mission patrols the separation line between the two territories.
In 2003, the UN’s envoy to the territory, James Baker, presented the Baker Plan, known as Baker II which would have given Western Sahara immediate autonomy as the Western Sahara Authority during a five-year transition period to prepare for a referendum, offering the inhabitants of the territory a choice between independence, autonomy within the Kingdom of Morocco, or complete integration with Morocco. POLISARIO has accepted the plan, but Morocco has rejected it. Previously in 2001, Baker had presented his framework plan, called Baker I, where the dispute would be finally solved through an autonomy within Moroccan sovereignty, but Algeria and the Polisario Front refused it. Algeria had proposed the partition of the territory instead.