View source for Green March

{{short description|1975 military event}}
{{pp|small=yes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}
{{about|the historical event|the aerobatic team|Marche Verte}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| image             = Green March 1975.jpg
| caption           = Marches of 7 November (in green) and military action of 31 October (in red)
| conflict          = Green March
| date              = 6 November 1975
| place             = [[Spanish Sahara]]
| result            = [[Madrid Accords|Madrid Agreements]]
| territory         = Spain leaves the territory and [[Morocco]] and [[Mauritania]] partially occupy it
| combatant1        = {{flagcountry|Francoist Spain}}
| combatant2        = {{flagcountry|Morocco}}
| commander1        = {{nowrap|{{flagdeco|Francoist Spain}} [[Juan Carlos I of Spain|Prince Juan Carlos]]}}<br>{{flagdeco|Francoist Spain}} [[Carlos Arias Navarro]]
| commander2        = {{flagdeco|MAR}} [[Hassan II of Morocco|Hassan II]]<br>{{flagdeco|MAR}} [[Ahmed Osman (politician)|Ahmed Osman]]
| units1            = Units of ''[[Tropas Nómadas]]''
Light cavalry groups of the Third and Fourth Thirds of the [[Spanish Legion|Legion]]
Expeditionary battalion of the Canary Infantry Regiment 50
| units2            = [[Morocco|Moroccan civilians]]
| strength1         = 5,000 [[Spanish Legion|legionaries]]
| strength2         = 350,000 [[volunteers]] 
| casualties1       = 
| casualties2       = 
| injured1          = 
| injured2          = 
| partof            = [[Western Sahara conflict]]
}}
{{Campaignbox Spanish colonial wars in Morocco}}

The '''Green March''' was a strategic mass demonstration in November 1975, coordinated by the [[Morocco|Moroccan]] government and military, to force [[Spain]] to hand over the disputed, autonomous semi-metropolitan province of [[Spanish Sahara]] to Morocco. The Spanish government was preparing to abandon the territory as part of the [[decolonization of Africa]], just as it had granted independence to [[Equatorial Guinea]] in 1968. The native inhabitants, the [[Sahrawi people]], aspired to form an independent state. The demonstration of 350,000 Moroccans advanced several kilometers into the Western Sahara territory. Morocco later gained control of most of the former Spanish Sahara, which it continues to hold.

The Green March was condemned by the international community, notably in the [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 380]]. The march was considered an attempt to bypass the [[International Court of Justice]]'s ''[[Advisory opinion on Western Sahara]]'' that had been issued three weeks earlier.<ref name="Bereketeab 2014 p. 260-262">{{cite book | last=Bereketeab | first=R. | title=Self-Determination and Secession in Africa: The Post-Colonial State | publisher=Taylor & Francis | series=Routledge Studies in African Development | year=2014 | isbn=978-1-317-64969-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6n49BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA260 | access-date=2022-03-02 | page=260}}</ref> Morocco gained control of most of the former Spanish Sahara, which it still holds to this day. The refusal of the Sahrawi people to submit to the Moroccan monarchy gave rise to the [[Western Sahara conflict]], still unresolved today, and whose main episode was the [[Western Sahara War]].

==Background==
{{further|Greater Morocco}}
{{Sahara conflict}}
{{History of Morocco}}

Morocco, to the north of [[Spanish Sahara]], had long claimed that the territory was historically an integral part of Morocco. [[Mauritania]] to the south argued similarly that the territory was in fact Mauritanian. Since 1973, a Sahrawi [[guerrilla warfare|guerrilla war]] led by the [[Polisario Front]] (armed and financed by Algiers) had challenged Spanish control, and in October 1975 Spain had quietly begun negotiations for a handover of power with leaders of the rebel movement, both in [[El Aaiún]], and with foreign minister [[Pedro Cortina y Mauri]] meeting [[El Ouali]] in [[Algiers]].<ref>{{cite journal| first= Jacob |last= Mundy| title= Neutrality or Complicity? The United States and the 1975 Moroccan takeover of the Spanish Sahara| page= 283 |journal= Journal of North African Studies |volume= 11 |number= 3 |publisher= Routledge/Taylor & Francis Publishing| date= September 2006|doi= 10.1080/13629380600803001|s2cid= 145455013}}</ref>

Morocco intended to vindicate its claims by demanding a verdict from the [[International Court of Justice]] (ICJ), which was issued on 16 October 1975. The [[Advisory opinion on Western Sahara|ICJ stated]] that there were historical legal ties of allegiance between "some, but only some" [[:Category:Sahrawi tribes|Sahrawi tribes]] and the [[Sultan of Morocco]], as well as ties including some rights relating to the land between Mauritania and other Sahrawi tribes.<ref name= "Advisory Op. 1975">{{cite web| url= http://www.icj-cij.org/icjwww/idecisions/isummaries/isasummary751016.htm |website= icj-cij.org| publisher= International Court of Justice | title= Case Summaries : WESTERN SAHARA: Advisory Opinion |date= 16 October 1975 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20020211110516/http://www.icj-cij.org/icjwww/idecisions/isummaries/isasummary751016.htm| archive-date= 11 February 2002}}</ref> However, the ICJ stated also that there were no ties of territorial sovereignty between the territory and Morocco, or Mauritania, at the time of Spanish [[Colonisation|colonization]]; and that these contacts were not extensive enough to support either country's demand for [[annexation]] of the Spanish Sahara. Instead, the court held, the indigenous population (the Sahrawis) possessed the right of [[self-determination]]. This meant that regardless of which political solution was found to the question of sovereignty (integration with Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, partition, or independence), it had to be explicitly approved by the people of the territory. A [[United Nations visiting mission to Spanish Sahara|UN visiting mission]] had concluded on 15 October, the day before the ICJ verdict was released, that Sahrawi support for independence was "overwhelming".{{fact|date=July 2022}}

However, the reference to previous Moroccan-Sahrawi ties of allegiance was presented by Hassan II as a vindication of his position, with no public mention of the court's further ruling on self-determination. (Seven years later, he formally agreed to a referendum before the [[Organisation of African Unity]]). Within hours of the ICJ verdict's release, he announced the organizing of a "green march" to Spanish Sahara, to "[[Greater Morocco|reunite it with the Motherland]]".{{fact|date=July 2022}}

In order to prepare head off any possible counter-invasion from [[Algeria]], the [[Moroccan Army]] entered the far northeast corner of the region on 31 October, where it was met with stiff resistance from the [[Polisario]], by then a two-year-old independence movement.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://mondediplo.com/2006/01/12asahara |title= How the US and Morocco seized the Spanish Sahara| first= Jacob |last= Mundy| date= January 2006 | website= mondediplo.com}}</ref>

==The Green March==
[[File:100 dirham back.jpg|thumb|left|A 100 [[Moroccan dirham|dirham]] note from 1991 commemorating the Green March]]

The Green March was a well-publicized popular march of enormous proportions. On 6 November 1975 approximately 350,000 unarmed [[Demographics of Morocco|Moroccans]]<ref>{{cite web | url= http://www.jeuneafrique.com/jeune_afrique/article_jeune_afrique.asp?art_cle=LIN02113hassaetreve0 | title= Hassan II lance la Marche verte | website= JeuneAfrique.com | language= fr | first= Neijma | last= Hamdaoui | date= 31 October 2003 | access-date= 21 April 2015 | url-status= dead | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060103155727/https://www.jeuneafrique.com/jeune_afrique/article_jeune_afrique.asp?art_cle=LIN02113hassaetreve0 | archive-date= 3 January 2006 }}</ref> converged on the city of [[Tarfaya]] in southern Morocco and waited for a signal from [[List of rulers of Morocco|King]] [[Hassan II of Morocco|Hassan II]] to cross into the region of [[Saguia El Hamra]]. They brandished [[Flag of Morocco|Moroccan flags]] and [[Qur'an]]; banners calling for the "return of the [[Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara|Moroccan Sahara]]", photographs of the King and the [[Qur'an]]; the color [[green]] for the march's name was intended as a symbol of [[Islam]].{{citation needed|date=June 2015}} As the marchers reached the [[Morocco–Western Sahara border|border]], the [[Spanish Armed Forces]] were ordered not to fire to avoid bloodshed. The Spanish troops also cleared some previously mined zones.

==The Moroccan arguments for sovereignty==
{{Politics of Morocco}}

According to [[Morocco]], the exercise of sovereignty by the Moroccan state was characterized  by official pledges of allegiance to the sultan. The Moroccan government was of the opinion that this allegiance existed during several centuries before the Spanish [[Military occupation|occupation]] and that it was a legal and political tie.<ref>ICJ, Reports 1975, p. 83. For more details, Cf. pp. 83-102. Cf. also individual opinion of Judge M. Forster. Idem p. 103 and Annex no. 7.</ref> The sultan [[Hassan I]], for example, had carried out two expeditions in 1886 in order to put an end to foreign incursions in this territory and to officially invest several [[Alcalde|caid]]s and [[Qadi|cadi]]s. In its presentation to the ICJ, the Moroccan side also mentioned the levy of [[tax]]es as a further instance of the exercise of sovereignty.<ref>ICJ, Western Sahara Pleadings, Arguments, Documents, Volume 111, Written Statements and Documents, pp. 205 to 497.</ref> The exercise of this sovereignty had also appeared, according to the Moroccan government, at other levels, such as the appointment of local officials (governors and military officers), and the definition of the missions which were assigned to them.<ref>* Nomination Dahirs, dating back to the reign of Moulay Abdelaziz Bel Hassan, (Two Dahirs in 1886 and two in 1899), of Abdelhafid Bel Hassan (1907 and 1909), and Dahirs of El Hassan Ben Mohammed (1877 and 1886) of Abdelaziz Ben El H~Hassan (1901)</ref>

The Moroccan government further pointed to several treaties between it and other states, such as with Spain in 1861, the United States of America in 1786, and 1836 and with the United Kingdom in 1856 <ref>The treaties are the following: 
* Trading Treaty between Morocco and Spain in Madrid on 20 November 1861
* [[Moroccan–American Treaty of Friendship|Treaty of Friendship]] with the USA on 23 to 28 June 1786. 
* Treaty of peace and friendship between the USA and Morocco, signed in Meknes on 16 September 1856
* [[Anglo-Moroccan Accords]], 9 December 1856.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.mincom.gov.ma/english/reg_cit/regions/sahara/s_hist.htm |title= Historical Foundations of the Moroccanity of the Sahara| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070210082420/http://www.mincom.gov.ma/english/reg_cit/regions/sahara/s_hist.htm| archive-date= 10 February 2007 | access-date= 21 April 2015 | website= Mincom.gov.ma | publisher= Ministry of Communication, Morocco}}</ref>

[[International Court of Justice|The International Court of Justice]] found that "neither the internal nor the international acts relied upon by Morocco indicate the existence at the relevant period of either the existence or the international recognition of legal ties of territorial sovereignty between Western Sahara and the Moroccan State. Even taking account of the specific structure of that State, they do not show that Morocco displayed any effective and exclusive State activity in Western Sahara. They do, however, provide indications that a legal tie of allegiance existed at the relevant period between the Sultan and some, but only some, of the nomadic peoples of the territory, through Tekna caids of the Noun region, and they show that the Sultan displayed, and was recognized by other States to possess, some authority or influence with respect to those tribes. "<ref name= "Advisory Op. 1975" />

==The Madrid Accords==
{{refimprove|section|date=November 2020}}
{{Main|Madrid Accords}}

The Green March caught Spain in a moment of political crisis. The ''[[caudillo]]'' General [[Francisco Franco]], who had led the country for 36 years, was dying. Despite the overwhelming military and logistic superiority of the Spanish armed forces based in Western Sahara in relation to the Moroccan armed forces, the Spanish government feared that the conflict with Morocco could lead to an open colonial war in Africa, which could put [[Francoist Spain]] into question and lead to an abrupt political change or a social instability and disaster. The Spanish government, directed by Prince [[Juan Carlos I|Juan Carlos]], who was acting Head of State in substitution of General Franco, and the incumbent Prime Minister Don Carlos [[Arias Navarro]], were in no mood for troubles in the colony. Only the year before, the [[Portugal|Portuguese]] [[Estado Novo (Portugal)|government]] had been [[Carnation Revolution|toppled by the Portuguese armed forces]] after becoming bogged down in colonial wars in [[Angola]] and [[Mozambique]]. Therefore, following the Green March, and with a view to avoid war and preserving as much as possible of its interest in the territory, Spain agreed to enter direct bilateral negotiations with Morocco, bringing in also Mauritania, who had made similar demands. Under pressure from Morocco, Spain also agreed that no representatives of the native population would be present in the negotiations that resulted in 14 November [[Madrid Accords]]. This was a treaty which divided Spanish Sahara between Mauritania and Morocco.<ref>Trilateral Agreement concluded exclusively between the Spanish, Moroccan and Mauritanian Governments, the text of which has been transmitted to the Secretary General of the UN on 18 November 1975. (Resolution 3458 (XXX) B. 10/12/1975).</ref> In the agreements Spain agreed to cede the possession of the colony to Morocco and Mauritania, under the condition, expressed in point 3 of the Trilateral Agreement, that the views of the Saharan population had to be respected.

Spain received a 35% concession in the [[phosphate]] mines of [[Bou Craa]] and offshore fishing rights<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.arso.org/CLAIHR.htm |website= arso.org | author= Canadian Lawyers Association for International Human Rights | year= 1997| title= Western Sahara Initiative| publisher= Support Association to a free and fair referendum in Western Sahara| access-date= 21 April 2015}}</ref> that were not respected by Morocco. Morocco and Mauritania then formally annexed the parts they had been allotted in the Accords. Morocco claimed the northern part, i.e. [[Saguia el-Hamra]] and approximately half of [[Río de Oro]], while Mauritania proceeded to occupy the southern third of the country under the name [[Tiris al-Gharbiyya]]. Mauritania later abandoned all claims to its portion in August 1979 and ceded this area to the Popular Army of Sahrawi Liberation (Polisario), but it was instead promptly occupied by Morocco. Nevertheless, Mauritania preserved for itself a small outpost at [[La Güera]] to preserve the security of its major port of [[Nouadhibou]].

The Polisario, now with heavy [[Algeria]]n backing, refused the Madrid Accords, and demanded that the ICJ's opinion on Sahrawi [[self-determination]] be respected. The consequence was that a conflict raged between the Polisario and the Moroccan government. The conflict has still not been resolved. Currently, there is a [[cease-fire]] in effect, after a Moroccan-Polisario [[Settlement Plan|agreement]] was struck in 1991 to solve the dispute through the organization of a [[referendum]] on independence. A UN peace-keeping mission ([[United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara|MINURSO]]) has been charged with overseeing the cease-fire and organizing the referendum, which has still not taken place {{As of|2019|lc=on}}. Morocco has rejected the idea of the referendum as unworkable in 2000 and has suggested a plan of [[autonomy for Western Sahara]] within Morocco. That proposal has been rejected by the Polisario, and also by its Algerian backers; it was presented to the UN in April 2007.

Spain is divided between its desire to preserve a good relation with Morocco, its southern neighbor with whom it shares terrestrial [[Morocco–Spain border|borders]] in [[Ceuta]] and [[Melilla]], and its responsibility to the international legality as the former colonial power. The traditional position of all the Spanish democratic governments until the election of Prime Minister [[José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero|Zapatero]] had been that the wishes of the Western Saharan population have to be respected, and of support to the organization of the referendum requested by the United Nations. According to the US Department of State's documents leaked by Wikileaks, Spain, under Zapatero, has changed its traditional position concerning the organisation of the referendum for the Western Sahara, and now supports the Moroccan position. The documents also stated that Spain had been trying to broker an agreement between the two parties. However, in her speech to the Spanish Parliament of 15 December 2010, the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs [[Trinidad Jiménez]] denied that Spain supports the Moroccan position in Spanish Sahara. She also argued that Spain will support any agreement between the Polisario and Morocco. In 2022, Prime Minister [[Pedro Sánchez]] announced that Spain would back Morocco's autonomy plan during a visit to Rabat.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-04-07 |title=Spain’s Sanchez visits Morocco, marking ‘new phase’ after Western Sahara reversal |url=https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20220407-spain-s-sanchez-on-historic-morocco-visit-after-western-sahara-reversal |access-date=2022-11-11 |website=[[France 24]]}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[History of Western Sahara]]
* [[List of Spanish colonial wars in Morocco]]
* [[Moroccan settlers]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

{{Authority control}}
[[Category:1975 in Morocco]]
[[Category:1975 in Spanish Sahara]]
[[Category:1975 protests]]
[[Category:November 1975 in Africa]]
[[Category:Western Sahara conflict]]
[[Category:Protest marches]]
[[Category:Morocco–Spain relations]]
[[Category:Settlement schemes in Africa]]
[[Category:Politically motivated migrations]]
[[Category:African resistance to colonialism]]
[[Category:Moroccan irredentism]]