Spanish Morocco

French and Spanish protectorates on Morocco from 1912 until 1956

Spanish Morocco was a Spanish protectorate in the north of the Sultanate of Morocco, established on 27 November 1912 by a treaty between France and Spain that converted the Spanish 'sphere of influence' in Morocco into a formal protectorate. In 1937 it was about 13,000 square miles in area, with a population of 800,000. It was governed by a High Commissioner representing the Spanish Government, with the envoy of the Sultan of Morocco being a Khalifa. The capital was Tetuan (pop. c.50,000).

The people are Mohammedan Berbers or Moors, speaking Arabic or Berber dialects. Agriculture was primitive and iron is mined; there was about 80 miles of railway, and over 500 miles of passable roads (in 1937). Shipping trade was mainly through Ceuta. Francisco Franco spent many years in Morocco, mainly in the Spanish protectorate in the northern part of Morocco.

It became part of independent Morocco on 7 April 1956 shortly after France relinquished its protectorate over the rest of Morocco, with the exception of the cities and their hinterlands of Ceuta, and Mellila, on the Mediterranean coast, both remaining autonomous cities of Spain. Both are subject to an irredentist claim by Morocco.

Sources

• Encyclopaedia Britannica Book of the Year 1938, London, 1938, p.604.

External links

• Ali Al Tuma: Franco’s Moroccans, Cambridge 2020