View source for Mauritania–Western Sahara border

{{Short description|International border}}
[[File:Mauritania-Western_Sahara_border_map.png|thumb|right|Map of the Mauritania-Western Sahara border]]
The '''Mauritania–Western Sahara border''' is {{convert|1,564|km}} in length and runs from the [[tripoint]] with [[Algeria]] in the north-east to the [[Atlantic Ocean]] in the south-west.<ref>{{citation |url= https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/wi.html|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070612210735/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/wi.html|url-status= dead|archive-date= 12 June 2007|title=CIA World Factbook – Western Sahara |access-date=23 January 2020}}</ref>
==Description==
The border starts in the north at the tripoint with Algeria, proceeding south in a straight of {{convert|146|km}}, then turning west following the [[26th parallel north]] for {{convert|334|km}}, then turning south along the [[12th meridian west]] for {{convert|176|km}}.<ref name="Brownlie, I. ">{{Cite book|title=African Boundaries: A Legal and Diplomatic Encyclopedia|last=Brownlie|first=Ian|author-link=Ian Brownlie|publisher=Institute for International Affairs, Hurst and Co.|year=1979|pages= 437–44}}</ref> The border then turns to the south-west via a broad arc down to 21°20'N, following this parallel westwards for {{convert|408|km}}. Just south of [[Guerguerat]] the border turns south, bisecting the [[Ras Nouadhibou]] peninsula and terminating at its tip on the Atlantic Coast.<ref name="Brownlie, I. "/>
==History==
The border emerged during the '[[Scramble for Africa]]', a period of intense competition between European powers in the later 19th century for territory and influence in Africa. The process culminated in the [[Berlin Conference]] of 1884, in which the European nations concerned agreed upon their respective territorial claims and the rules of engagements going forward.<ref name="Brownlie, I."/> As a result of this process, [[Spain]] announced its intention to declare a protectorate over the north-west African coast between [[Cape Bojador]] and [[Ras Nouadhibou]] (Cape Blanco/Cap Blanc), which was formally created as the [[Río de Oro|Rio de Oro]] colony the following year.<ref name="IBS149">{{citation |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ZBLfBfpOHcQC&q=international+boundary+study+149+mauritania&pg=RA15-PP7 | title=International Boundary Study No. 149 – Mauritania-Western Sahara Boundary|date=8 January 1975|access-date=25 January 2020}}</ref> [[France]] had been granted control over much of West Africa, including what is now Mauritania, with their territories later federalized as [[French West Africa]].<ref name="IBS149"/>
[[File:Marrocoprotectorate.png|thumb|right|Former Spanish territories in north-west Africa.]]
On 27 June 1900 France and Spain signed a treaty which created a border between Rio de Oro and [[French West Africa]] starting at Ras Nouadhibou and terminating at the junction of the [[12th meridian west]] and the [[26th parallel north]] (i.e. the bulk of the modern Mauritania–Western Sahara border).<ref name="IBS149"/><ref name="Brownlie, I."/> This boundary was then extended by a treaty of 3 October 1904 north up to what is now the tripoint with Algeria and then west along the parallel of 27°40'N, this latter line forming the modern [[Morocco–Western Sahara border]]; the new Spanish territory thus formed was named [[Saguia el-Hamra]].<ref name="IBS149"/><ref name="Brownlie, I."/> Another Franco-Spanish treaty was signed on 27 November 1912 which created a French protectorate over most of Morocco, whilst ceding parts of the country to Spain viz, the Mediterranean littoral (the 'Northern Zone', or more commonly [[Spanish protectorate in Morocco|Spanish Morocco]]), the exclave of [[Ifni]] and the [[Cape Juby]]/Tarfaya Strip (aka the 'Southern Zone'), the latter forming what is now the far south of Morocco proper, between the [[Draa River]] and the Saguia el-Hamra border at 27°40'N agreed upon in 1904.<ref name="IBS149"/><ref name="Brownlie, I."/> The entire French West Africa-Saguia el Hamara/Rio de Oro boundary was confirmed by treaty on 19 December 1956, with France and Spain then demarcating it on the ground in 1957 with several pillars.<ref name="IBS149"/>
From 1946 to 1958 Spanish Morocco, the Tarfaya Strip, Ifni, Rio de Oro and Saguia el Hamra were united as [[Spanish West Africa]]. Morocco gained independence from France in 1956, including Spanish Morocco (minus the [[plazas de soberanía]] which remain part of Spain today). The newly independent state, inspired by the idea of creating a '[[Greater Morocco]]', claimed all of Spanish West Africa as Moroccan land.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Campos-Serrano|first1=Alicia|last2=Rodríguez-Esteban|first2=José Antonio|date=January 2017|title=Imagined territories and histories in conflict during the struggles for Western Sahara, 1956–1979|journal=Journal of Historical Geography|volume=55|page=47|doi=10.1016/j.jhg.2016.11.009|hdl=10486/686245|hdl-access=free}}</ref> In 1958 Spain merged Rio de Oro and Saguia el-Hamara in 1958 as [[Spanish Sahara]];<ref name="Brownlie, I."/> that same year Spain ceded the Tarfaya Strip to Morocco (via the [[Treaty of Angra de Cintra]]).<ref name="IBS149"/><ref name="Brownlie, I."/><ref>Robert Rézette, ''The Western Sahara and the Frontiers of Morocco'' (Nouvelles Éditions Latines, 1975), p. 101.</ref> Ifni was ceded in 1969 (following a failed Moroccan attempt to capture the region [[Ifni War|by force]] in 1957).<ref name="Brownlie, I."/><ref name=Villanova>José Luis Villanova, "La organización política del territorio de Ifni duranta la dominación colonial española (1934–1969)", ''Anales: Revista de Estudios Ibéricos e Iberoamericanos'' [https://www.academia.edu/36103153/Anales._Revista_de_Estudios_Ib%C3%A9ricos_e_Iberoamericanos_n_3 '''3'''] (2007): 49–82, esp. 62–72.</ref> Morocco then turned its sights to Spanish Sahara, however Mauritania (independent since 1960) also contested the territory, claiming the former colony of Rio de Oro as part of '[[Greater Mauritania]]'.<ref name="Brownlie, I."/> A [[Mauritania Railway|railway]] was built in 1960-63 which paralleled the southern half of the boundary, including an expensive tunnel through an escapement north-west of [[Choum]] constructed so as to order to avoid the right-angle of the south-eastern Spanish Sahara. Saharawi nationalists had meanwhile formed the [[Polisario Front|Polisario]], seeking independence for the whole of Spanish Sahara as Western Sahara, and began a low-level guerrilla campaign. An [[International Court of Justice]] [[Advisory opinion on Western Sahara|ruling]] on the matter in October 1975 stated that neither the Moroccan nor Mauritanian claims to Western Sahara were strong enough to justify annexation, and that the Saharawi people should be allowed to determine their own future.<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><ref name="Brownlie, I."/> Morocco thereafter sought to settle the matter militarily, and in November 1975 conducted the '[[Green March]]', in which thousands of soldiers and Moroccan nationalists forcibly crossed the Morocco-Spanish Sahara border. Spain's dictator [[Francisco Franco]] was at this time near-death, and the country was unwilling to respond militarily at such a delicate time, keen to avoid the kind of drawn-out colonial war similar to the [[Portuguese Colonial War]]. Spain therefore signed [[Madrid Accords|a treaty]] with Morocco and Mauritania, splitting Spanish Sahara roughly in two, roughly two-thirds in Morocco's favor.<ref name="Brownlie, I."/> By this treaty only the northern third of the traditional Mauritania–Western Sahara border remained extant. Polisario forces declared a [[Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic]] based on the boundaries of Spanish Sahara, thus starting a long [[Western Sahara War|war]] against Morocco and Mauritania. Unwilling to continue the conflict, Mauritania pulled out of [[Tiris al-Gharbiyya|their zone]] in 1979, which was then annexed by Morocco, thereby reinstating the former Mauritania-Western Sahara frontier.
[[File:Map Mauritania Railway.png|thumb|right|Map of the Mauritania Railway and the Choum tunnel]]
In the 1980s, in an effort to control the territory and stymie the Polisario, Morocco began building a number of elaborate walls (or 'berms'), eventually completing the [[Moroccan Western Sahara Wall]] in 1987.<ref name="MinursoTimeline2">''[http://www.minurso.unlb.org/milestones02.htm Milestones of the conflict] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070221012627/http://www.minurso.unlb.org/milestones02.htm |date=21 February 2007 }}'', page  2. Website of the [[United Nations]] [[United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara|MINURSO]] mission.</ref> In the south the wall parallels the southern straight line section of the border out to the sea, effectively abandoning the Western Saharan half of the Ras Nouadhibou peninsula; at present Mauritania retains a military presence in the area.<ref>{{in lang|fr}} Abdallah Ben Ali, ''[http://www.maroc-hebdo.press.ma/Site-Maroc-hebdo/archive/Archives_534/pdf_534/mhi_534.pdf Guéguerre à Lagouira]{{Dead link|date=August 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}'', Maroc Hebdo International, issue 534, 22–28 November 2002</ref><ref name="TQ">{{in lang|fr}} Redouane Ramdani, ''[http://www.telquel-online.com/archives/248/couverture_248_1.shtml Enquête: Aux frontières du réel] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212193106/http://www.telquel-online.com/archives/248/couverture_248_1.shtml |date=2013-12-12 }}'', TelQuel, issue 248, 18–24 November 2004</ref> Morocco and Polisario signed a [[Settlement Plan|ceasefire agreement]] in 1991 ending the war; Morocco retained control of [[Southern Provinces|areas west]] of the wall (roughly 80% of Western Sahara), with Polisario controlling those [[Free Zone (region)|east]], which includes the entirety of the Mauritania-Western Sahara boundary. At present the dispute remains unresolved.
==Settlements near the border==
===Mauritania===
* [[Fderîck]]
* [[Choum]]
* [[Nouadhibou]]
===Western Sahara===
* [[Tifariti]]
* [[Guerguerat]]
* [[La Güera]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Borders of Mauritania}}
{{Borders of Western Sahara}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mauritania-Western Sahara border}}
[[Category:Mauritania–Western Sahara border| ]]
[[Category:Borders of Mauritania]]
[[Category:Borders of Western Sahara]]
[[Category:International borders]]