COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE DECOLONISATION OF THE SPANISH PROTECTORATE IN MOROCCO AND THE FRUSTRATED ATTEMPT IN WESTERN SAHARA (1945-1976): CULTURAL CLASH, INHABITANTS AND ADMINISTRATION

Since the end of the Second World War, the end of colonialism seemed to be near. At that moment, Spain controlled two of these colonies in the region of Maghreb: part of Morocco through a Protectorate and Western Sahara. However, while the former was decolonised in 1956, before the big wave of decolonisation in Africa, the latter is still in the UN’s list of non-self-governing territories. This research gives an answer to this exceptional situation and gives insights to an international conflict that is still unsolved. For understanding this, an analysis of the process of “othering” and orientalisation of the indigenous population is done. The objective of this is having a first approach to the Spanish colonialism, the ideas that motivated it like the concept of Africanismo and the evolution that this term had during the Spanish Civil War. These events had an important impact in the later decolonisation. In this process, the study of the granting of citizenship is specially addressed, given that there were remarkable differences in one territory and in the other. The legal framework that supported the colonisation had an enormous impact on the management of these territories. Thus, later in this research, the colonial administration of the colony is studied. The differences and resemblances that ruling over a colony and over a protectorate are taken into account, besides the relations between indigenous and colonial institutions. After this, the evolution of the national identities in both territories since the Second World War is studied. The origins of the national ambitions and the reaction of the colonial power to them are addressed. This part of the research covers from the rise of the modern Moroccan nationalism leaded by Abdelkhalak Torres among others to the opinions of the Visiting Mission of 1975 to Western Sahara and the Green March. Moreover, important historical events that shaped the future of the region like the Ifni-Sahara War, the evolution of the national identity in Morocco with Allal el Fassi’s ideas of building a “Great Morocco” or the disappearance of Bassiri after the revolt in Zemla in 1970 are addressed. Finally, the legacy of the colonialism is tackled by approaching it from the perspective of both, colonisers and colonised people. This perspective allows seeing what a successful decolonisation can leave behind when compared to a failed one. Memories of the Maghrebi peoples and of the former settlers are gathered for understanding better the situation that the end of the Spanish colonisation left behind.