In 1975, Spain sought desperately to either hold onto the Western Saharan colony it had seized decades before or at least transform it into a proxy state by putting hand-picked leaders in charge, no matter that they had no local legitimacy.
King Hassan II checkmated Madrid’s ambitions. On November 6, 1975, approximately 350,000 unarmed Moroccans simply marched into the Sahara. They waved Moroccan flags and carried the Qur’an. Spanish forces stood down. Just over a week later, Spain signed the Madrid Accords in which Spain, Morocco, and Mauritania agreed to respect the views of local population. Spain agreed to withdraw from the territory by the end of the following February.
On November 6, 1975, approximately 350,000 unarmed Moroccans simply marched into the Sahara.
Hassan II had history on his side. The region was Moroccan for more than a millennium before Spain’s imperial arrival. Moroccans have many internal debates, but sovereignty over territories that European colonists seized is not one. Previously, Morocco’s 100 dirham note commemorated the Green March.
King Mohammad VI built upon the Green March legacy with his stewardship of the Sahara. On a per-capita basis, the Sahara receives more state investment in schools and other infrastructure than other regions in Morocco. Both Dakhla and Laayoune are models for sustainable urban development. Sahrawi imprisoned by the Polisario Front, a Cold War relic that Algeria still nurtures, flee Tindouf at every opportunity, to the point that the Polisario holds family members hostage to prevent flight to Morocco.
With Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez embracing the language of decolonization, Mohammed VI should reclaim the spirit of the Green March to finalize the expulsion of Spanish colonists from Moroccan soil. Ceuta and Melilla might be relatively tiny towns, but they represent illegitimate beach heads and are home to approximately 170,000 Spanish settlers. They are a weak spot for European security since African migrants regularly rush the fence to claim asylum.
Moroccans should gather, send bulldozers to the border, and then enter Ceuta and Melilla unarmed to raise the flag. Sánchez and the Spanish press bleat, but they have no grounds to act. Nor, for that matter, would NATO, even if Moroccan forces entered the towns to restore order and organize the dispatch of settlers across the Strait of Gibraltar and back to Spain.
Neither Ceuta, Melilla, nor the Canary Islands would trigger a NATO response.
NATO is a mutual defense alliance based on membership and geography. Article 5 of its foundational treaty states, “The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all… .” Article 6 is explicit: “For the purpose of Article 5, an armed attack on one or more of the Parties is deemed to include an armed attack on the territory of any of the Parties in Europe or North America… or on the Islands under the jurisdiction of any of the Parties in the North Atlantic area north of the Tropic of Cancer.” Neither Ceuta, Melilla, nor the Canary Islands would trigger a NATO response, just as NATO would not need respond to an attack on Hawaii or Puerto Rico.
Sánchez should do the right thing: make good on his anti-colonial rhetoric, and end Spain’s occupation in Africa. Meanwhile, authorities in Cádiz should begin preparations to receive displaced Spanish settlers, whether Madrid acquiesces or not.
