A popular mobilization called by the late Moroccan King Hassan II in order to pressure Spain to leave the Western Sahara region it had occupied. 350 thousand people of all categories participated in the Green March, which commemorates a national holiday in Morocco every year. The Sahrawis calling for secession and Algeria described it as a hostile act to perpetuate Morocco's "occupation" of Western Sahara.
The reasons
were Morocco’s demands towards Western Sahara in light of the Spanish colonialism that controlled the regions of the north and south of the country, and the Kingdom referred the case to the International Court of Justice, which recognized the existence of historical and legal ties that testify to the loyalty of a number of Saharan tribes to the Sultan of Morocco, but in return it recognized that there are no Links that indicate sovereignty between the territory and Morocco or Mauritania at the time of Spanish colonialism, and that the aforementioned links are in no way sufficient to demand any of the two countries (Morocco and Mauritania) to annex the Spanish Sahara to its territory.
Hassan II was feeling that the Spanish presence in the Sahara was living its last days, so the idea of the Green March came to strengthen Morocco's negotiating position towards Spain.
Regulation
on the
fifth of November 1975, Hassan II drew a
speech to the
volunteers for the
march ,
saying :
"Tomorrow, God willing Snchterq border, tomorrow, God willing ,
will kick off the
Green March, tomorrow, God willing Sttaon part of your territory and Stelmuson sand from Rmalkm and will accept Sree dear your homeland ".
The King succeeded in covering the arrangements for the march, organizationally and logistically, in secrecy over a period of several months before zero hour, and its knowledge was limited to some prominent military leaders.
The march was organized in crowds at the level of each governorate with its volunteers, leaders and cadres, and about 44,000 different cadres and 470 doctors were mobilized to accompany and care for the volunteers who gathered in the city of Tarfaya, waiting for the start signal.
Results
The Green March succeeded through the de facto imposed on November 6, 1975, after bypassing the barbed wire that had defined the Spanish sphere of influence, in intensifying pressure on Spain, which was not ready to enter into a confrontation with Morocco.
On the ninth of November 1975, Hassan II asked the participants to return to start negotiations, which resulted on the 14th of the same month in the signing of the Madrid Agreement, according to which Spain relinquished the Sahara region to be divided between Morocco and Mauritania.
Before that, the Security Council had issued a resolution calling on the parties to cooperate with the Secretary-General of the United Nations to reach a political solution to the crisis. However, the agreement was rejected by Algeria and the Polisario Front, which later intensified its military operations against the Moroccan army, demanding the recognition of the right to self-determination for the Sahrawi people.
At the internal level, the monarchy has strengthened its legitimacy through national mobilization on the issue of the Sahara, and built a near-consensus on the Moroccan approach to the issue, including among the opposition parties.
In the book “Memoirs of a King,” Hassan II answered the French journalist Eric Laurent’s question about the king’s position in the event the march failed. His answer was, “If the march had failed, I would have resigned. A weapon other than the Book of God in one hand and the Moroccan flag in the other, the world would have described my work as an adventure.”