Greater Morocco

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Greater Morocco should primarily include Mauritania and Western Sahara (SO), but also areas of Mali and Algeria

As a major Morocco (Arabic المغرب الكبير, actually Great Maghreb , French Grand Maroc ), a mainly by the Moroccan Istiqlal designated company included -party 1956-1963 political concept. With recourse to the pre-colonial expansion of Morocco at the time of the Almoravids and Saadites , claims were made primarily on Mauritania and the Western Sahara , but also on neighboring areas of Algeria ( Twat oases ) and Mali . At that time, these areas were under French or Spanish colonial rule and, in accordance with Moroccan demands, should not be released into independence as part of the decolonization of Africa , but rather "returned" to Morocco.

  • The Mauritanian Horma Ould Babana supported the concept

  • Istiqlal party leader Allal al-Fassi was the most ardent advocate of the concept

  • King Hassan II also initially aspired to a Greater Morocco

French President de Gaulle was not interested in handing Mauritania over to Morocco. Morocco's claims were instead supported by the Arab League. When France granted Mauritania independence in the “ African Year ” (1960), the Arab states voted against Mauritania's admission to the UN in November 1960. In January 1961, the African states of the Casablanca Group also initially supported the claims of the Moroccan King Mohammed V and his successor Hassan II on Mauritania (but not his claims on Algeria). The Istiqlal party had now split. Hassan II could neither prevent Mauritania from becoming a member of the UN in October 1961 with the help of the African Brazzaville Group , nor from Algeria becoming independent in November 1962. In the border war with Algeria in October 1963, Morocco not only failed to acquire the Tindūf oases and the city of Bechar-Colomb near the border , but also lost the support of the Arab states. King Hassan II dismissed the Istiqlal ministers from the government in 1963, which meant that the Greater Morocco concept had finally failed, even though he only recognized Mauritania's independence in 1969 and at least had Western Sahara occupied in 1975/76.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Johannes Berger, Friedemann Büttner, Bertold Spuler: Middle East PLOETZ - History of the Arab-Islamic World to Look Up, p. 211f. Publishing house Ploetz Freiburg / Würzburg 1987
  2. ↑ a b c Lothar Rathmann : History of the Arabs - From the beginnings to the present , Volume 7 (The struggle for the development path in the Arab world), pages 420f and 431. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1983
  3. ↑ a b Lothar Rathmann : History of the Arabs - From the Beginnings to the Present , Volume 7 (The Struggle for Development in the Arab World), page 454f. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1983
  4. ^ Robin Leonard Bidwell : Dictionary of Modern Arab History , page 110 ("Casablanca Bloc"). Routledge, New York 1998