Western Sahara

Western Sahara is a territory in North Africa bordering Morocco to the north, Algeria to the east, Mauritania to the east and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. It has been the site of an ongoing military and political dispute between Morocco and the Polisario Front, the latter a Sahrawi nationalist group founded to fight Spanish colonialism in the territory in 1973.

The territory was initially colonized through treaties between France and Spain from 1888 through 1912, the latter emerging as the administrative power between French Algeria and Mauritania and the Spanish protectorate in southern Morocco. The region was administered as a colony until 1958, when the French and Spanish repelled rebellions by Moroccans and Sahrawi nationalists. At that point, it was made a Spanish province, with two token members of parliament.