SPANISH SAHARA

SPANISH SAHARA / SAHARA ESPAÑOL (now Western Sahara, occupied by Morocco).

Pro-Children.
Dunes in the Sahara Desert.
First stamp in a set of 2, issued on 01.06.1973.
Face value: 2 Spanish pesetas.
Printed by F.N.M.T. (Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre), Madrid.
Printing: Photogravure.
Print: 800,000 copies.
Size: 40.9 x 28.8 mm.

Catalogs
- Edifil No. 310.
- Michel No. 341.
- Scott No. 226.
- StampWorld No. 334.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 307.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 295.

The territory of Western Sahara was gradually colonized by Spain since 1860. The first area occupied was the Río de Oro (ادي الذهب), to the south, where in 1884 the city of Villa Cisneros (now Dakhla [الداخلة]) was founded, to which later La Güera (الكويرة‎) and Tiris (part of the Adrar territory, ولاية آدرار, which currently belongs to Mauritania) were annexed. In 1912 the annexation of Saguía el Hamra (الساقية الحمراء) region was agreed with France, where in 1938 the city of El Aaiún (العيون) was founded, which would later become the capital of the entire colony of the Spanish Sahara (الصحراء الإسبانية), relegating Villa Cisneros. The total area of ​​the colony, mostly desert, was about 280,000 km². Its definitive limits were established in the Cintra agreements (April 2, 1958).

In 1968, the Advanced Organization for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Río de Oro, known simply as the Liberation Movement, was founded in the city of Smara (السمارة), which was formally constituted on December 11, 1969 with the aim of achieving the independence from Western Sahara and was outlawed by the Spanish authorities. Later, on May 10, 1973, the Polisario Front (جبهة البوليساريو) was born in Zouérate (الزويرات, Mauritania), ready to fight for independence. Morocco and Mauritania had ambitions to seize the colony, and finally on November 6, 1975 King Hassan II of Morocco organized the so-called Green March, which crossed the internationally recognized border of the Spanish Sahara (which by then had already become a semi-metropolitan province of Spain) to the north. On February 26, 1976, Spain abandoned the territory, after which the Polisario Front proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and launched a war of liberation of the territory, which would finally be annexed to Morocco despite the reluctance of the international community and the United Nations.