Sand War

More Information: Wars of the 20th Century Series on Amazon

Sand War

The Sand War was a border conflict between Algeria and Morocco in October 1963. It resulted largely from the Moroccan government's claim to portions of Algeria's Tindouf and Bechar provinces.

Timeline

1830 - France captures Algiers, ending Ottoman rule
19th century and 20th centuries - French occupation gradually expands south, east, and west, adding more territory into what would ultimately form the colony of French Algeria
1845 – French Algeria and Morocco agree to a partial demarcation of their border; no demarcation is continued further south into the barren, thinly populated Sahara Desert
1912 - Morocco becomes a protectorate of France and Spain; France then carries out a number of demarcations of French Algeria in the west, including establishing control in the Bechar and Tindouf regions, which would become the flashpoint in the future border dispute of independent Morocco and Algeria
1952 - Colomb-Bechar and Tindouf are integrated into French Algeria
1956 - Morocco regains its independence after successfully negotiating with France and Spain to end their protectorates
1962 - Algeria gains its independence following a bloody, bitter seven-year revolution against France
1963 - Morocco offers to open border negotiations with independent Algeria with the notion to acquiring regions that had historically recognized the authority of the ancient Moroccan Sultanate but had become part of French Algeria; Algeria refuses to negotiate the border, stating that independent Algeria, as successor state of French Algeria, legally inherited and owned all territories of the former colony; Morocco prepares for war to reclaim historical Moroccan lands
Summer of 1963 - Tensions rise as both sides trade criticisms and propaganda attacks – Morocco accuses Algeria of committing acts of aggression, airspace and territorial violations, and expelling Moroccan nationals, while Algeria accuses the Moroccan monarch of inciting war and denying Algerians their hard-won freedom
July 1962 - Moroccan forces enter Algerian Colomb-Bechar and declare it a part of Moroccan territory before withdrawing back to Morocco
Summer of 1963 - After weeks of border skirmishes, on September 25, 1963, major fighting breaks out around the towns of Tindouf and Figuig
Early October 1963 - Moroccan auxiliary forces cross from Tagounit and seize Algerian Hassi-Beida and Tinjoub, two strategic towns along the road between Colomb-Bechar and Tindouf
October 8, 1963 - Algerians recapture Hassi-Beida and Tinjoub; on October 14, Moroccan Army forces attack again and seize back control of the towns; in response, the Algerians capture Ich; by then, forces from Egypt and Cuba are detected in Algeria
Early November 1963 - The war settles into a stalemate
October 30, 1963 – Under pressure from the African Union and Organization of African Unity (OAU), Morocco and Algeria agree to a ceasefire and establishment of a demilitarized zone; both sides withdraw their forces from captured territories to pre-war positions
January 1964 - Morocco and Algeria re-establish diplomatic ties
February 1964 - under OAU mediation, Morocco and Algeria sign a peace treaty that reaffirms existing borders and restores the status quo, in exchange for Morocco and Algeria sharing the wealth of a jointly established iron-ore industry in the Tindouf region
1969 - Morocco and Algeria sign the Treaty of Solidarity and Cooperation which leads to another agreement in 1970 aimed at establishing a definitive border
June 1972 – Morocco and Algeria sign the Accord of Ifrane, which delineates the whole 1,700 kilometers of border between the two countries; in the years following the war, hostility and distrust persist, negative affecting Morocco-Algeria relations that nearly leads to another war in 1975

[dovicdc]

The story is true and the events are almost accurate, but why was the map of Morocco divided and the western Sahara is extracted?

[juno]

Refusing the French offer was a huge own goal by the Moroccan sultanate.

[-Gargantua]

lol morrocan government should reclaim the land spain occupied before facing the men whom died qnd fought for independence of algeria

[Msiam-vwbk]

Algeria 🇩🇿& Morocco 🇲🇦 are both Muslim countries. Therefore the conflict seems after their independence.

[henryfondle]

can you cover the Ifni War and the Western Sahara War?

[chiper]

Hassan’s biggest mistake: In 1956, when the Algerian War was ongoing and independent Morocco was aligned with France and the West, France offered Bechar and Tindouf to Morocco in exchange for Hassan ending support for Algerian guerillas, who were operating out of Morocco. Of course, France was playing both sides in order realize some gain from the extraction of natural resources in the Tindouf region.😀 France was lol 😁