The Last Colony

                       This article is a continuation of my two major themes. Statehood and Modern colonialism. Turns out Western Sahara has major elements of both. The statehood question ill analyze later but the Colonialist issue is easy to tackle. The territory of Western Sahara was actually part of the major European colonial power grab in Africa. Late to the table Spain took over the area of Western Sahara around 1884. This colonialist occupation was slow and very hands off. The Spanish stayed mainly on the coastal areas and didn’t have many Spaniards in country. This hand off colonialism continue until the post-world war two de-colonialist effort.

                   During the liberation of Africa the Spanish had planned to release Western Sahara but forces in morocco and Mauritania invaded the territory and attempted to occupy it. The Polisario front represented the native Sahrawi move for independence and they eventually defeated Mauritania. The Moroccans replaced the Spanish as controllers of the territory. They had marched an army into the territory and claimed that they were reuniting old Morocco. The United Nations and other international organizations called for liberation of the Sahrawi people. Algeria took up the Sahrawi cause and supported the independence movement. The area of Western Sahara is still under the control of the Moroccans and is one of the few colonies still intact and under the control of another country. Western Sahara is the last holdout of colonialism in the modern world.