Spanish Sahara

Also known as Sáhara Español

former Spanish North African colonial possession

Key facts

1970: ≈ 15,600 Europeans
1974: ≈ 66,925 Sahrawis
Status: Colony (1884–1958), Province (1958–1976)
Capital: Villa Cisneros (1884–1940), El Aaiún (1940–1976)
Official languages: Spanish
Common languages: Hassaniya Arabic
1884 1902 first: Emilio Bonelli
1974 1976 last: F. Gómez de Salazar
Berlin conference: 26 December 1884
Madrid accords: 14 November 1975
Sadr established: 27 February 1976
Total: 272,000 km (105,000 sq mi)

Article

Today part ofWestern Sahara

Spanish Sahara (Spanish: Sahara Española; Arabic: الصحراء الإسبانية, romanized: aṣ-Ṣaḥrā' al-Isbānīyah), officially the Spanish Possessions in the Sahara from 1884 to 1958, then Province of the Sahara between 1958 and 1976, was the name used for the modern territory of Western Sahara when it was occupied and ruled by Spain between 1884 and 1976. It had been one of the most recent acquisitions as well as one of the last remaining holdings of the Spanish Empire, which had once extended from the Americas to the Spanish East Indies.