Western Sahara

The earliest inhabitants of the territory now known as Western Sahara were nomadic Berber and Sanhaja peoples, whose presence in the western Sahara is attested from antiquity through rock art, burial sites, and references in classical and early medieval sources. By the eighth century, Arab expansion across North Africa began to influence the region, and over subsequent centuries the area was gradually incorporated into the broader Islamic world. The eleventh century saw the rise of the Almoravid movement, founded among Sanhaja tribes of the western Sahara, which went on to forge an empire stretching across the Maghreb and into the Iberian Peninsula. After the decline of the Almoravids and successive Maghrebi dynasties, the territory's population was reshaped by the southward migration of the Maqil Arabs, particularly the Beni Hassan, whose dialect (Hassaniya) and tribal structures came to define Saharawi society from roughly the fifteenth century onward.

European contact began in the fifteenth century, when Portuguese and Castilian mariners established intermittent trading posts and fisheries along the Atlantic coast. Spain asserted formal claims over the coastal strip in 1884, during the Berlin Conference era of African partition, creating the colony commonly called Spanish Sahara, which combined the regions of Saguia el Hamra in the north and Río de Oro in the south. Spanish administration remained thin for decades, concentrated at coastal posts such as Villa Cisneros, and effective control of the interior was not consolidated until joint Franco-Spanish operations in 1934. Phosphate deposits at Bou Craa, identified in the 1940s and brought into production in the early 1970s, transformed the colony's economic significance and accelerated infrastructure development around El Aaiún.

Decolonisation pressure mounted through the 1960s, channelled by the United Nations and a nascent Saharawi nationalist movement that culminated in the founding of the Polisario Front in 1973. In October 1975 the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion finding that, while historic ties existed, neither Morocco nor Mauritania had held sovereignty precluding self-determination. Days later, Morocco organised the Green March of civilians into the territory, and the Madrid Accords of November 1975 transferred administration from Spain to Morocco and Mauritania. Polisario proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) on 27 February 1976 and waged a guerrilla war that prompted Mauritania's withdrawal in 1979; Morocco then extended its claim over the entire territory and constructed a fortified sand berm during the 1980s to consolidate control of the western and northern zones.

A United Nations brokered ceasefire took effect in 1991, accompanied by the deployment of MINURSO and the promise of a referendum on self-determination that was repeatedly postponed over disputes about voter eligibility. Through the 1990s and 2000s, successive UN envoys advanced settlement plans, including the Baker proposals, none of which secured agreement between the parties. Hostilities resumed at low intensity in November 2020 after a confrontation at the Guerguerat border crossing, ending the long ceasefire. Several states, including the United States in 2020 and later Spain, France, and others, have recognised Moroccan sovereignty or endorsed Morocco's autonomy proposal, while the SADR retains recognition from a number of states and membership in the African Union.

Western Sahara today remains a non-self-governing territory under United Nations classification, with no internationally settled status. The bulk of the territory is administered by Morocco, which governs it through Moroccan civil and security institutions, while the SADR, led by the Polisario Front, exercises authority over the eastern zone east of the berm and operates a government-in-exile from refugee camps near Tindouf in Algeria.