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Morocco's International Boundaries: A Factual Background

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Anthony S. Reyner
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Extract

The chain reaction set off in Paris by the Franco-Moroccan Declaration of 2 March 1956 still reverberates in the politics of north-west Africa. On that day, France ended 44 years of its protectorate over Morocco, restored to Mohamed V full sovereignty over 162, 120 square miles of land and some seven million people, and pledged ‘to respect, and see to it that others respect, the integrity of Moroccan territory, as guaranteed by international treaties’.1

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 1 , Issue 3 , September 1963 , pp. 313 - 326
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1963

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References

Page 313 note 1 The protectorate had been established by the Treaty of Fez. An English translation appears inThe American Journal of International Law (Washington), Supplement, VI, p. 207.Google Scholar The official English translation of the 1956 Joint Declaration was reprinted in The American Journal of International Law, LI, p. 676.Google Scholar

Page 313 note 2 Declaration by the Governments of Spain and Morocco on the Independence of Morocco (and Protocol), dated 7 April 1956. See Royal Institute of International Affairs, Documents on International Affairs (Oxford University Press, 1956), p. 694.Google Scholar

Page 313 note 3 For documents dealing with the internationalisation of the Zone, Tangier, see its ‘Statute’, the Anglo-Franco-Spanish Convention of 18 12 1923 (recognised by Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, and the United States), in British and Foreign State Papers (London), CXIX, p. 480; CXXI, p. 922; p. 689.Google Scholar

Page 313 note 4 Cf. The Geographer, U.S. Department of State, Morocco-Spanish Sahara Boundary (International Boundary Study Series, no. 9, 14 September 1961), p. 1.

Page 314 note 1 Istiqlal means Independence; Al Alam, ‘The Banner’.

Page 314 note 2 This book has been translated into French (Algiers, Imprimerie Guianchain, 1953) by Mourad Teffafi, of the Centre I.F.A.N.–Mauritanie at St. Louis-du-Sénégal.

Page 315 note 1 It should be noted here that the desert border between Mauritania and Mali, though not in active dispute, appeared in at least two version on official maps prior to the Boundary Treaty of 17 February 1963, recently ratified by both Governments. Although no official version of the treaty is available at the time of writing, the boundary has been simplified to run for most of its length along a single meridian (6°W.). The net result is that Mali has gained some territory, but has abandoned claims to several wells along Mauritania's southern border, which remains unchanged, including the extreme south-eastern corner.

Page 316 note 1 de Lapradelle, A. G., ‘La Déclaration concernant le Maroc’, in Revue générale de droit international public (Paris, 1904), p. 719.Google Scholar

Page 316 note 2 The French text of the Tangier Convention, published in the Bulletin des Lois, 1844, no.1158, and ratified on 26 October 1844, can be found in British and Foreign State Papers, XXXII, p. 1202.

Page 316 note 3 The French text of this Treaty of Delimitation, ratified on 6 August 1845 at Tangier, is reprinted in British and Foreign State Papers, XXXII, p. 1287.

Page 316 note 4 Once the border between the Tingitanian and Caesarean Provinces of Roman Mauritania, the Moulouya had subsequently been the scene of conflict between Tlemcen (Algeria) and Maghreb al Aqsa (Morocco) for the possession of Oujda. Between 1529 and 1830, the Moulouya had separated the empires of Morocco and Turkey. See Terrasse, Henri, Histoire du Maroc (Casablanca, 1950), II.Google Scholar

Page 317 note 1 Protocol of Paris (‘Execution of Treaty of 1845; Southwest Algeria’) was ratified on 16 December 1902. British and Foreign State Papers, CI, p. 428.

Page 317 note 2 Ibid. pp. 430 and 434.

Page 317 note 3 Revue générale de droit international public, XVII, p. 43d.

Page 318 note 1 Tindouf remained under the Agadir (Morocco) Military District until 1952.

Page 318 note 2 See The Geographer, U.S. Department of State, The Spanish State (Geographic Report Series, no. 8, 7 June, 1962); and Héraud, , Guy, , ‘Apercu sur l' organisation des territoires espagnols d'outre-mer’, in Revue juridique et politique de l' Union française (Paris, 1954), p. 301.Google Scholar

Page 318 note 3 ‘Notification of the Extension of Spanish Protection over Certain Territories on the Coast of Northwest Africa’, reprinted in English translation in Hertslet, E., The Map of Africa by Treaty (London, 3rd ed., 1903), III, p. 1163.Google Scholar

Page 319 note 1 For the French text of the Convention between France and Spain, signed in Paris on 27 June 1900 and ratified there on 27 March 1901, see British and Foreign State Papers, XCII, p. 1014.

Page 319 note 2 Project of Secret Treaty (never signed) between France and Spain for the partition of Morocco (August 1902) was published in Le Figaro, 10 November 1911. English translation: The American Journal of International Law, VIII, p. 869.Google Scholar

Page 319 note 3 The 1904 Secret Agreement between France and Spain was published in Le Matin, 8 November 1911. An English translation appears alongside the French text in Parliamentary Papers, 1912–1913 (London, Cmd. 6010), CXXII, p. 29.Google Scholar A Franco-Spanish Declaration on the integrity of Morocco was also signed in Paris on the same day and published in Gaceta de Madrid on 13 October 1904. An English translation appears in The American Journal of International Law, Supplement, VI, p. 30.Google Scholar

Page 319 note 4 The Franco-Spanish Convention Concerning Morocco, signed in Madrid on 27 November 1912 and ratified there on 2 April 1913, was published in English in The American Journal of International Law, Supplement, VII, p. 81. The thalweg is the centre of the deepest, or the most navigable, channel (these do not always coincide).

Page 324 note 1 Cf. The Geographer, U.S. Department of State, Morocco-Spanish Sahara Boundary, p. 3, footnote 4.

Page 324 note 2 British and Foreign State Papers, LI, p. 928.

Page 325 note 1 British and Foreign State Papers, XX, p. 1345 (English translation).

Page 325 note 2 Ibid. XXXIV, p. 1273–4.

Page 325 note 3 Ibid. LI, p. 928; LIII, pp. 1052 and 1089.

Page 325 note 4 Hertslet, op. cit. III, pp. 1172 and 1176.

Page 326 note 1 Cf. The Economist, 15 December 1962; and United Press International, 1 and 10 February 1963, from Rabat.