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Greater Morocco
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Greater Morocco is a label used predominantly by critical sources, largely in discussing the disputed Western Sahara to describe official and unofficial Moroccan claims on territories viewed by Moroccans as having been under some form of Moroccan sovereignty before the colonial era. Generally only seen in certain European language discussions, the term is not used in Arabic, not established in the Moroccan public opinion and not used by Moroccan authorities or parties.
In the early stages of decolonisation certain Moroccan political actors, in particular some members of the Istiqlal party, like Allal al-Fassi, in the first years of Morocco's independence, were in favour of claiming wider territories historically associated in some way with the Moroccan Sultan. This was initially not supported by Sultan (later king) of Morocco.[1] Al-Fassi's ambitions gained more support in the beginning of the sixties, leading to a delay in the recognition of Mauritania.[2]
Al-Fassi's wider claims were effectively abandoned in the later sixties, although Morocco claims the Western Sahara and the Spanish enclaves on its northern coast, Ceuta and Melilla. Morocco's refusal to accept its post-colonial borders in the case of Western Sahara has put it on a collision course with the African Union, which holds this as one of its principles. As a consequence, Morocco is the only African country not part of the union, while the government in exile, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic has a seat.
After Moroccan independence in 1956 and the death of King Mohammed V, the government of King Hassan II laid claim on several territories, successfully (re)acquiring the Tarfaya Strip (after the Ifni War with Spain) and much of the territory between Ceuta and Melilla, as well as the Saharan territories.
- ^ Douglas E. Ashford, Johns Hopkins University, The Irredendist Appeal in Morocco and Mauritania, The Western Political Quarterly, Vol. 15, No. 5, 1962-12, p. 641-651, p.645 "The sole advocate of "total liberation" was Allal al-Fassi, who refused to enter France even to meet with his Monarch or long-standing nationalist colleagues."
- ^ Douglas E. Ashford, p. 646