2 PERSPECTIVES ON BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS | VOL 42 | 2024 to establish a state and were forced to abandon their nomadic lifestyles in favor of sedentary styles of living by the 1930s. The fighting between Morocco and the Sahrawis over Western Sahara after the Spanish withdrawal in 1975 resulted in a major urbanization of the Sahrawis and drove many out of the region in favor of living abroad (Central Intelligence Agency, 2020). Sahrawis represent about 30% of the population in Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara, with the remaining 70% Moroccan settlers. The other major population concentration of Sahrawis is the Algerian town of Tindouf, around which several refugee camps have been arranged to house the Sahrawis in what they consider to be exile (Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, 2011; Skretteberg, 2008). Those Sahrawis who live in Moroccan Western Sahara are subject to human rights abuses and government surveillance and are prohibited from political activism that supports the Polisario Front, including flying or displaying flags of the Polisario Front or the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Amnesty International, 2021). The end of colonialism and the vagaries of independence Prior to gaining independence, both Morocco and Algeria were colonial holdings, primarily of France; however, Morocco was divided into Spanish and French zones of influence, which were collaboratively ruled (Wyrtzen, 2022). Following the French-imposed exile of Moroccan King Mohammed V in 1953, anticolonial sentiment grew among Moroccans, who demanded the king be returned to the throne. Demonstrations were violently suppressed, but mounting international pressure forced the French to bring King Mohammed V out of exile and begin negotiations for the relinquishment of their Moroccan claims between November 1955 and March 1956 (Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History, 2023). The Spanish followed the French lead and gave up their possessions in the north of Morocco in April 1956, retaining the coastal enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla and the Spanish Sahara in the south, now known as Western Sahara (Figure 1). Moroccans experienced violent repression throughout the colonial period, but the transition of power was relatively peaceful, a stark contrast to the decolonization of its neighbor Algeria. From 1954 to 1962, the French waged a brutal counterinsurgency operation against Algerian National Liberation Front guerillas, resulting in as many as 1,000,000 Algerian and 75,000 French and French ally casualties (Horne, 1978). The violent collapse of French rule, which fomented Algerian independence in 1962, drove Algeria away from the West at a critical point in the still-developing Cold War. The importance of Algeria as a global hub connecting Europe to the Arab world and sub-Saharan Africa gave the newly formed nation a chance to become an autonomous actor on the world stage by forging relationships with various countries and championing anti-imperialism and anticolonialism. During the war for independence, the Algerians received material and strategic support from several communist nations, but once they had won, the Soviets and the Chinese were the primary investors in Algeria (Katz, 2007). Self-determination and military competition Over the course of about one month in 1963, the Moroccans and Algerians made war on each other, marking the first clash of the young nations. The so-called Sand War resulted from Moroccan claims on Algerian territory. The Moroccans drove for Tindouf, but Moroccan King Hassan II prevented his troops from entering the town, fearing a major Algerian defeat would not only destroy any hopes of a positive relationship but also draw the attention of the United States and Russia. A cease-fire negotiation led by Haile Selassie of Ethiopia succeeded and officially ended hostilities in 1964. Between 1969 and 1970, the Moroccans and Algerians worked to define the borders in the sparsely inhabited desert regions, which the French left quite ambiguous during the colonial period and the Moroccans further muddied by denying attempts to properly demarcate the border (Saddiki, 2020). An agreement between King Hassan II and Algerian President Houari Boumédiène committed both nations to liberating the still-held Spanish Sahara, leading the Moroccans to mistakenly believe the Algerians supported Moroccan claims of sovereignty over Western Sahara. The town of Tindouf then became a springboard for Polisario Front separatist operations, but because it had remained within Algerian territory at the end of the Sand War, the Moroccans struggled to inhibit guerilla activity without violating Algerian sovereignty (Bidwell, 1998). The Polisario Front, first formed in 1973 to combat the Spanish occupation of Western Sahara, is the primary faction of the Sahrawi nationalist movement and is considered the legitimate political representative of the Sahrawi people by the United Nations (Hughes, 2001; UN, 1979). After the Spanish withdrawal in 1975 and the ensuing Madrid Accords, Western Sahara was divided between Morocco and
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