Spanish Sahara Sample Clauses

Spanish Sahara. European colonization of the African continent took place at the 1884-1886 Berlin Conference during the era of “New Imperialism.” At this Conference, the territory currently known as Western Sahara was declared a Spanish protectorate by Spain.212 The territory became a Spanish province in 1958. This situation lasted until 1961.213 One author describes this event in the following words “Responding to a variety of pressures, and suffering from the steady erosion of its influence in the Americas, the Spanish government in 1884 declared a ‘protectorate’ over most of Western Sahara (including the coastal 212 Xxxxxx 1984, p. 42; Munene 2010, in Multilaterism and international law with Western Sahara as a Case Study, p. 76-78; p. 40; Cuervo 2007, p. 27 in International Law and the Question of Western Sahara. 213 Xxxxxxx 1995, p. 214; Xxxxx 2011, in International Law and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, p.151; Munene 2010, in Multilaterism and international law with Western Sahara as a Case Study, p. 76. settlements of Boujdour and Dakhla) in an attempt to preserve for itself at least a limited standing in a community of European imperial powers that were swiftly establishing themselves on the African continent.”214 The discovery of phosphate in the territory’s desert by a Spanish geologist in 1947 made the territory of crucial economic importance to Spain.215