Spanish West Africa (, AOE) was a grouping of Spanish colonies along the Atlantic coast of northwest Africa. It was formed in 1946 by joining the southern zone (the Cape Juby Strip) of the Spanish protectorate in Morocco with the colonies of Ifni, Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro into a single administrative unit. Following the Ifni War (1957–58), Spain ceded the Cape Juby Strip to Morocco by the Treaty of Angra de Cintra, and created separate provinces for Ifni and the Sahara in 1958.Shannon E. Fleming, "Decolonization and the Spanish Army, 1940–76", in Wayne H. Bowen and José E. Alvarez, eds., A Military History of Modern Spain: From the Napoleonic Era to the International War on Terror (Praeger Security, 2007), p. 129. Susan Martin-Márquez, Disorientations: Spanish Colonialism in Africa and the Performance of Identity (Yale University Press, 2008), p. 378.
Spanish West Africa was formed by a decree of 20 July 1946. The new governor sat at Ifni. He was ex officio the delegate of the Spanish high commissioner in Morocco in the southern zone of the protectorate, to facilitate its government along the same lines as the other Spanish possessions on the coast. On 12 July 1947, Ifni and the Sahara were raised into distinct entities, but still under the authority of the governor in Ifni. On 10 and 14 January 1958, respectively, the Sahara and Ifni were raised into regular Spanish overseas provinces completely independent of one another.Robert Rézette, The Western Sahara and the Frontiers of Morocco (Nouvelles Éditions Latines, 1975), p. 101.José Luis Villanova, "La organización política del territorio de Ifni duranta la dominación colonial española (1934–1969)", Anales: Revista de Estudios Ibéricos e Iberoamericanos 3 (2007): 49–82, esp. 62–72.
Governors
+Overview of governors of Spanish West AfricaTenureIncumbentNotes24 July 1946 to 17 August 1949José Bermejo López, Governor17 August 1949 to 29 March 1952Francisco Rosaleny Burguet, Governor29 March 1952 to 26 February 1954Venancio Tutor Gil, Governor26 February 1954 to 23 May 1957Ramón Pardo de Santayana y Suárez, GovernorApostolic Prefecture of Spanish Sahara and Ifni established on 5 July 1954, with Félix Erviti Barcelona OMI as the first apostolic prefect.23 May 1957 to 10 January 1958Mariano Gómez-Zamalloa y Quirce, GovernorServed at the start of the Ifni War. Vice Governors 1947-1955: Rufino Pérez Barruecos 1956-1958: Manuel Mulero Clemente
References
Further reading José Antonio Rodriguez Esteban, "El Mapa del África Occidental Española de 1949 a escala 1:500.000: orgullo militar, camelladas y juegos poéticos saharauis", Cybergeo: European Journal of Geography. Online since 20 January 2011.