October 22, 1963 – Sand War: Cuban troops arrive in Algeria
On October 22, 1963, a contingent of Cuban troops arrived inAlgeria.The Cuban force consisted of some 700 troops and dozens of battle tanks,anti-aircraft guns, and field artillery. Cuban leader Fidel Castro had sent the contingent upon the request ofthe Algerian government. The contingentwas intended to provide training to the Algerian Army and to engage in combatagainst the Moroccans.
(Taken from Sand War – Wars of the 20th Century –Vol. 4)
Background In1956, Morocco regained itsindependence, ending 44 years as a protectorate under France and Spain. Six years later, in 1962, Algeria, Morocco’seastern neighbor, also achieved statehood from France after prevailing in itscolonial war of independence. Nowsovereign states, Moroccoand Algeriafaced a crisis: a contentious border issue.
The origin of the border crisisgoes back to more than a century earlier, to 1830, when France invaded and captured Algiers, ending Ottoman rule and (ultimately)influence in the region. The Frenchgained full control during the rest of the 19th century and into the20th century, gradually expanded south, east, and west and added moreterritory into what ultimately would form French Algeria.
In 1842, the French colonialgovernment tried to negotiate a common border with the Sultanate of Morocco,its western neighbor and an independent political entity. The Moroccan sultan demurred, however. Then in 1844, war broke out between France and Morocco because of the Moroccansultan’s support for an Algerian uprising against French rule. In this war, known as the FirstFranco-Moroccan War, the French decisively defeated the Moroccans and in theTreaty of Tangiers, signed in October 1844 and later the Treaty of LallaMaghnia, signed in March 1845, the two sides ended the war. Furthermore, the latter treaty wassignificant in that Franceand Moroccoagreed to a partial demarcation of their border, i.e. from the coast to TenietSassi, a distance of 100 miles. Nophysical demarcation was carried out further south, which now formed part ofthe barren, thinly populated Sahara Desert; instead, the two sides agreed that the areasinhabited by tribes that traditionally recognized the Moroccan sultan’ssovereignty formed part of Morocco,while those tribes and their lands associated under the former Ottoman rule in Algiers belonged to French Algeria. Some of these tribes, however, were nomadicor had undefined territorial ranges, rendering border demarcation impossible tocarry out. French expansion deep intothe Sahara also brought regions historically associated with Moroccan influenceor sovereignty (e.g. Touat, Gourara, and Tidikelt, which are now located inpresent-day central Algeria)into the realm of French Algeria.
Meanwhile, as a result of France’s colonial expansion into western Africa,in April 1904, Britain and France signed the Entente Cordiale, an agreementwhere the British agreed to cede control of Moroccoto the French (in exchange for the French recognizing British sovereignty over Egypt). The agreement also recognized Spain’s historical sphere of influence over Morocco. In October of that year, France and Spainagreed on a delineation of zones over Moroccowhich finally resulted in the establishment of a French protectorate over Moroccoin March 1912. Then in November 1912, France handed areas of Morocco to Spain,with the latter establishing a protectorate over these areas: a northern zonearound Ceuta and Melilla,and a southern zone centered at Cape Juby (Figure 12). As a protectorate, Morocco ceded control of itsforeign affairs initiatives but remained a sovereign state according tointernational law.
In 1912, shortly afterestablishing a protectorate over Morocco, France undertook a demarcation of itsAlgerian colony for administration purposes, the land survey leading to theestablishment of the Varnier Line (French: Ligne Varnier, named after MauriceVarnier, French High Commissioner for Eastern Morocco) that extended the“border” from Teniet Sassi south to Figueg (which remained with Morocco),turned west to include Colomb-Bechar, Kenadza, and Abdla as part of FrenchAlgeria, and then turned south to an undelineated “uninhabited desert”. In the 1920s, French authorities held anumber of conferences to delineate the limits of protectorate Morocco and colonial Algeria, but these all failed toyield definitive results. In 1929, theFrench published the Confinsalgéro-marocains, which delineatedshared security and administrative jurisdictions between Morocco and Algeria along designatedoperational limits (Limite opérationnelle). In 1934, France carried out another demarcation surveyfor administration purposes that included the Draa Valley,producing the Trinquet Line (French: Ligne Trinquet).
France intended some of these surveys to be used foradministrative purposes and others to establish territorial limits, furtheringthe confusion; moreover, the latter maps that were released ran contradictoryto earlier maps and sometimes went against other international treaties. However, the French established control inareas inside the survey lines, which ultimately became crucial in the borderdispute in the post-independence period.
Shortly after World War IIended in 1945, a wave of nationalism swept across the colonized peoples of Africaand Asia. In Morocco, anindependence movement led by the ultra-nationalist Istiqlal Party gained widepopular support for self-determination and to end France’sprotectorate over Morocco. In April 1956, Mohammed V, the Moroccansultan, succeeded in convincing Franceand Spainto end their protectorates, thus regaining full independence for hiscountry. Now independent, Moroccoestablished a constitutional monarchy, with broad powers vested on the sultan(in 1957, Mohammed V assumed the title of king). The monarchy was conservative, right-wing,and anti-communist, and was aligned with France,the United States,and the Western powers in the Cold War.
Meanwhile in Algeria, France was fighting a bitter war ofindependence against Algerian nationalists led by the National Liberation Front(FLN; French: Frontde Libération Nationale). In 1952, when Morocco’sstruggle for complete self-determination was underway, France once more redrew theadministrative line, declaring that the territory extending from Colomb-Becharto Tindouf was part of French Algeria. The French particularly were interested in Tindouf, where commercialquantities of iron ore were discovered recently and the prospect of finding oiland natural gas reserves were luring French investors. In 1956, however, when the Algerianindependence war was raging and the now independent Moroccowas aligned with France and the West, the French government offered Moroccansultan Hassan II the territorial transfer of Colomb-Bechar and Tindouf to Morocco in exchange for the Moroccan government’sending its support for Algerian nationalist guerillas who operated out of Morocco. The Moroccan monarch turned down the offer,however, saying that he would deal with the Algerian nationalists directly.
In July 1961, the Moroccangovernment and the Algerian revolutionary government-in-exile (called the Gouvemement Provisoire de la République
Algérienne, or GPRA, based in Cairo Egypt)did reach a tentative agreement: Moroccowould respect independent Algeria’sterritorial integrity, but the border would be negotiated later throughbilateral talks. The following year,1962, Algeriagained its independence. In a briefpolitical power struggle that followed, the moderate GPRA was pushed aside anda hard-line regime under President Ahmed Ben Bella was established.
