Historical Dictionary of Western Sahara Third ... - Scarecrow Press

continues his resistance until 1919. November 14: Franco-Spanish
Convention further demarcates the Western Saharan border.
1913 January 10: A Saharawi ghazzi carries out a massacre at a
French outpost at El-Boirat. February: In retaliation for the El-Boirat
massacre, the French army occupies Smara.
1914 October-November: Francisco Bens arrives in Tarfaya but is
ordered to withdraw to Villa Cisneros.
1916 June 29: Bens occupies Tarfaya.
1919 May 23: Ahmed el-Hiba dies; he is succeeded by Merebbi Rebbu.
1920 November 30: Bens occupies La Guera.
1921–26 Merebbi Rebbu leads anti-French resistance in Mauritania
and in the Anti-Atlas.
1932 August 18: Reguibat and Oulad Delim inflict serious losses on
the French at Oum Tounsi.
1934 March: French occupy Tindouf. March 15: Merebbi Rebbu
surrenders to France. May–July: Under French pressure, Spain begins
to occupy points in the interior of Western Sahara, including Smara, for
the first time.
1936 July: Spanish Civil War begins; Madrid’s delegate in Western
Sahara aligns with the Francoists.
1940 El-Ayoun is made capital of “Spanish Sahara.”
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1943 The geologist Manuel Alia Medina begins the search for phosphates.
1946 July 20: Africa Occidental Española (AOE) is created, encompassing
Ifni and Western Sahara.
1949 Tarfaya is renamed Villa Bens after Francisco Bens’s death.
1950 The Spanish dictator, Generalissimo Francisco Franco, visits
Western Sahara.
1956 January: Benhamou Mesfioui is given command of the southern
sector of the Army of Liberation. March: Allal el-Fassi of the