1912-1939 History of Northern Africa





Tanger 1939-1956



In 1939 World War II broke out. In June 1940, German troops occupied France; French North Africa remained loyal to the Vichy-administration. Spanish troops occupied Tanger (June 1940), taking over the administration of the city in November, with both the U.S. and Britain protesting. In January 1941, Britain and Spain agreed on Spain not fortifying the Tanger Zone.
In Novemver 1942, U.S. forces landed at Casablanca, Oran and Algiers. Spanish Morocco, including Tanger, were treated as neutral territory; U.S. general Patton visited Spanish Morocco in January 1943; Tanger received Allied food supplies from May 1943. In May 1944, bowing to Allied pressure, the Spanish administration closed the German consulate in Tanger and ordered German officials to depart.
On September 1st 1945 the 4 Allies signed Tangier Pact; on Sept. 7th, the last Spanish troops departed. In 1956, Morocco was released into independence; Tanger was reintegrated into the kingdom.



EXTERNAL
FILES 		Tangier and Jerusalem, 1949 article from The Daily Compass, 1949; critical description of history of Tangier as an international city
DOCUMENTS Coat of Arms, from Wappenlexikon, comment in German
Banknote Tangiers 1941, from Numismondo
New York Times, Archive 1851-1980, Tangier
REFERENCE Chapter 7 : Tangier and Tetuan, pp.107-119, in : John Gunther, Inside Africa, NY : Harper & Bros. (1953) 1955 [G]
Article : Tangier, in : Britannica Book of the Year 1950 p.656, 1951 p.661, 1952 p.664, 1953 p.673, 1954 p.676, 1955 p.726, 1956 p.664, 1957 p.728 [G]
Article : Morocco - Tangier Zone, in : Americana Annual 1940 p.515, 1943 p.497, 1944 p.469, 1945 pp.484-486, 1946 pp.503-505, 1947 pp.459-460 [G]
Article Tangier, in : New International Year Book Events off 1940 p.720, 1941 pp.641-642, 1942 pp.675-676, 1943 pp.628-629, 1944 p.610, 1945 pp.599-600 [G]
Article : Tangier, in : Funk & Wagnall's New Standard Encyclopedia Year Book 1940 p.492, 1941 p.462, 1942 p.435, 1943 p.433, 1944 pp.289-290 (on Morocco), 1946 p.396, 1952 pp.409-410 [G]



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted on May 22nd 2001, last revised on March 23rd 2007

Click here to go Home
Click here to go to Information about KMLA, WHKMLA, the author and webmaster
Click here to go to Statistics