Political structure Special territory Established 1924 Founded 1923 Currency Pound sterling | Historical era Interwar period Area 373 km² Capital Tangier Date dissolved 1956 | |
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Languages Moroccan Arabic, Berber languages, Judeo-Moroccan, Haketia, Spanish, French, English Religion Islam, Christianity, Judaism Spanish occupation 14 June 1940 – 11 October 1945 | ||
The Tangier International Zone (Arabic: منطقة طنجة الدولية Minṭaqat Ṭanja ad-Dawliyya, French: Zone Internationale de Tanger, Spanish: Zona Internacional de Tánger) was a 373-square-kilometre (144 sq mi) international zone centered on the city of Tangier, Morocco, then under French and Spanish protectorate, under the joint administration of France, Spain, and Britain (later Portugal, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States), that existed from 1924 until its reintegration into independent Morocco in 1956.
The zone was governed in accordance with the Tangier Protocol, although the Sultan of Morocco retained nominal sovereignty over the zone and jurisdiction over the native population.
The International zone of Tangier had, by 1939, a population of about 60,000 inhabitants and 150,000 by 1950.
History
To solve a disagreement among France, Spain, and Britain over its control, Tangier was made a neutral demilitarized zone in 1924 under a joint administration according to an international convention signed in Paris on December 18, 1923. Although some disagreements emerged about the agreement ratifications were exchanged in Paris on May 14, 1924. The convention was amended in 1928. The governments of Italy, Portugal and Belgium adhered to the convention in 1928, and the government of the Netherlands in 1929.
The Zone had its own appointed International Legislative Assembly, which was subject to supervision by a Committee of Control consisting of the Consuls of Belgium, France, Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. Executive power was vested in an Administrator, and judicial power resided in a Mixed Court of five judges, respectively appointed by the Belgian, British, Spanish, French and Italian governments. As a result of the creation of the Mixed Court, the various European powers withdrew the consular courts that previously exercised jurisdiction there.
The Zone had a reputation for diversity of culture and religion.
Spanish troops occupied Tangier on June 14, 1940, the same day Paris fell to the Germans. Despite calls by the writer Rafael Sánchez Mazas and other Spanish nationalists to annex "Tánger español", the Franco regime publicly considered the occupation a temporary wartime measure. A diplomatic dispute between Britain and Spain over the latter's abolition of the city's international institutions in November 1940 led to a further guarantee of British rights and a Spanish promise not to fortify the area. In May 1944, although it had served as a contact point between him and the later Axis Powers during the Spanish Civil War, Franco expelled all German diplomats from the Zone.
The territory was restored to its pre-war status on October 11, 1945. In July 1952 the protecting powers met at Rabat to discuss the Zone's future, agreeing to abolish it. Tangier joined with the rest of Morocco following the restoration of full sovereignty in 1956.