Spanish protectorate in Morocco in the context of "Francisco Franco"

The Tangier International Zone (Arabic: منطقة طنجة الدولية, romanized: Minṭaqat Ṭanja ad-Duwaliyya; French: Zone internationale de Tanger; Spanish: Zona Internacional de Tánger) was a 382 km (147 sq mi) international zone centered on the city of Tangier, Morocco, which existed from 1925 until its reintegration into independent Morocco in 1956, with interruption during the Spanish occupation of Tangier (1940–1945), and special economic status extended until early 1960. Surrounded on the land side by the Spanish protectorate in Morocco, it was governed under a unique and complex system that involved several European nations, the United States (mainly after 1945), and the Sultan of Morocco, himself under a French protectorate. Due to its status as an international zone, Tangier played a crucial role for Moroccan nationalists, who wanted independence, to establish international contacts and recruit allies as well as organising gatherings and events.

The Spanish coup of July 1936 was a military uprising that was intended to overthrow the Spanish Second Republic, but precipitated the Spanish Civil War, in which Nationalists fought against Republicans for control of Spain. The coup was organized for 18 July 1936, although it started the previous day in Spanish Morocco. Instead of resulting in a prompt transfer of power, the coup split control of the Spanish military and territory roughly in half. The resulting civil war ultimately led to the establishment of a fascist regime under Francisco Franco, who became ruler of Spain as caudillo.

The rising was intended to be swift, but the government retained control of most of the country including Málaga, Jaén and Almería. Cádiz was taken by the rebels, and General Gonzalo Queipo de Llano managed to secure Seville. In Madrid, the rebels were hemmed into the Montaña barracks, which fell with much bloodshed. On 19 July, the cabinet, headed by the newly appointed prime minister José Giral, ordered the distribution of weapons to the unions. With the defeat of the rebels in Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia, anarchists took control of large parts of Aragon and Catalonia. The rebel General Goded surrendered in Barcelona and was later sentenced to death and executed. The rebels secured the support of around half of the Spanish Army, which totalled about 66,000 men, including large numbers who were on leave, as well as the 30,000-strong army of Africa. The army of Africa was Spain's most professional and capable military force. The government retained less than half the supply of rifles, heavy and light machine guns, and artillery pieces. Both sides had few tanks and outdated aircraft, while naval capacity was reasonably even. The defection of many regular officers weakened Republican units of all types.

Cape Juby (Arabic: رأس جوبي, trans. Raʾs Juby, Spanish: Cabo Juby) is a cape on the coast of southern Morocco, near the border with Western Sahara, directly east of the Canary Islands.

Its surrounding area, including the cities of Tarfaya and Tan-Tan, is called the Cape Juby Strip (after the homonymous cape), the Tarfaya Strip (after the homonymous city) or the Tekna Zone (after the Tekna, the native Saharawi tribe). The region is presently the far south of internationally recognized Morocco, and makes up a semi-desert buffer zone between Morocco proper at the Draa River and Western Sahara. The strip was under Spanish rule during much of the 20th century, officially as part of the Spanish protectorate in Morocco, but mainly administered alongside Saguía el-Hamra and Río de Oro as part of Spanish Sahara, with which the Strip had closer cultural and historical links.

Spanish West Africa (Spanish: África Occidental Española, 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.

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.

The Army of Africa (Spanish: Ejército de África, Arabic: الجيش الإسباني في أفريقيا, romanized: Al-Jaysh al-Isbānī fī Afriqā, Riffian; Aserdas n Tefriqt), also known as the Army of Spanish Morocco (Spanish: Cuerpo de Ejército Marroquí'), was a field army of the Spanish Army that garrisoned the Spanish protectorate in Morocco from 1912 until Morocco's independence in 1956.

At the start of the 20th century, the Spanish Empire's colonial possessions in Africa comprised Morocco, Spanish Sahara, Ifni, Cape Juby and Spanish Guinea.

The Treaty of Angra de Cintra, signed by Spain and Morocco on 1 April 1958, ended the Spanish protectorate in Morocco and helped end the Ifni War.

The Spanish foreign minister, Fernando María Castiella y Maíz, and his Moroccan counterpart, Ahmed Balafrej, as well as their respective secretaries, met on the Bay of Cintra in the Spanish colony of Río de Oro between 31 March and 2 April in utmost secrecy to negotiate an end to the clashes between Spain and Moroccan-supported rebels that had begun in October 1957. The resulting treaty was signed on 1 April.

On 27 November 1912, amidst the French conquest of Morocco and in the aftermath of the Agadir Crisis, the Treaty Between France and Spain Regarding Morocco was signed by the French Third Republic and the Kingdom of Spain. According to the treaty, parts of Morocco would become a Spanish protectorate from 1912 to 1956, when the country regained its independence.