6 November 1975: the Green March
350,000 Moroccans, Qur’an in hand, walk peacefully into the Sahara. The gesture that started it all, in two minutes.
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350 000
marchers, men and women.
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29days
between the ICJ opinion and the Madrid Accords.
A march, not an army
On 6 November 1975, King Hassan II launched the Green March. About 350,000 Moroccans crossed, Qur’an in hand, into the Sahara then administered by Spain. The gesture was meant to be massive and peaceful.
The starting point
Tarfaya, then Laayoune
After the march
On 14 November 1975, the Madrid Accords arranged the Spanish withdrawal. Spain left the territory in the months that followed.
Why it matters
For Moroccans, the march is not a textbook page. It is the day a people made visible a bond claimed long before colonisation.
The Kingdom traces that bond to the allegiance of Saharan tribes to the sultans. The International Court of Justice, in its advisory opinion of 16 October 1975, recognised legal ties of allegiance between the Sultan and some tribes. It also recalled self-determination. Morocco read those ties as the historical foundation of its sovereignty. The Green March was its political answer.
In plain words 50 years on, 6 November is still a national date. It is the day we remember walking together.
Key dates
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ICJ opinion: ties of allegiance existed, and self-determination is recalled.
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About 350,000 Moroccans walk into the Sahara.
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The Madrid Accords arrange the Spanish withdrawal.
Source. Green March, 6 November 1975; Madrid Accords, 14 November 1975; ICJ advisory opinion, 16 October 1975.