Colony of the Rio de Oro Colonia del Rio de Oro (Spanish) | |||||||
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| 1884–1958 | |||||||
.svg) Flag of Spain (1843–1931) | |||||||
| Anthem: Marcha Real (1884–1931, 1942–1968) Himno de Riego (1931–1942) | |||||||
 Location of Rio de Oro | |||||||
| Status | Colony of Spain | ||||||
| Capital and largest city | Villa Cisneros | ||||||
| Common languages | Spanish (official) Arabic | ||||||
| Religion | Catholicism, Islam | ||||||
| Governor | |||||||
| Historical era | |||||||
• Established | 1884 | ||||||
• Disestablished | 1958 | ||||||
| Area | |||||||
• Total | 184,000 km2 (71,000 sq mi) | ||||||
| Currency | Spanish peseta | ||||||
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| Today part of | Western Sahara | ||||||
Río de Oro (Spanish:[ˈri.oðeˈoɾo]ⓘ,Spanish for "River of Gold";Arabic:وادي الذهب,Wādī-aḏ-Ḏāhab, often transliterated asOued Edhahab) is the southern geographic region ofWestern Sahara.[1] It was, withSaguia el-Hamra, one of the two territories that formed theSpanish province ofSpanish Sahara after 1958; it had been taken as aSpanish colonial possession in the late 19th century. Its name seems to come from an east–west river which was supposed to have run through it. The river was thought to have largely dried out – awadi, as the name indicates – or have disappeared underground.
The Spanish name is derived from its previous nameRio do Ouro, given to it by its Portuguese discovererAfonso Gonçalves Baldaia in 1436. The Portuguese princeHenry the Navigator dispatched a mission in 1435, underGil Eanes and Baldaia, to find the legendary River of Gold in western Africa. Going down the coast, they rounded theal-Dakhla peninsula in present-dayWestern Sahara and emerged into an inlet, which they excitedly believed to be the mouth of the River of Gold (seeSenegal River). The name continued to be used for the inlet and the surrounding area although no gold was found there, neither in the water of the narrow gulf, probably mistaken for the river itself, nor in its neighborhood. Some gold dust, however, was obtained from the natives.[2]
Occupying the southern part of Western Sahara, the territory lies between 26° to the north and 21° 20′ to the south. The area is roughly 184,000 km2 (71,000 mi2), making it approximately two thirds of the entire Western Sahara.[3] The former provincial capital founded by the Spanish was Villa Cisneros, which was renamed under Mauritanian administration in 1976 "ad-Dakhla".[4]
TheBattle of Río de Oro was a single-ship action fought in August 1914 during the First World War. ABritish protected cruiser attacked aGerman auxiliary cruiser off the small Spanish colony of Río de Oro.
In 1975, as Spain retreated from the territory, Western Sahara was split under theMadrid Accords betweenMauritania andMorocco, even if this division was bitterly contested by thePolisario Front. The dividing line ran halfway through Río de Oro, with Morocco taking the northern part plus Saguia el-Hamra, and Mauritania annexing the lower third of the colony as a northern province calledTiris al-Gharbiyya (Western Tiris). Its provincial capital was already called Dakhla. After a disastrous four-year war with the Polisario, Mauritania relinquished Tiris al-Gharbiyya, withdrew from Western Sahara, and left Morocco and the Polisario as the sole belligerents in theconflict, which is not yet resolved; a cease-fire has been in effect since 1991.[5]
This area is today divided by theMoroccan military berm, with Morocco occupying the parts to the west of it, and thePolisario Front-heldFree Zone, under the control of theSahrawi Arab Democratic Republic to the east. These zones are temporary divisions negotiated as a part of theUnited Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) ceasefire.[6]
23°00′N13°00′W / 23.000°N 13.000°W /23.000; -13.000
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