The Green March was the peaceful mass march by which Morocco reclaimed the Spanish Sahara. On 6 November 1975, some 350,000 unarmed volunteers carrying Qurans and green banners crossed into the colony; within days Spain agreed to withdraw, and the Madrid Accords of 14 November ended ninety years of Spanish rule.
The march was King Hassan II's answer to the International Court of Justice, which had ruled on 16 October 1975 that the territory's people held ties of allegiance to the Moroccan throne — but not sovereignty — and should decide their own future. Rather than wait for a referendum Spain was stalling, Hassan called the nation to walk. Volunteers poured in from every province — farmers, workers, civil servants, men and women — and gathered at Tarfaya on the border.
