History of Western Sahara - The Saadi Dynasty (16th and 17th Century) & Beginning of Colonization

The Saadi Dynasty (16th and 17th Century) & Beginning of Colonization

After the fall of the Almoravid empire in 1147 the new empires (Almohads, Merinids and Wattasids) retained sovereignty over the western part of the Sahara but the effectiveness of it depended largely on the sultan that ruled. It was only with the coming to power of the Saadi Dynasty that the sovereignty of Morocco over the western part of the Sahara became complete again: Also, the Spanish established Villa Cisneros in 1502 to extend their empire. The Portuguese colonisers were expelled from Cape Bojador and from Cap Blanc and the borders of Morocco were moved up to the Senegal River in the south-west and to the Niger River in the south-east (see: Battle of Tondibi in 1591). The following (and current) Moroccan dynasty, the Alaouite Dynasty which came to power in 1659, appears to have continued to exercise some degree of sovereignty over the modern Western Sahara, although the slow collapse of central authority through the 19th century, which ended in European colonial rule, no doubt attenuated that.