Occupation of Tangier (1940–1945)

The occupation of the Tangier International Zone by Francoist Spain took place between 1940 and 1945.

On 14 June 1940, days after the entry of Italy in the Second World War, the Francoist regime seized the opportunity and, amid the utter collapse of the Third French Republic before the invasion of Nazi Germany, a contingent of 4,000 Moorish soldiers based in the Spanish Morocco occupied the Tangier International Zone, meeting no resistance.[1] Despite the claim the occupation was a "provisional" measure, the operation was the realization of a long-standing wish[2] as well as a prelude to a potential occupation of French Morocco that did not happen because Rabat ultimately capitulated to the new regime of Vichy.[3]

Following the August 1945 Paris Conference on Tangier between the United Kingdom, France, the United States and the Soviet Union, an isolated Spain accepted the conditions lined up in the former on 19 September 1945 and retired from Tangier on 11 October 1945.[4] Tangier returned then to the pre-war status of international zone.[5]