1884: Spain colonises Western Sahara, an area formerly populated by Berber tribes.
1934: Becomes a Spanish province known as Spanish Sahara.
1957: Newly-independent Morocco lays centuries-old claim to Western Sahara.
1965: The UN calls for the decolonisation of Western Sahara.
1973: Polisario Front, the indigenous Sahrawi independence movement, is founded.
1975: Morocco’s King Hassan stages the “Green March” of 350,000 Moroccans into Western Sahara. Spain transfers administrative control to Morocco and Mauritania.
1975-91: Polisario Front fights a 16-year-long guerrilla war against Moroccan forces, which ends with a UN-brokered ceasefire.
1975-76: Morocco annexes two-thirds of Western Sahara after colonial power Spain withdraws. Polisario guerrillas declare the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), with a government-in-exile in Algeria. Thousands of Sahrawi refugees flee to western Algeria to set up camps near the town of Tindouf.
1979: Mauritania renounces all claims to Western Sahara leaving Morocco to annex its share of the territory.
1991-2000s: UN brokered ceasefire ends war. Numerous UN-sponsored talks have failed to yield a breakthrough.
— Compiled from agencies, BBC
