Spanish Sahara was the name used for the modern territory of Western Sahara when it was ruled by Spain, created from the Spanish territories of Rio de Oro and La Aguera in 1924. Entering the territory in 1884, Spain was unable to extend control to the countryside until 1934, when the French army joined in crushing an indigenous Sahrawi rebellion. Unrest continued, however, and in 1957, rebels nearly expelled the Spanish from the country in the 1957 Invasion of Spanish Sahara. The Spanish were able to re-establish control with the assistance of the French by 1958, and embarked on a harsh strategy of retaliation towards the countryside, which speeded up urbanization. After the death of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, however, Spain withdrew its forces from the territory, after negotiating a secreet agreement with Morocco and Mauritania, who promptly invaded the country (Mauritania later withdrew its claim). The territory remains under dispute. This region of Western Sahara makes up the southern two_thirds of the country. ... Lagouira or La Gouera is a city on the Atlantic coast at the southern tip of Western Sahara, on the western side of the Ras Nouadhibou peninsula. ... Sahrawi and Saharawi are terms most commonly used for the natives of the Morocco-administered Western Sahara. ... The 1957 Invasion of Spanish Sahara, also known as the Ifni War and, in Spain, the Forgotten War (la Guerra Ignorada), was a series of armed incursions into Spanish West Africa by Moroccan insurgents and indigenous Sahrawi rebels that began in October 1957 and culminated with the abortive siege of... Francisco Franco Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco y Bahamonde Salgado Pardo de Andrade (December 4, 1892 – November 20, 1975), abbreviated Francisco Franco Bahamonde and sometimes known as Generalísimo Francisco Franco, was dictator of Spain from 1939 until his death in 1975. ...