Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña
Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña was a 15th century Spanish settlement close to Akhfennir, in the Tarfaya Province, in Morocco.
History
Founded by the Canary Islands lord Diego de Herrera in 1478 as a trading and fishing post with a fortress. It was located close to a mouth bar across Lanzarote. The importance of the settlement was derived from its position in the trans-Saharan slave trade, and captives were shipped to sugar plantations on the Canary Islands. The Saadi dynasty raided the place and the Spanish eventually left Santa Cruz, being completely abandoned by 1524.The exact location of what used to be Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña was forgotten. After the Treaty Between France and Spain Regarding Morocco, in 1916 the Spanish gained control of the Cape Juby Strip which included the place. It was renamed officially Puerto Cansado, as that was the name given by the Canarian fishermen.
On the other hand, in the mid-nineteenth century, after the Hispano-Moroccan War, the Sultanate of Morocco agreed to hand the place to Spain in the 1860 Treaty of Wad Ras. In the wake of the visit of a Spanish delegation to Fez in 1877, a joint Hispano-Moroccan committee was created in order to determine the location of Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña. This committee eventually misidentified Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña with Ifni, actually located about 240 kilometers north of the real fortress.
The Moroccan sultan accepted the identification in 1883, even if the border delimitation did not take place at the time and the effective Spanish occupation did not take place until 1934.