Background
The Western Sahara has never been a nation in the modern sense of the word. Phoenician colonies established or reinforced by Hanno the navigator have vanished with virtually no trace, and the increasing desertification of the Sahara, before the camel was introduced in north africa at the beginning of the first millennium AD, made sporadic contact with the outside world almost impossible. The camel revolution made this region one of the main routes of transport of the world. Salt and gold were transported between North Africa and West Africa.
Islam arrived in the 8th century and was an immediate success. Al-Murabitun, also known as the Almoravides, were a group of strict Koranic interpreters from this region who ended up controlling all of North Africa.
More recently, Ma-a-Aynayn started a counter insurgency against the French in the 1910s. He was finally beaten when he tried to conquer Marrakesh.