On 6 November 1975, tens of thousands of Moroccans poured into Spanish Sahara in a bid to claim it for their own.
They danced, waved flags and played music as they faced off, unarmed, against gun-carrying Spanish soldiers.
The so-called Green March led to a diplomatic victory for Morocco's King Hassan, but sparked a guerrilla war and decades of instability.
In 2013, TV cameraman Seddik Maaninou and North Africa expert Francis Gillies told Simon Watts about that momentous protest.
(Photo: Protestors on the Green March. Credit: Jacques Haillot/Apis/Sygma/Sygma/Getty Images)