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Morocco, a North African country on the Atlantic and Mediterranean coast, is distinguished by its Berber, Arab and European influences.
Morocco occupies the site of the ancient Mauretanie Tingitane and a small part of the Mauretanie Césarienne. This region was subjected to Roman domination in 33 BC. J. C., and definitively, in 42 of our era. It then fell prey to the Vandals at the beginning of the 5th century, then passed under the thumb of the Greeks of Byzantium, and finally the Arabs (from the 8th century). The Edrisites (Idrissites), founded, in 788, an independent state of the caliphs of Baghdad, of which Fez was the capital, and which was overthrown in 925 by the first Fatimid caliph of Egypt. While the Fatimids and the Ommeyades of Spain disputed the possession of the remains of the kingdom of the Edrisites, the Almoravides created, in Morocco, from 1051, a new State, which extended its conquests in Spain until the Tagus and the Ebro. The power of the Almoravids collapsed as quickly as it had risen, and was replaced, between 1120 and 1145, in Africa and in Spain, by that of the AImohades, which itself succumbed in Spain in 1212 and in Africa in 1218. The Almohads were supplanted by the Merinites or Merinides (1270), who succeeded from 1550 the Sheriffs, who said they came from Muhammad. Under the dynasty of the Alawite sheriffs (Saadians) of Tafilet, the empire of Morocco acquired its greatest extent, and successfully resisted the Portuguese armies which attacked in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. Morocco ceased to be threatened after the bloody battle of Alcaçar-Quivir, where King Sebastian died (1578). It grew so much thereafter that at the beginning of the 18th century, it further extended its authority to Timbuktu.
The internal discord of the last Alouites had at that time already left the throne to a dynasty which had replaced theirs in 1648. This dynasty, also from Tafilet, had for its founder the Sharif Moulay, died in 1652. The reign the most brilliant of the sovereigns of this dynasty is that of Moulay-Ismaïl (1672-1727), a ruthless but energetic prince. The sovereign who came to the throne in 1822, Moulay-Abderrahman, worried about France's ambitions in North Africa, since his capture of Algiers in 1830, joined in 1844 in the holy war of Abd el-Kâder (L ' history of Algeria). But the defeat of his army on Isly, the bombing of Tangier and the capture of Mogador by the French forced him, that same year, to give up supporting the emir. Moulay-Abderrahman died in 1859, and civil war, in the middle of which several contenders disputed the throne with his elder son, Sidi-Mohamed, ignited immediately. This same year, the Moroccans also entered the war with Spain, which preserved along the coasts of Morocco several cities, conquered since the XVIth century, and of which it had made presidents or places of deportation: such Ceuta, Peñon- de-Velez, Alhucemas, Melilla. Conflicts had already arisen over them, but this time the war was more serious. The Marcos was defeated, in particular in two battles, the last of which was followed by the capture of Tetouan by the Spanish in 1860. Peace was then concluded between the two states: Morocco made a cession of territory and undertook to pay a high war indemnity.
The competition between the Germans and the French also had repercussions a few decades later on Morocco., And the European powers would come to an agreement to allow France, already present in Algeria and Tunisia, to extend its grip on Morocco. You have to go back to Cabinet Combes to find the origin of this episode. At that time, Delcasse, Minister for Foreign Affairs, had negotiated and concluded, with Spain, a secret agreement from which almost inevitably resulted the joint conquest of the Moroccan Empire. He had ensured, England's consent by another agreement, the 1904 convention which established the "Entente cordiale". He had done nothing to secure the consent of Germany: negligence all the more reckless since Russia, monopolized by its disastrous war with Japan, could at this time in no way hinder our powerful neighbor.
The results of this temerity were not long in coming. The German emperor made a trip to Tangier (March 31, 1905) full of threats to France. Rouvier, then President of the Council, justly afraid of the dangers that such an adventure could put us at risk, resolved to convene, before going any further, in Algeciras (January 1906), a conference in which all the great powers would be represented, this who had brought about Delcasse's resignation. The Conference, where almost all the great powers, even Italy, once again the friend of France, had declared themselves in favor of the latter had regulated, by a solemn act, the conditions of French intervention in Morocco , granting France and Spain a police right, by means of instructing officers and non-commissioned officers that the two countries would supply to the Moroccan troops, but guaranteeing to all the nations an absolute equality for the trade and the exploitation of natural resources and the economic regime of Morocco.
Soon, the assassination of a Frenchman, Dr. Mauchamp, in Marrakech (1907), then of two Europeans in Casablanca, led France to engage in the great Empire of West Africa military operations which should not cease expand. We went to bomb and take Casablanca. In the meantime, the Sultan. Abd and Aziz, who had dealt with the French, saw his brother, Moulay Hafid, revolt against him and be proclaimed in his place. France did not defend Abd and Aziz, and Moulay Hafid, to have his authority recognized by Europe, accepted the treaties concluded, including the act of Algeciras. But Fez, the capital of the Empire, was in the midst of an insurrection. General Moinier marched on the city with significant forces and entered it without striking a blow. But the supply column which followed him with Colonel Gouraud was attacked and had to sustain furious fights (1911).
Germany began to cause incident after incident, chicane sur chicane, for French operations in Morocco. These were, in 1908, the incidents in Casablanca, in connection with the arrest, by the gendarmes, of deserters from the foreign legion whom a junior agent of the German ambassador accompanied and tried to protect. It was necessary to resort to an arbitration which Germany did not accept without difficulties. The affair ended in November with a compromise signed in Berlin. Morocco thus became a protectorate of France, then a colony, until the independence acquired in 1956.
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Rabat: the mausoleum of Mohammed V.
The mausoleum of Mohammed V, in Rabat. It contains his grave, as well as those of his
two sons, King Hassan II and Prince Abdallah. Source: The World Factbook.
Michel Abitbol, History of Morocco, Perrin 2009.
A masterpiece covering the history of Morocco from Antiquity to the present day, this study by Michel Abitbol throws a whole new light on the past of this country which unique links attach to France and Europe. Political, social, economic and cultural analyzes intermingle in this immense fresco that takes into account all the human components that make up the richness and originality of Moroccan civilization: Berbers, Arabs, Jews and Europeans.
The work of Michel Abitbol studies with the same seriousness and the same requirement of distant periods like the Roman era and the beginnings of the Arab-Muslim conquest and those closer like the ascent of the Alaouites, the establishment of the French Protectorate ( and Spanish) and independence. He analyzes with the same abundance of details the work and the action of characters who have become legendary like Moulay Idris, founder of Fez, '' Almoravide Youssef B. Tashfin, builder of Marrakech, Almohade Abd al-Mu'min whose l he empire extended from Andalusia to Libya and Ahmad Al-Mansour, the conqueror of Timbuktu and western Sudan. Or Moulay Isma'il, a contemporary of Louis XIV and his great-great-grandson Mohammed V and Hassan II who presided over the destinies of the Cherifian kingdom until the end of the 20th century.
The fruit of many years' work in the libraries and archives of several countries, it is a veritable "biography" of Morocco, from its birth to the present day, that the author gives us today . Since the work of Charles-André Julien and Roger le Tourneau 50 years ago, this is the only study that is as complete, as rigorous and as meticulous. The multitude of facts related, on the basis of European and Arab sources, far from harming and weighing down brings a picturesque and original note to this table and contributes to leaving to Morocco the warmth of its colors, its life and therefore its historical authenticity. (Cov.).
Carlos Freire, Amazigh, Berber time travel, Hazan, 2006.
No ethnographic, philosophical or sociological intention in my approach, declares Carlos Freire at the end of his 8500 kilometers traveled in Berber land.
"A passing glance. Places. Faces. The Berbers of Morocco were installed in this territory before the arrival of the Arabs. These people from the Atlas, Rif and Middle Atlas plateaus are our contemporaries. Their life, different from ours, in the magnificent landscape that frames their daily lives, exists in a slower, more contemplative time. The common point which allowed our meetings was the mutual curiosity around the Other, the visitor in their case, the master of the house, in mine.
These are the men and women of the valleys and mountains of Morocco who generously and graciously granted me a gaze during my travels in Berber time.
This time is what we offer to the readers of this book, with my photos, the traditional Berber poems and the text by the writer Driss Benzekri, himself of Berber origin, and my companion in this book: a travel in a Berber time woven of meetings and looks in overturned mirrors. ” (Cov.).
Morocco occupies the site of the ancient Mauretanie Tingitane and a small part of the Mauretanie Césarienne. This region was subjected to Roman domination in 33 BC. J. C., and definitively, in 42 of our era. It then fell prey to the Vandals at the beginning of the 5th century, then passed under the thumb of the Greeks of Byzantium, and finally the Arabs (from the 8th century). The Edrisites (Idrissites), founded, in 788, an independent state of the caliphs of Baghdad, of which Fez was the capital, and which was overthrown in 925 by the first Fatimid caliph of Egypt. While the Fatimids and the Ommeyades of Spain disputed the possession of the remains of the kingdom of the Edrisites, the Almoravides created, in Morocco, from 1051, a new State, which extended its conquests in Spain until the Tagus and the Ebro. The power of the Almoravids collapsed as quickly as it had risen, and was replaced, between 1120 and 1145, in Africa and in Spain, by that of the AImohades, which itself succumbed in Spain in 1212 and in Africa in 1218. The Almohads were supplanted by the Merinites or Merinides (1270), who succeeded from 1550 the Sheriffs, who said they came from Muhammad. Under the dynasty of the Alawite sheriffs (Saadians) of Tafilet, the empire of Morocco acquired its greatest extent, and successfully resisted the Portuguese armies which attacked in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. Morocco ceased to be threatened after the bloody battle of Alcaçar-Quivir, where King Sebastian died (1578). It grew so much thereafter that at the beginning of the 18th century, it further extended its authority to Timbuktu.
The internal discord of the last Alouites had at that time already left the throne to a dynasty which had replaced theirs in 1648. This dynasty, also from Tafilet, had for its founder the Sharif Moulay, died in 1652. The reign the most brilliant of the sovereigns of this dynasty is that of Moulay-Ismaïl (1672-1727), a ruthless but energetic prince. The sovereign who came to the throne in 1822, Moulay-Abderrahman, worried about France's ambitions in North Africa, since his capture of Algiers in 1830, joined in 1844 in the holy war of Abd el-Kâder (L ' history of Algeria). But the defeat of his army on Isly, the bombing of Tangier and the capture of Mogador by the French forced him, that same year, to give up supporting the emir. Moulay-Abderrahman died in 1859, and civil war, in the middle of which several contenders disputed the throne with his elder son, Sidi-Mohamed, ignited immediately. This same year, the Moroccans also entered the war with Spain, which preserved along the coasts of Morocco several cities, conquered since the XVIth century, and of which it had made presidents or places of deportation: such Ceuta, Peñon- de-Velez, Alhucemas, Melilla. Conflicts had already arisen over them, but this time the war was more serious. The Marcos was defeated, in particular in two battles, the last of which was followed by the capture of Tetouan by the Spanish in 1860. Peace was then concluded between the two states: Morocco made a cession of territory and undertook to pay a high war indemnity.
The competition between the Germans and the French also had repercussions a few decades later on Morocco., And the European powers would come to an agreement to allow France, already present in Algeria and Tunisia, to extend its grip on Morocco. You have to go back to Cabinet Combes to find the origin of this episode. At that time, Delcasse, Minister for Foreign Affairs, had negotiated and concluded, with Spain, a secret agreement from which almost inevitably resulted the joint conquest of the Moroccan Empire. He had ensured, England's consent by another agreement, the 1904 convention which established the "Entente cordiale". He had done nothing to secure the consent of Germany: negligence all the more reckless since Russia, monopolized by its disastrous war with Japan, could at this time in no way hinder our powerful neighbor.
The results of this temerity were not long in coming. The German emperor made a trip to Tangier (March 31, 1905) full of threats to France. Rouvier, then President of the Council, justly afraid of the dangers that such an adventure could put us at risk, resolved to convene, before going any further, in Algeciras (January 1906), a conference in which all the great powers would be represented, this who had brought about Delcasse's resignation. The Conference, where almost all the great powers, even Italy, once again the friend of France, had declared themselves in favor of the latter had regulated, by a solemn act, the conditions of French intervention in Morocco , granting France and Spain a police right, by means of instructing officers and non-commissioned officers that the two countries would supply to the Moroccan troops, but guaranteeing to all the nations an absolute equality for the trade and the exploitation of natural resources and the economic regime of Morocco.
Soon, the assassination of a Frenchman, Dr. Mauchamp, in Marrakech (1907), then of two Europeans in Casablanca, led France to engage in the great Empire of West Africa military operations which should not cease expand. We went to bomb and take Casablanca. In the meantime, the Sultan. Abd and Aziz, who had dealt with the French, saw his brother, Moulay Hafid, revolt against him and be proclaimed in his place. France did not defend Abd and Aziz, and Moulay Hafid, to have his authority recognized by Europe, accepted the treaties concluded, including the act of Algeciras. But Fez, the capital of the Empire, was in the midst of an insurrection. General Moinier marched on the city with significant forces and entered it without striking a blow. But the supply column which followed him with Colonel Gouraud was attacked and had to sustain furious fights (1911).
Germany began to cause incident after incident, chicane sur chicane, for French operations in Morocco. These were, in 1908, the incidents in Casablanca, in connection with the arrest, by the gendarmes, of deserters from the foreign legion whom a junior agent of the German ambassador accompanied and tried to protect. It was necessary to resort to an arbitration which Germany did not accept without difficulties. The affair ended in November with a compromise signed in Berlin. Morocco thus became a protectorate of France, then a colony, until the independence acquired in 1956.
-
Rabat: the mausoleum of Mohammed V.
The mausoleum of Mohammed V, in Rabat. It contains his grave, as well as those of his
two sons, King Hassan II and Prince Abdallah. Source: The World Factbook.
Michel Abitbol, History of Morocco, Perrin 2009.
A masterpiece covering the history of Morocco from Antiquity to the present day, this study by Michel Abitbol throws a whole new light on the past of this country which unique links attach to France and Europe. Political, social, economic and cultural analyzes intermingle in this immense fresco that takes into account all the human components that make up the richness and originality of Moroccan civilization: Berbers, Arabs, Jews and Europeans.
The work of Michel Abitbol studies with the same seriousness and the same requirement of distant periods like the Roman era and the beginnings of the Arab-Muslim conquest and those closer like the ascent of the Alaouites, the establishment of the French Protectorate ( and Spanish) and independence. He analyzes with the same abundance of details the work and the action of characters who have become legendary like Moulay Idris, founder of Fez, '' Almoravide Youssef B. Tashfin, builder of Marrakech, Almohade Abd al-Mu'min whose l he empire extended from Andalusia to Libya and Ahmad Al-Mansour, the conqueror of Timbuktu and western Sudan. Or Moulay Isma'il, a contemporary of Louis XIV and his great-great-grandson Mohammed V and Hassan II who presided over the destinies of the Cherifian kingdom until the end of the 20th century.
The fruit of many years' work in the libraries and archives of several countries, it is a veritable "biography" of Morocco, from its birth to the present day, that the author gives us today . Since the work of Charles-André Julien and Roger le Tourneau 50 years ago, this is the only study that is as complete, as rigorous and as meticulous. The multitude of facts related, on the basis of European and Arab sources, far from harming and weighing down brings a picturesque and original note to this table and contributes to leaving to Morocco the warmth of its colors, its life and therefore its historical authenticity. (Cov.).
Carlos Freire, Amazigh, Berber time travel, Hazan, 2006.
No ethnographic, philosophical or sociological intention in my approach, declares Carlos Freire at the end of his 8500 kilometers traveled in Berber land.
"A passing glance. Places. Faces. The Berbers of Morocco were installed in this territory before the arrival of the Arabs. These people from the Atlas, Rif and Middle Atlas plateaus are our contemporaries. Their life, different from ours, in the magnificent landscape that frames their daily lives, exists in a slower, more contemplative time. The common point which allowed our meetings was the mutual curiosity around the Other, the visitor in their case, the master of the house, in mine.
These are the men and women of the valleys and mountains of Morocco who generously and graciously granted me a gaze during my travels in Berber time.
This time is what we offer to the readers of this book, with my photos, the traditional Berber poems and the text by the writer Driss Benzekri, himself of Berber origin, and my companion in this book: a travel in a Berber time woven of meetings and looks in overturned mirrors. ” (Cov.).
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