The history of Morocco can be characterized by two apparently contradictory features. On a side, many authors insist on his geographical “insularity” - doubled of an original history due to persistence through several millenia of the culture and the language Berber - and on the continuity of a monarchy which goes back to VIIIe century. On another side, Morocco seems the point of meeting of the worlds African, Eastern and European. Genuine crucible of civilizations, it reacted with its character to the training of the empires Phoenician and Roman. It was Islamized as of the VIII E century then was arabisé little by little. To the XIX E century and the beginning of the XX E century, it was the object of the aimings of the European imperialism, before recovering its total independence in 1956.

Ancient Morocco

The traditions reported by the ancient authors make go up to the XII E century before our era Phoenician colonization, even if archaeological testimonies give assured datings only starting from VIIe front century J. - C. the Phoenicians based counters on the coasts of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean. The principal Phoenician cities were Lixus (Larache), Mogador (Essaouira) and Salted (close to Reduction).

The Carthaginians settled there in their turn, to the VI E front century J. - C. celebrates It account known under the name of Périple of Hannon reports the maritime forwarding carried out by Carthage between 475 and 450 av. J. - C., company which would have reached the gulf of Guinea. The successful synthesis of ancient Berber civilization and Phoenician civilization gave rise to civilization Mauritanian, or neopunic. An important Berber kingdom was constituted in the west of the Maghreb, which saw a notable rise of the cities. Salted, in particular, knew moments of splendor under the reigns of Juba II and Ptolémée, his/her son and successor.  

In contact with Rome but not under its domination, the kingdom lost its independence when Caligula, into 40 apr. J. - C., to seize its richnesses, made assassinate Ptolémée in Rome. After a very hard war, the area became a province of the Roman Empire, Maurétanie Tingitane, name of its capital, Tingis (which will become Tangier), but only the North of the current Moroccan territory was subjected. The prosperity of this province rested on the exploitation of the natural resources (produced sea, olive oil), the development of the trade and the construction of cities, of which most famous, Volubilis, delivered carved bronzes, decorations, mosaics and paintings.

In 285, for reasons still badly definite, the Roman administration gave up the major part of the annexed territory. The influence of Rome deeply did not modify the character of the population, although one finds a certain number of marks of them, like the use in the campaigns of the Julien calendar for the agricultural work. On the other hand, christianization, rather clear in the cities to the III E and IV E centuries, will not leave any durable trace. The Roman presence was maintained only in the area of Tangier until the arrival of the Vandals, into 429. After the fall of Rome, the Byzantine Empire in vain tried to control Maurétanie durably.

Islamization

The event which marked until our days the history of Morocco locates at the VII E century: the Arab conquest and Islamization. The entry of the Moslems in the Maghreb was however much slower and difficult that elsewhere because of the sharp resistance of the Berber populations. But the massive conversion of the latter to Islam is a fact (they will be troops besides Berber converts which will cross the Straits of Gibraltar to penetrate in Spain).

It however ran out only thirty years between the first Arab invasion, directed by Oqba ibn Nafaa, which arrived at the extreme Maghreb into 681, and the conquest of Spain, in 711, by Tariq ibn Ziyad, Berbère convert with Islam. On several occasions the Berber ones revolt against the Arab governors and the caliph of Baghdad, but it is remarkable that these many Berber risings, throughout the history, were directed against the Arabs, and not against Islamization; in most case, these movements were done even in the name of Islam. The revolt kharidjite, in the middle of the VIII E century, expressed in the language of Islam the levelling aspirations of Berber and their hostility towards the Arab invaders, who were then driven out of the Maghreb.

Idrisides: first Moroccan dynasty

Of the VIII E to the XVIII E century, several great dynasties followed one another. While in Spain the caliphate of Cordoue was consolidated, Moulay Idris, after having escaped with the massacre of the descendants of the Prophet by the Abbasids, founded the dynasty of Idrisides (VIII E - IX E century) took refuge in Morocco and, into 786, settled in Oualili (close to Morning glory) where he became chief of Aouraba. After his assassination, on the order of the caliph de Bagdad, his son Moulay Idris II succeeded and widens his field to him, Islamizing the worldwide and melting the town of Fès. First capital of Morocco, this city became a great center economic, social, religious and artistic. Ensuring a remarkable synthesis of the influences Eastern and Iberian, Morocco obtained great architectural achievements then, the such Qarawiyyin mosque and that of the Andalusians with Fès. Thus Morocco, as of IXe century, it was well individualized. But, with the death of Mouhammad, son of Moulay Idris II, the Western Maghreb parcelled out itself in several small rival kingdoms.

Berber dynasties

Empire of Almoravides (XIe-XIIe century)
It was necessary to await XIe century so that a tribe of nomads of the desert, religious and large reformers warlike, Almoravides (Al-Mourabitoun, i.e. people of the ribat, strengthened convents), launch out to the conquest of a vast empire. Come from the Sahara, these warlike monks belonging to the Berber tribe of Sanhadjas spread their design of a strict Islamic faith. In 1062, they founded a new capital, Marrakech. Youssef Ben Tachifine carried out for the first time the unification of Morocco (1083). Moslem Spain was in its subjected turn, as well as Sudan, to the kingdom of Ghana. With the death of his/her son Ali, the kingdom almoravide was dislocated and, in 1147, a new dynasty, that of Almohades, seized Marrakech.  

Almohades (XIIe-XIIIe century)
Started from Tinmel (High Atlas) under the impulse a large religious reformer and critic manners, Mouhammad ibn Toumart, Almohades seized Marrakech (where they built the mosque of Koutoubia), made raise the ramparts of Reduction and extended their power to the whole of North Africa. They thus carried out the unit of an immense empire including the whole of the Moslem Occident, i.e. all Berbérie, of the Atlantic with Gabès, and Moslem Spain around amir it Al-mouminin (the “Commander of the believers”), title taken by Abou Yousouf Yaqoub Al-Mansour.

This realization of the unit of the Maghreb, which will be transitory, was to play a very strong part in the imaginary Maghrebian; one can see even there the first steps of what the creation of the Union of the Arab Maghreb (UMA) in 1989 will represent. At the end of one century, Almohades knew in their turn the decline and, at the beginning of the XIII E century, their kingdom knew defeats in Spain and in the Eastern Maghreb. Meknès, Fès, Fold back and Marrakech fell in turn. Hafsides of Tunis, the kingdom of Tlemcen (west of Algeria), Mérinides, installed in Fès, and Reconquista Christian woman in Spain again made burst, and in a durable way, the Moslem Occident.  

Mérinides and Ouattassides (XIIIe-XVIe century)
Mérinides, wandering zénètes originating in the high plateaus of Eastern Morocco, gave itself a new capital, Fès Djedid (“Fès the New one”), founded in 1276 by Abou Youssef Yacoub. Large defender of religious orthodoxy, this last undertook in his turn the construction of many mosques and médersas. The traveller Ibn Battouta and the historian Ibn Khaldoun are the great figures of this brilliant period. The power, victim of bloody fights, weakens after the death of Abou Inan in 1358.

The centuries which followed were one period of relative fold of Morocco on itself. To the XV E century, the dynasty of Ouattasides, after having ruled over Mérinides (1420), ends up supplanting them (1472). At the same time the imperialist aimings of Europe were specified. The Portuguese seized Ceuta (1415) and Tangier (1471), then created counters on all the Atlantic coast; on their side, the Spanishs, after having reconquered the last kingdom Moor of Spain, that of Grenade (1492), crossed in their turn the Straits of Gibraltar and settled in Melilla (1497). The Iberian domination caused a resistance movement main road, cemented by the ideal of the holy war and supported by the chiefs of the religious brotherhoods. The emergence of a power of the sherifs, that of Saadiens (1572-1603), was done day.  

Saadiens (XVIe-XVIIe century)
Originating in the valley of Draa, Saadiens after having eliminated Ouattassides, managed to preserve an independence which at the same time Europeans and the Turks threatened. Started from their capital, Taroudannt, they occupied Under, Marrakech, Fès, took again certain counters with the Portuguese, conquered Tombouctou. In Marrakech, where they established their new capital, their court was brilliant and rich of artistic creations, as the palate el-Badi testifies some. But, in 1603, the shortly after the death of Ahmed Al-Mansour, known as “Gilded” because of its fabulous richness, chaos settled and the brotherhoods became increasingly influential. Again, the country was divided into several principalities which competed between them until the advent of the dynasty of the sherifs alaouites, in the middle of the XVII E century.  

Alaouites
Originating in Tafilalet and descendants in Ali, Alaouites founded to the XVII E century the dynasty which reigns still today. Most famous of the sovereigns, Moulay Ismaïl, the country controlled during fifty-five years (1672-1727). It reorganized Morocco and pacification ensured some, after having carried out a series of military forwardings against the unsubdued tribes, the Turks and the Christians. It thus strengthens the domination of the central power, the makhzen (Arab word meaning “treasure, attic”, at the origin of the French word “store”), on the local authorities of the tribes, jealous of their independence. King builder, it founded Meknès and installed his capital there.

Its death marks the entry during one disturbed time: the mountain revolts, the religious opposition of the brotherhoods, the years of dryness and famine, the epidemics (in particular the plague in 1797-1800) caused a demographic collapse, the rise of the wizards and the fold of Morocco on itself. The reign of Mohammed II Ben Abdallah (1757 - 1790) saw the beginnings of the trade with Europe.

To the XIX E century, the economy entered in crisis and the disorder reigned. The French penetrated in Morocco, in 1844, and gained the battle of Isly whereas the Spanishs seized Tétouan in 1860. Moulay Hassan (Hassan Ier, 1873-1894) however succeeds in maintaining the independence political of the country, but the weakening of the central power, the entry in dissidence of many tribes and the effects of the financial crisis obliged the Moroccan State to negotiate increasingly expensive loans; that of 1904 involved the installation in the Moroccan ports French controllers.  

French protectorate

The conference of Algeciras (1906), which ratified the intervention of the western powers in Morocco, recognized in Spain and France of the specific rights. From 1907 to 1912, a series of incidents caused the intervention of the French Army; in August 1907, the French unloaded in Casablanca, then occupied Oujda, Casablanca and Fès. In spite of the opposition of Germany, the treaty of protectorate, finally imposed to the sultan of Morocco, was signed in Fès on on March 30th, 1912. (In addition, in November 1912, the convention of Madrid placed the north of the country under Spanish protectorate.) The Lyautey general was named first general resident of France.  

Moroccan resistance was sharp, and the many Berber revolts. After the rendering of Abd el-Krim, who raised the agricultural work force in Rif (1919-1926), France conducted a campaign of “pacification” which ended only in 1934; protectorate was replaced by the direct administration. France encouraged rural colonization with the installation of Europeans, who, in addition, introduced new cultures and began the exploitation of phosphates. It also maintained the opposition between Arabs and Berber: a dahir of 1930 withdrew the jurisdiction of the Berber populations to the sultan, person in charge of the Moslem law, and establishes clean courts to them applying the common law.

It was the occasion of an alarm clock of the opposition. Allal Al-Fasi and a group of young well-read men founded in Fès the national party, with for essential claim the abrogation of the dahir. But, whereas was completed French pacification, the first steps of the movement for independence were already felt. The nationalist movement was influenced by the doctrines reformists and the Pan-Arabism which agitated all the Moslem companies then. A Moroccan Committee of action for the reform, created in 1934, claimed the strict application of the treaty of protectorate. In 1937, the Committee separated between Istiqlal (1943) and the Democratic party from independence (1946).  

The defeat of 1940 front the Germans still weakens the position of France. Spain occupied Tangier of 1940 to 1945. During the Second world war, the Moroccan troops fought at the sides of free France, but the meeting between the sultan Mohammed V Ben Youssef and Roosevelt US president at Anfa, in June 1943, accentuated the nationalist claims. In 1944, Mohammed V refused to ratify the decisions of the general resident and, in a speech made at Tangier, in April 1947, started to claim independence.  

The shortly after the war, the food shortage caused a great misery and a strong rural emigration. Resistance to protectorate took a more urban character then. Oppositions rural and urban met after 1950, at the moment when the sultan took a dominating share in the fight for independence. The French government named intransigent general residents: the generals June (1947-1951) and Guillaume (1951-1954).

In 1951, under the pressure of the French authorities, supported by the pasha de Marrakech, Al-Hadj Thami Al-Glaoui, called Glaoui, the sultan was constrained to return his collaborator members of Istiqlal. After having tried, in vain, to negotiate with France, Mohammed V pronounced, in November 1952, a speech requiring the total and immediate political emancipation of Morocco. Supported by France, of notable and the chiefs of brotherhood, with at their head Glaoui, entered a plot aiming then at reversing the sultan: on August 20th, 1953, France deposited Mohammed V, who was exiled in Corsica, then in Madagascar, with his/her sons, of which the future king Hassan II.

A total rupture was established consequently between the new mode and the population, which did not recognize the legitimacy of the sultan set up by France, Mohammed ibn Arafa, another family member alaouite. This refusal covered a political character, monk and economic (boycott of the French products); it was accompanied by a wave of agitation and constitution of an army by release.

Independent Morocco

The conjunction of the insurrections Moroccan and Algerian forced Paris, which chooses to devote the essence of its military effort to Algeria, to engage of the negotiations with the sultan Mohammed V. In 1955, following terrorist acts, France was finally resigned to accept the return of the sultan to Morocco. On March 2nd, 1956 was signed a convention which abolishes the treaty of Fès and recognized the independence of Morocco. The statute of Tangier was abolished (October 29th, 1956). The extent of the popular demonstrations also obliged Spain to put an end to its protectorate, on on April 7th, 1956. After forty-four years of foreign supervision, Morocco found its independence and its unit. Mohammed V returned in her country, acclaimed like the liberator of the Moroccan nation. Since 1958, he announced economic reforms, social and political, and committed himself equipping Morocco, set up in kingdom, of institutions allowing a direct participation of the people the management of the public affairs.  

The reign of Hassan II
Mohammed V died on on February 26th, 1961. His/her son Hassan II succeeded to him. Respecting the promise which it had made his father establish a democratic regime within the framework of a constitutional monarchy, it made approve by referendum, on on December 7th, 1962, a Constitution which instituted the multi-party system and the separation of the powers. The role of the Parliament however was relatively limited. That of the king, on the other hand, was very wide: the monarch named the Prime Minister and the ministers, whom it could revoke with his liking. Chief of the armed forces, it had the power to proclaim the state of exception if the country had suddenly been threatened.

As “a Commander of the believers”, he was the supreme religious leader and took care of the respect of Islam. The years which followed the nomination of Hassan II transfer to burst of the popular riots in Casablanca, Rabat and Fès. The Face of defense of the constitutional institutions, formation progouvernementale, could not obtain the majority with the legislative first. In the incapacity to form a government, the leader of Istiqlal, Allal Al-Fasi, passed to the opposition in January 1963. In July 1963, the government made stop militants of the UNFP (National union of the popular forces), opposition party directed by Al-Mahdi Ben Barka, which had to flee abroad. In March 1965, of the demonstrations of students were severely repressed by the general Oufkir, Home secretary. In June, the state of exception was instituted, the Room was dissolved and the king took the full powers. In October 1965, Ben Barka, condemned to death in absentia for plot against the mode, was removed in Paris and secretly assassinated.  

A new Constitution was adopted by referendum, in July 1971, in spite of the hostility of Istiqlal and the UNFP which gathered in a Face of the opposition and refused to take part in the legislative elections. The discovery of a plot against the king in March 1971 gave place to 180 arrests. Two new attempted murders of Hassan II were to cause a severe repression: on July 10th, 1971, the juniors by the Military academy tried to reverse the king at the time of a reception in its residence of Skirat; on August 16th, 1972, the plane bringing back of France the king escaped from accuracy to the shootings of the Moroccan fighter force. Compromised in the attack, the Oufkir general was found died the following day.  

From 1973, the king, in skilful policy, understood the need for softening his power. The “marocanisation” of the grounds taken again the abroads gave again popular adhesion to him, and the question of the Spanish Sahara enabled him to resolder around its person the whole of the population.  
 The Polisario Face had started its armed struggle in 1973 (Madrid then planned to grant independence to this territory, that Morocco asserted). With the autumn of 1975, Hassan II organized “green Walk”: approximately 350 000 Morrocans answered his call and, “flag at the head and Coran with the hand”, went peacefully to the Western Sahara. This walk had an extremely strong impact inside the country, insofar as all the political clouts, including those of the opposition, except the UNFP, were placed at the sides of the monarch. On the other hand, this question involved a deep crisis between Morocco and Algeria, which gave its support for the movement sahraoui.

The admission, in 1982, of the Arab Republic sahraouie within the OAU constituted a diplomatic reverse for Morocco. The economic difficulties and the measures of rectification recommended by the IMF caused again, in May and June 1981 then in January 1984, of the demonstrations in Casablanca which were severely repressed. Years 1990 however were remembered by the resumption of the dialog with the parliamentary opposition, a certain reduction in the social strains and a beginning of payment of the business of the Western Sahara. On September 6th, 1991, Morocco, having controlled the “war of sands”, signed with the Polisario Face a cease-fire whose coming into effect should allow the behavior of a referendum of self-determination - proposed by UNO and the OAU since 1988 - which will decide future of the populations of the Western Sahara.  

On the internal plan, the Moroccan monarchy, which was also confronted with an Islamism expanding since the years 1970, sought an original model of democratization. Besides Hassan II, eager to modernize her country, endeavoured to prolong the climate of national union which “green Walk had caused”: release of political prisoners, raised censure, elections, recognition of the opposition parties, of which Istiqlal, and legalization of the movements of defense of the human rights.

Under the joint pressure of the interior dispute and will of the king, a new Constitution, approved by referendum in September 1992, widens the role of the Parliament and more clearly affirmed the separation of the powers. Thus, in November 1997, the first legislative elections with the universal poll gave the majority of the seats to the socialist Union of the popular forces (USFP), while the democratic constitutional Popular movement (islamist) obtained six seats in the new Parliament. Appointed Prime Minister by the king Hassan II, the Socialist Abderahmane Youssoufi was charged to form the coalition government. In July 1999, prince Sidi Mohammed, was established under the name of Mohammed VI, after the death of his/her father, Hassan II, king of Morocco since 37 years  

On international plan, Morocco, which adhered to GATT (it is in Marrakech that on on April 15th, 1994 the final agreement of Uruguay Round was signed), took an active part in creation, on on February 17th, 1989, of the Union of the Arab Maghreb (UMA) with Algeria, Libya, Mauritania and Tunisia. In addition, between social dissatisfaction and islamist agitation, anchoring in Europe seems to be of an strategic importance: in 1987, Morocco - whose diplomacy plays an active role in the research of peace in the Middle East - made application form to join the European Community.