French Protectorate & Independence
On March 30, 1912, Sultan Abdelhafid signed the Treaty of Fes, making Morocco a French protectorate — officially not a colony, but in practice a foreign rule that lasted 44 years. Spain received the north (Rif region) and the south (Tarfaya/Ifni), and Tangier became an international zone. General Resident Hubert Lyautey, an unusual colonial official, ordered the preservation of the historic medinas and the construction of European new towns (Villes Nouvelles) alongside them — a decision to which we owe the current preservation of the old towns.
The resistance against the protectorate power was strong from the beginning. In the Rif mountains, Abdelkrim el-Khattabi led a brilliant guerrilla war against Spain and France from 1921 to 1926, founded the short-lived Rif Republic, and inspired independence movements across the colonial world — from Ho Chi Minh to Che Guevara studied his tactics. Only the deployment of over 400,000 French and Spanish soldiers and (illegally) chemical weapons forced him into capitulation.
The Moroccan independence movement (Istiqlal Party, founded in 1944) gained momentum after World War II. When the French exiled Sultan Mohammed V to Madagascar in 1953, protests exploded. Mohammed V became a national hero — his exile united Arabs and Berbers, nationalists and conservatives. On March 2, 1956, Morocco gained independence. Mohammed V returned as king, and the day of his return is still celebrated as a national holiday.
The colonial era left deep marks: the French language as the language of education and business, urban planning with the separation of medina and Ville Nouvelle, the legal system, and an infrastructure that connected Morocco with Europe. At the same time, it displaced local languages and traditions and created economic dependencies that persist to this day.
