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North Africa was once one of the richest provinces of the Roman Empire. In the 3rd century AD the Imperial family, a third of the Roman senate and a third of the knights came from North Africa. Morocco was on the fringe of this golden age. No road connected it to the rest of North Africa and it was more often than not treated as a subsidiary of Spain.
Unlike other North African nations, Morocco has been largely occupied by one group people for as long as recorded history can recall. The Berbers, or Imazighen (men of the land), settled in the area thousands of years ago and at one time controlled all of the land between Morocco and Egypt. Divided into clans and tribes, they have always jealously guarded their independence. It's this fierce independence that has helped preserve one of Africa's most fascinating cultures.
The early Berbers were unmoved by the colonising Phoenicians and Romans, although the Romans ushered in a long period of peace during which many cities were founded, and the Berbers of the coastal plains became city dwellers.
When Christianity arrived in the 3rd Centuiry AD, the Berbers asserted their traditional dislike of centralised authority by following Donatus (a Christian sect leader who claimed that the Donatists alone constituted the true church). The Arab armies bought Islam to Morocco in the 7th century and controlled all of North Africa by the start of the 8th century. By the next century much of North Africa had fragmented, with the move towards a united Morocco steadily growing. A fundamentalist Berber movement emerged from the chaos caused by the Arab invasion, overrunning Morocco and Muslim Andalusia (in Spain). The Almoravids founded Marrakesh as their capital, but they were soon replaced by the Almohads.
After a number of short-lived dynasties rose and fell, the Alawite family secured a stranglehold in the 1630s that kept Morocco independent for more than three centuries. In the early 1800s, Moroccan piracy in the Mediterranean was a huge problem for Britain and the US. Late in that century, France, Spain and Germany all wanted Morocco for its strategic position and rich trade resources. France won out and occupied virtually the entire country by 1912. Spain clung to a small coastal protectorate and Tangier was declared an international zone. The first French resident-general, Marshal Lyautey, respected the Arab culture and made Rabat on the Atlantic coast the new capital and developed the port of Casablanca.
Casablanca
The origins of Casablanca trace to the medieval town of Anfa set on a small plateau which is now one of the city's suburbs. Anfa became the capital of a Berber principality in the aftermath of the Arab invasions of the 7th and 8th centuries. The Berbers embraced Islam but quickly succumbed to heretical doctrines, setting up their own prophet and a "qur'an" in Berber language.
Under the reign of Sidi Mohamed ben Abdallah (1757-1790) the town was rebuilt with a mosque, madrasah, hammam and a fort and renamed Dar Al Beida (The White House) which the Spanish eventually translated to Casablanca after trade became well established with merchants from Cadiz and Madrid.
After a rebellion led by the caid of Dar Al Beida zawiyya, Sultan Moulay Sliman closed the port and diverted all trading with Europe to Rabat.
In 1830 Sultan Moulay Abdal Rahman re-opened Dar Al Beida harbour but business remained sluggish for some time and the city remained small with a population of no more than 600.
In the mid-19th century Casablanca began to grow as a result of regular sea traffic between Europe and Morocco. European textile manufacturers needed new sources of raw materials, and French merchants arrived to negotiate the purchase of Moroccan cereals.
Commercial relations between Casablancaand Europe became stronger with the development of the city's harbour facilities and the establishment of regular maritime services between Morocco and Marseilles. French influence in Morocco increased throughout the remainder of the 19th century.
Tangier
This three thousand year-old trading city commands the one generous bay on the southern shore of the Straits of Gibraltar. According to Greek mythology Tangier, or Tingi, was founded by the giant Anteus. Tingi is mentioned by Carthagenian travellers as early as 500 B.C. and is known to have been visited by Phoenician sailors earlier than that. After the destruction of Carthage, Tingi was affiliated with the Berber kingdom of Mauretania. It then became an autonomous state under Roman protection, eventually becoming a Roman colony in the 3rd century A.D., and the capital of Roman Morocco, and ending as the capital of Mauretania Tingitana.By the 14th century Tangier became a major Mediterranean port frequented by European trading vessels bringing cloth, spices, metals and hunting birds in exchange for leather, wool, carpets, cereals and sugar. For nearly three centuries the town was passed back and forth between the Spanish, Portuguese and finally the English, when it was given to Charles II as part of the dowry from Catherine of Braganza. The English granted Tangier a charter which made the city equal to English towns.
By the, Tangier was an international port city, which the British ruled until Sultan Moulay Ismail imposed a blockade which forced the British to withdraw. Upon leaving, the British destroyed the city and its port. Although partially reconstructed, the city declined to around 5000 people in early 1800s, but it continued to garner interest from world powers seeking to control the city because of its strategic location.
