MOROCCAN QUESTION

name given to the final phase of european imperialist rivalries over morocco, 1900–1912.

Morocco owed its continued independence into the twentieth century to its rugged topography and combative rural populations, as well as the ability of Moroccan diplomats to play off the European powers against one another. In 1900 the diplomatic stalemate was broken when France annexed territories claimed by Morocco.

Each of the chief European rivals for Morocco—France, Britain, Spain, Germany, and Italy—cited reasons why its claims on Morocco should be recognized. Each cited historic and material interests, as well as nationalist ones, in justification. None took any cognizance of Moroccan wishes in the matter.

Between 1900 and 1904, French Foreign Minister Théophile Delcassé persuaded Spain, Italy, and Britain to renounce claims to Morocco by a series of bilateral agreements. Germany was not consulted and sought to compel France to grant it comparable territories elsewhere, which it did in 1911. By the 1912 Treaty of FES, an independent Morocco ceased to exist. The Moroccan Question is generally portrayed as a chapter in the diplomatic history of Europe. But Moroccans also played a major role in both its unfolding and its ultimate resolution. Sultans Abd al-Aziz (1884–1908) and Abd al-Hafid (1908–1912) opposed French ambitions, but ended up acquiescing to the inevitable. Moroccan official pusillanimity and European troop landings between 1902 and 1912 were opposed by various popular rebellions, peasant revolts, and millenarian movements.

Bibliography

Andrew, Christopher. "The Entente Cordiale from Its Origins to the First World War." In Troubled Neigh-bours: Franco–British Relations in the Twentieth Century, edited by Neville Waites. London: Weidenfeld, 1971.

Burke, Edmund, III. Prelude to Protectorate in Morocco: Precolonial Protest and Resistance, 1860–1912. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976.

edmund burke iii