Histoire de la ville de Fes
Situated in the northwest corner of Africa and, on a clear day, visible from the Spanish coast, Morocco has resisted outside invasion while serving as a meeting point for European, Arabian, and African civilizations throughout history. Its early inhabitants were Berber-speaking nomads; many of these became followers of Christianity and Judaism, which were introduced during a brief period of Roman rule. In the late 7th century, Arab invaders from the East brought Islam, which gradually assimilated into local Berber culture. Orthodox (Sunnite) Islam triumphed over various sectarian tendencies in the 12th and 13th centuries under the doctrinally rigorous Almohad dynasty.
The Christian reconquest of Spain in the later Middle Ages brought waves of Muslim and Jewish exiles from Spain to Morocco, injecting a Hispanic flavour into Moroccan urban life. Apart from some isolated coastal enclaves, however, Europeans failed to establish a permanent foothold in the area. In the 16th century, Ottoman invaders from Algeria attempted to add Morocco to their empire, thus threatening the country's independence. They, too, were thwarted, leaving Morocco virtually the only Arab country never to experience Ottoman rule. In 1578, three kings fought and died near Ksar el-Kebir (Alcazarquivir), including the Portuguese monarch Sebastian. This decisive battle, claimed as a Moroccan victory, put an end to European incursions onto Moroccan soil for three centuries. The 17th century saw the rise of the 'Alawite dynasty of sharifs, who still rule Morocco today. This dynasty fostered trade and cultural relations with sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, and the Arab lands, though religious tensions between Islam and Christendom often threatened the peace.
When March 30, 1912 Morocco became a French protectorate. In return, the French guaranteed that the status of the sultan and his successors would be maintained. Provision was also made to meet the Spanish claim for a special position in the north of the country; Tangier, long the seat of the diplomatic missions, retained a separate administration.
In establishing their protectorate over much of Morocco, the French had behind them the experience of the conquest of Algeria and of their protectorate over Tunisia; they took the latter as the model for their Moroccan policy. There were, however, important differences. First, the protectorate was established only two years before the outbreak of World War I, which brought with it a new attitude toward colonial rule. Second, Morocco had a tradition of a thousand years of independence; though it had been strongly influenced by the civilization of Muslim Spain, it had never been subject to Ottoman rule. These circumstances and the proximity of Morocco to Spain created a special relationship between the two countries.
Morocco was also unique among the North African countries in possessing a coast on the Atlantic, in the rights that various nations derived from the Act of Algeciras, and in the privileges that their diplomatic missions had acquired in Tangier. Thus, the northern tenth of the country, with both Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts, together with the desert province of Tarfaya in the southwest adjoining the Spanish Sahara, were excluded from the French-controlled area and treated as a Spanish protectorate. In the French zone, the fiction of the sultan's sovereignty was maintained, but the French-appointed resident general held the real authority and was subject only to the approval of the government in Paris. The sultan worked through newly created departments staffed by French officials. The negligible role that the Moroccan government (makhzan) actually played can be seen by the fact that Muhammad al-Moqri, the grand vizier when the protectorate was installed, held the same post when Morocco recovered its independence 44 years later; he was by then more than 100 years old. As in Tunisia, country districts were administered by contrôleurs civils, except in certain areas such as Fès, where it was felt that officers of the rank of general should supervise the administration. In the south certain Berber chiefs qa'ids, of whom the best known was Thami al-Glaoui, were allowed to remain semi-independent.
In 1956, the Spanish authorities were taken by surprise when the French decided to grant independence to Morocco. A corresponding agreement with the Spanish was nevertheless reached on April 7, 1956, and was marked by a visit of the sultan to Spain. The Spanish protectorate was thus brought to an end without the troubles that marked the termination of French control. With the end of the Spanish protectorate and the withdrawal of the Spanish high commissioner, the Moroccan khalifah, and other officials from Tétouan, the city again became a quiet, provincial capital. The introduction of the Moroccan franc to replace the peseta as currency, however, caused a great rise in the cost of living in the former Spanish area, along with difficulties brought on by the introduction of French-speaking Moroccan officials. In 1958-59 these changes generated disorders in the Rif region. Tangier, too, lost much of the superficial brilliance it had developed as a separate zone. As in the former French Zone, there ensued a great drop in the number of European and Jewish inhabitants. The southern protectorate area of Tarfaya was handed back to Morocco in 1958, while the Spanish unconditionally gave up Ifni in 1970, hoping to gain recognition of their rights to Melilla and Ceuta.
Ceuta, on the Strait of Gibraltar, and Melilla, farther east on the Mediterranean coast, continue to be Spanish presidios on Moroccan soil, both with overwhelmingly Spanish populations. In October 1978 the United States turned over to Morocco a military base, its last in Africa, at Kenitra.
