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Answer

Who colonized Morocco?

North Africa — the powers that ruled Morocco, the dates, and what independence did and did not change.

In short

Who colonized Morocco?

France and Spain. The 1912 Treaty of Fez split Morocco into a large French protectorate and Spanish zones in the north and south; independence came on 2 March 1956.

Morocco kept its sultan and lost its sovereignty: the protectorate model left indigenous institutions standing as a facade over French administration.

World map showing imperial possessions and spheres of rule in 1914
A world map of imperial possessions in 1914, offered as global context only. It is a single snapshot: countries that became independent earlier, later occupations, disputed borders and differences between colonies and protectorates require the chronology below.Source — Wikimedia Commons

How rule changed in Morocco

These periods describe different governing arrangements. The presence of a trading company, a military occupation and direct colonial government are not interchangeable; the notes preserve those distinctions where the record identifies them.

Political chronology

Rulers, periods and governing arrangements

PeriodRuler or administrationContext
since 1631, sovereign until 1912Alaouite SultanateSee the chronology and context below.
1912–1956French protectorateSee the chronology and context below.
1912–1956Spanish protectorate zonesSee the chronology and context below.

Periods may overlap where control differed by territory. A national independence date does not imply that every enclave or dependency changed status on that day.

At a glance

Key facts

Colonising powers
France, Spain
Independence
2 March 1956
Chemical warfare
Mustard gas used against Rif civilians in the 1920s
Partition
Two European powers, one country, one sultan kept as a figurehead
Enclaves
Ceuta and Melilla remain under Spanish sovereignty

Chronology

Key dates

  1. 1912

    Treaty of Fez establishes the protectorates.

  2. 1921–26

    Rif War; Spain and France use chemical weapons against Rifian villages.

  3. 1953

    France deposes and exiles Sultan Mohammed V.

  4. 1956

    Independence restored.

Context

What the record shows

The Rif War is among the first conflicts in which a European power used chemical weapons systematically against a civilian population.

Questions

Frequently asked

Who colonised Morocco?
France and Spain, under the protectorate system established by the 1912 Treaty of Fez.
Was Morocco a French colony?
It was a protectorate rather than a colony in law, but France controlled administration, defence and foreign policy.
When did Morocco become independent?
2 March 1956.

Read on

Related in the archive

References

Sources — colonial Morocco

  1. [1]Bartolomé de las Casas, Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias (Seville, 1552).
  2. [2]Noble David Cook, Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492–1650 (Cambridge University Press, 1998).
  3. [3]Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America (Monthly Review Press, 1971; English 1973).
  4. [4]Adam Hochschild, King Leopold's Ghost (Houghton Mifflin, 1998).
  5. [5]Thomas Pakenham, The Scramble for Africa (Random House, 1991).
  6. [6]Shashi Tharoor, Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India (Hurst, 2017).
  7. [7]Caroline Elkins, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya (Henry Holt, 2005).
  8. [8]Alfred W. McCoy, Policing America's Empire: The United States, the Philippines, and the Rise of the Surveillance State (Wisconsin, 2009).
  9. [9]Daniel Immerwahr, How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019).
  10. [10]Jürgen Zimmerer, "The birth of the Ostland out of the spirit of colonialism", Patterns of Prejudice 39:2 (2005), on the German South-West Africa → Holocaust lineage.
  11. [11]Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Bogle-L'Ouverture, 1972).
  12. [12]Karl Marx, Capital, Volume I (1867), Chapter 31 ("Genesis of the Industrial Capitalist").

All works cited in good faith for documentary, educational and critical use. Errors and omissions: contact the archive.