Morocco in The 50s (HD)

Morocco in The 50s

Here is a playlist of five videos of Morocco in the 50s, in color and HD, the videos are:

Casablanca Morocco in the 50s

Rabat Morocco in the 50s

Marrakech Morocco in the 50s

Fes Morocco in the 50s

Meknes Morocco in the 50s

Enjoy:

History of Morocco: French and Spanish protectorates

[Source: Wifipedia]

A second "Moroccan crisis" provoked by Berlin increased European Great Power tensions, but the Treaty of Fez (signed on March 30, 1912) made Morocco a protectorate of France. By the same treaty, Spain assumed the role of protecting powerover the northern and southern (Ifni) zones on November 27 of that year. Spain was given control of pieces of Morocco in the far north (Protectorate of Tetuan) and south (Cape Juby). Tangier received special international status. From a strictly legal point of view, the treaty did not deprive Morocco of its status as a sovereign state. Theoretically, the sultan remained the sole source of sovereignty. He reigned, but he did not rule. The treaty triggered the 1912 Fez riots.

Under the protectorate, French civil servants allied themselves with the French settlers (colons) and with their supporters in France to prevent any moves in the direction of Moroccan autonomy. As pacification proceeded, the French government promoted economic development, particularly the exploitation of Morocco's mineral wealth, the creation of a modern transportation system, and the development of a modern agricultural sector geared to the French market. Tens of thousands of colons entered Morocco and bought up large amounts of the rich agricultural land. Interest groups that formed among these elements continually pressured France to increase its control over Morocco.

Independent Morocco: since 1956

In late 1955, Mohammed V successfully negotiated the gradual restoration of Moroccan independence within a framework of French-Moroccan interdependence. The sultan agreed to institute reforms that would transform Morocco into a constitutional monarchy with a democratic form of government. In February 1956, Morocco acquired limited home rule. Further negotiations for full independence culminated in the French-Moroccan Agreement signed in Paris on March 2, 1956. On April 7 of that year France officially relinquished its protectorate in Morocco. The internationalized city of Tangier was reintegrated with the signing of the Tangier Protocol on October 29, 1956. The abolition of the Spanish protectorate and the recognition of Moroccan independence by Spain were negotiated separately and made final in the Joint Declaration of April 1956.^[16]Through this agreement with Spain in 1956 and another in 1958, Moroccan control over certain Spanish-ruled areas was restored, though attempts to claim other Spanish possessions through military action were less successful.

In the months that followed independence, Mohammed V proceeded to build a modern governmental structure under aconstitutional monarchy in which the sultan would exercise an active political role. He acted cautiously, having no intention of permitting more radical elements in the nationalist movement to overthrow the established order. He was also intent on preventing the Istiqlal from consolidating its control and establishing a single-party state. In August 1957, Mohammed V assumed the title of king.

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Morocco: The best of in 2 minutes

Morocco: The best of in 2 minutes

This post is about letting you know that the link to the slidshow about Morocco and moroccan cities I have posted before has been changed, and it doesn't let me change it in the older post, so I have decided to post it again, in a wider video because the last one was in a small screen.

The video shows pictures and landscaped about the most beautiful cities and places in morocco that you should visit, from the north to south, east to west, desert to the beach, forests to mountains..

cities shown in this video: Agadir, Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakech, Ouarzazat, Ouzoud (Azilal), Ifrane, Tangier, Tetouan, Asila, Fes, Meknes, Martil, Taghazout, Merzouga, Erfoud, Chefchaouen (or Chaouen/Chawen for short),

Enjoy!

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Meknes

Meknes

Meknes (Arabic: مكناس‎, Amazigh: ⵎⴽⵏⴰⵙ Mknas or Ameknas, French: Meknès, Spanish: Mequinez) is a city in northern Morocco, 130 kilometres (81 mi) from the capital Rabat and 60 kilometres (37 mi) from Fes. It is served by the A2 expressway between those two cities and by the corresponding railway. Meknes was the capital of Morocco under the reign of Moulay Ismail (1672–1727), before it was relocated to Marrakech. The population is 985,000 (2010 census). It is the capital of the Meknes-Tafilalet region. Meknes is named after a Berber tribe which was known as Miknasa (native Berber name: Imeknasen) in the medieval North African sources.

Meknes in the 50s:

More Photos of Meknes:

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Morocco: History (part 2)

Morocco: History (part 2)

Part one here

booking a tour or an excursion around the imperial cities and historical sights of morocco can't be done without knowing a little about the history, in those two parts you will find a short description about moroccan history and you get an idea about the cultural diversity.

Roman, and sub-Roman Morocco

Initially the Berber kings ruled overshadowing Carthage and Rome, often as satellites, allowing Roman rulership to exist.

Roman coins excavated in Essaouira, 3rd century.

But after the fall of Carthage, the area was annexed to the Roman Empire in AD 40. Rome controlled the vast, ill-defined territory through alliances with the tribes rather than through military occupation, expanding its authority only to those areas that were economically useful or that could be defended without additional manpower. Hence, Roman administration never extended outside the restricted area of the northern coastal plain and valleys. This strategic region formed part of the Roman Empire, governed as Mauretania Tingitana.

Roman historians (like Ptolemeus) considered that all actual Morocco until the Atlas mountains was part of the Roman Empire. During the time of Augustus, Mauretania was a vassal state and his rulers (like Juba II) controlled all the areas south of Volubilis. But the effective control of Roman legionaries was until the area of Sala Colonia (the castra "Exploratio Ad Mercurios" south of Sala is the southernmost discovered until now). Some historians believe the Roman frontier reached actual Casablanca, founded by Romans as a port.

During the reign of Juba II Emperor Augustus (who created in the area of what is now northern Morocco 12 colonies with retired Roman legionaries) had already founded three colonias, with Roman citizens, in Mauretania close to the Atlantic coast: Iulia Constantia Zilil, Iulia Valentia Banasa and Iulia Campestris Babba.

This western part of Mauretania was to become the province called Mauretania Tingitana shortly afterwards. The capital was the rich emporium of Volubilis.

In those centuries, the area controlled by Rome had great economic development. Helped by the construction of Roman roads. The area was initially fully under control of Rome and only in the mid-2nd century was built a limes south of Sala and until Volubilis.

Roman control reached the area of Casablanca, then called Anfa according to Leo Africanus: it was used as a port by the Phoenicians and later the Romans.

In his book "Wasf Afriquia" Hassan Al Wazan (nicknamed Leo Africanus) refers to "Anfa" (ancient Casablanca) as a great city which was founded by the Romans. He also believed that Anfa was the most prosperous city on the Atlantic coast because of its fertile land.

Around 278 AD Romans moved their regional capital to Tanger and Volubilis started to lose importance.

The region remained a part of the Roman Empire until 429 AD as the Vandals overran the area and Roman administrative presence came to an end.

Indeed in the 5th century, the region fell to the Vandals, Visigoths, before being recovered by the Romans in rapid succession. During this time, however, the high mountains of most of modern Morocco remained unsubdued, and stayed in the hands of their Berber inhabitants.

Christianity was introduced in the 2nd century and gained converts in the towns and among slaves and Berber farmers. By the end of the 4th century, the Romanized areas had been Christianized, and inroads had been made as well among the Berber tribes, who sometimes converted en masse. But schismatic and heretical movements also developed, usually as forms of political protest. The area had a substantial Jewish population as well.

The Berber Empires

Morocco reached its height under a series of Berber dynasties, that arose south of the Atlas Mountains and expanded their rule northwards, replacing the local rulers. The 11th and 12th centuries witnessed the founding of several great Berber dynasties led by religious reformers and each based on a tribal confederation that dominated the Maghrib (also seen as Maghreb; refers to North Africa west of Egypt) and Al-Andalus for more than 200 years. The Berber dynasties (Almoravids, Almohads, Marinids and Wattasids) gave the Berber people some measure of collective identity and political unity under a native regime for the first time in their history, and they created the idea of an "imperial Maghrib" under Berber aegis that survived in some form from dynasty to dynasty. But ultimately each of the Berber dynasties proved to be a political failure because none managed to create an integrated society out of a social landscape dominated by tribes that prized their autonomy and individual identity.

In 1559, the region fell to successive Arab tribes claiming descent from the Prophet Muhammad: first the Saadi Dynasty who ruled from 1554 to 1659 and then the Alaouites, who founded a dynasty that has remained in power since the 17th century.

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Morocco: History (part 1)

Morocco: History (part one)

If you are interested in tours and excurions around imperial cities and historical places you may also be interested in knowing a little bit about the history of morocco

Prehistoric Morocco
In 1971 the fossilised bones of a 400,000 year old early human ancestor was discovered at Sale. In 1991 the bones of several very early Homo sapiens were discovered at Jebel Irhoud that are at least 160,000 years old[1]. In 2007 small perforated sea shell beads were discovered in Taforalt that are 82,000 years old, which makes them the earliest evidence of personal adornment yet found anywhere in the world.

The Capsian culture brought Morocco into the Neolithic about 2001 BC, at a time when the Maghreb was less arid than it is today. The Berber language probably was formed at roughly the same time as agriculture, and was developed by the existing population and adopted the immigrants who arrived later. Modern DNA analysis has confirmed that various populations have contributed to the present-day gene pool of Morocco in addition to the main ethnic group which is the Amazighs/Berbers. A very small percentage of those other populations are Iberians and sub-Saharan Africans.

In Mesolithic ages the geography of Morocco resembled a savanna more than the present day arid landscape. While little is known about Morocco settlement in these early times, excavations elsewhere in the Maghreb suggest an abundance of game and forests that would have been hospitable to Mesolithic hunters and gatherers.

The coastal regions of present-day Morocco shared in an early Neolithic culture that was common to the whole Mediterranean littoral. Archaeological remains point to the domestication of cattle and the cultivation of crops in the region during that period. Eight thousand years ago, south of the great mountain ranges in what is now the Sahara Desert, a vast savanna supported Neolithic hunters and herders whose culture flourished until the region began to desiccate as a result of climatic changes after 4000 BC.

Phoenicians on the coast
Phoenician traders, who had penetrated the western Mediterranean before the 12th century BC, set up depots for salt and ore along the coast and up the rivers of the territory that is now Morocco. The arrival of Phoenicians heralded many centuries of rule by foreign powers for the north of Morocco. Major early substantial settlements of the Phoenicians were at Chellah, Lixus and Mogador, with Mogador being a Phoenician colony as early as the early 6th century BC. Carthage developed commercial relations with the Berber tribes of the interior and paid them an annual tribute to ensure their cooperation in the exploitation of raw materials.

By the 5th century BC, Carthage had extended its hegemony across much of North Africa. By the 2nd century BC, several large, although loosely administered, Berber kingdoms had emerged.

Read Part two here

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