History of Morocco: From the First Humans to Today

Morocco's history begins long before writing. At Jebel Irhoud, archaeologists found remains of Homo sapiens about 300,000 years old, among the oldest known anywhere in the world.

The Amazigh, or Berbers, have lived across North Africa for thousands of years, in tribal societies from the coast to the Atlas and the Sahara. Their language, their crafts and their customs are still the foundation of Moroccan identity.

Recorded history begins with the Phoenicians, seafaring traders from the eastern Mediterranean. Between the 8th and 6th centuries BCE they set up trading posts along the Moroccan coast, at Lixus, Chellah and Mogador among others, linking the Mediterranean with the African interior.

Carthage, the greatest Phoenician colony, later controlled much of the coast, until Rome defeated it in the Punic Wars. Tangier, then called Tingis, grew into a port in this period, and the rock-cut tombs above its bay are still known as the Phoenician tombs.

Rome annexed the region in 40 CE and made it the province of Mauretania Tingitana, named after its capital, Tingis: today's Tangier. Roman towns grew, above all Volubilis, now a UNESCO World Heritage site, with its mosaics, forum and triumphal arch.

Rome brought its law, its roads and its farming, olives and grain above all. Roman power was strongest on the northern plains and the coast, while the Amazigh tribes of the mountains and the desert kept much of their independence.

The arrival of Islam in the 7th century was a turning point, bringing a new religion, the Arabic language and new forms of government. In 789, Idris I, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, founded the Idrisid dynasty, and with it the first independent Moroccan state.

The Idrisids founded Fes, which grew into a great centre of Islamic learning; its Qarawiyyin, founded in 859, is often called the oldest university in the world still teaching. Their rule is seen as the beginning of a Moroccan identity separate from the caliphates of the East.

In the 11th and 12th centuries, two Amazigh (Berber) dynasties built the great Moroccan empires. The Almoravids (1040 to 1147), from the Sanhaja tribes of the Sahara, ruled from the Senegal river to al-Andalus in Spain and founded Marrakech as their capital.

The Almohads (1121 to 1269), from the Masmuda tribes of the Atlas, overthrew them and ruled most of North Africa and Muslim Spain. Their reign was a golden age of art, science and philosophy, and their minarets still stand: the Koutoubia in Marrakech, the Hassan Tower in Rabat and the Giralda in Seville.

The Marinids, another Berber dynasty, ruled Morocco from about 1244 to 1465 and filled Fes with madrasas. The great traveller Ibn Battuta was born in Tangier in 1304, under their rule, and journeyed as far as China. They were followed by the short-lived Wattasids (1472 to 1554), while Portugal took ports along the coast, Tangier among them in 1471.

The Saadians, from the Draa Valley, drove back the Portuguese and won the Battle of the Three Kings in 1578. Under Ahmad al-Mansur, Morocco grew rich on trans-Saharan trade and built the El Badi Palace in Marrakech.

The Alaouite dynasty, which still reigns today, took power in the mid-17th century and reunited the country. Sultan Moulay Ismail (1672 to 1727) built a strong central state with Meknes as his capital, and in 1684 his army took Tangier back from England, which had received the city in 1661 as part of Catherine of Braganza's dowry.

In 1777 Morocco became one of the first countries to recognise the United States, and in 1821 the Sultan gave the Americans a building in Tangier, now the American Legation Museum. Through the 19th century Tangier was Morocco's diplomatic capital, home to the foreign legations, as European pressure on the country grew.

In 1905 Kaiser Wilhelm II landed in Tangier to challenge France's plans for Morocco, a crisis settled at the Algeciras conference of 1906. In 1912 the Treaty of Fez made most of Morocco a French protectorate, while Spain took a zone in the north and in the south. The sultan remained head of state, but real control lay with the French and Spanish resident-generals, and French settlers, schools and banks followed.

Tangier was set apart. Under a statute of 1923, it became the Tangier International Zone, run by several foreign powers from 1925 to 1956, apart from a Spanish occupation during the Second World War. It became a city of banks, spies, writers and artists, and on 9 April 1947 Sultan Mohammed V gave a speech in Tangier calling for Morocco's unity and independence.

Nationalism grew throughout the protectorate years, and Sultan Mohammed V became its symbol. When France sent him into exile in 1953, protests and armed resistance spread, and the French government was forced to negotiate.

Morocco regained its independence from France on 2 March 1956, and Spain gave up its northern zone on 7 April 1956. Tangier rejoined Morocco in October 1956. Mohammed V returned to a hero's welcome and took the title of king in 1957.

Hassan II succeeded his father in 1961 and reigned for nearly four decades, building the new state and leading the Green March of 1975. His son, Mohammed VI, came to the throne in 1999 and has overseen reforms, a new constitution in 2011 and large investments in the kingdom's infrastructure.

Tangier has changed with it. Tanger Med, opened in 2007 east of the city, has become one of the largest ports in the Mediterranean, and since 2018 the Al Boraq high-speed train has linked Tangier with Rabat and Casablanca.