Previous: Chapter 15 - Morocco CHAPTER 15 - MOROCCOIN A NUTSHELL. Morocco is both old-old and still one of the most recent additions to the family of nations. A bit larger than California in size and with roughly ten million persons, until 1956 Morocco was a French protectorate. This protectorate had been imposed on the Moroccans in 1912 at which time the international powers were gleefully splitting up what little remained of the world not already assimilated. The Spanish took over the northern 7,589 square miles of the country and the French the rest.
But in spite of the fact that the average Moroccan is poorly educated in matters economic and political they do know one thing. If they want to put up with misrule they want it to be Moors who are misruling them, not foreigners. I had the interesting experience of living in Morocco at the time of their successful revolt against the French and Spanish. I watched the parades in the streets, watched the French and Spanish foreign legions try to quell the rioting Moors, who, using him as a symbol, were demanding return of their sultan who had been exiled by the French. I even met various of the gun-runners who were supplying the guerrillas in the interior with arms to battle the hapless French troops. The French finally called it quits and today Morocco is tranquil again. And like all nations she is eyeing tourism with a gleam of avarice. This source of income, Morocco would love to tap. She is making a great push to attract American and other tourists to her sights, and indeed she should be successful. Morocco is handy to the tourist and offers a great deal that is truly different. The majority of tourists, American as well as European, are not in the money bracket to take long trips to the Near or Far East but Morocco offers much the same as you find in those far countries Iraq, Iran, Jordan and Turkey. European countries aren't actually too very different from our own. European
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