Morocco - History & Background

The Kingdom of Morocco is known locally as Al Mamlakah al Maghribiyah or Al Maghreb. Morocco is an Arab-Islamic country located in North Africa. It is surrounded on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, on the north by the Mediterranean Sea, on the east by Algeria, and on the south by Mauritania. In 1976 Morocco annexed the northern two-thirds of the Western Sahara, which was formerly known as the Spanish Sahara. Since the late 1970s, Morocco has been in political and military conflict over its claim to this large phosphate-rich region that has 443 kilometers of land border. The United Nations has managed a cease-fire since 1991. Spain continues to control five areas of sovereignty or plazas de soberania. These include the northern coastal cities of Ceuta (Sebta) and Melilia (M'lilia) as well as the islands of Penon de Alhucemas, Penon de Velez de la Gomera, and Islas Chafarinas. Full sovereignty of the Western Sahara remained unsettled in 2001, and the United Nations plans to hold a referendum on the matter.

Morocco is strategically located along the Strait of Gibraltar. The total coastline of Morocco is 1,835 kilometers excluding the coastal Sahara. Without the Western Sahara, Morocco occupies a total territory of 446,550 square kilometers. The total land area is 446,300 square kilometers.

Morocco is the world's third largest producer of phosphates. Other economic resources include iron ore, manganese, lead, zinc, fish, and salt. Morocco is concerned with a number of environmental issues: land degradation, desertification, and water contamination due to raw sewage and oil pollution. Morocco's global environmental-legal arrangements address climate change, desertification, biodiversity, endangered species, nuclear test ban, ozone layer protection, ship pollution, and wetlands.

In July 2000 Morocco's population was estimated to be 30.1 million people with 35 percent of the population aged 0 to 14 years, 60 percent between 15 and 64 years of age, and 5 percent above 65 years old. The life expectancy for males is 66.9 years and is 71.4 years for females. Ethnically, 99 percent of the population is Arab-Berber (South and Soussi, Middle and Atlassi, and North and Rifi), 0.7 percent is other, and 0.3 percent is Jewish. Most of the population is Muslim (98.7 percent), but 1.1 percent are Christians and 0.2 percent are Jewish. Arabic is the official language, but most Moroccans use Arabic-Berber dialects. French is the language most often used for law, government, business, and diplomacy.

Agriculture dominates the Moroccan economy, but industry, the service sector, and information technology are growing. Since 1956, the year of its independence from France, Morocco has adopted continuous economic plans to enhance its gross national product growth, local aggregate consumption, private investment projects, government and public infrastructure, and macro-interactions with the rest of the world. Most of these plans have been quinquennial (five-year plans). Erratic droughts and imported inflation, especially attributable to high costs of energy, have impacted the plans. The basic tenets of the Moroccan system address human capital formation and education, democracy and the rule of law, technology and resource productivity, inputs supply and cost, transparent governance and optimum public management, and free market economics.

Like its neighbors, Morocco was invaded by many cultures in its long and varied history. Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines, and Arabs all invaded what is now Morocco. The Arabs came at the end of the seventh century, bringing with them Islamic Openness (Infitah Islami). During most of the medieval ages, the sixth through the thirteenth centuries, Moroccan legal scholars, philosophers, historians, geographers, architects, physicians, chemists, sociologists, and economists traveled over the Mediterranean. Learning declined with the rise of internal and external challenges and conflicts. The Renaissance movement in Europe and the domination of the Ottoman Empire over North Africa, except for Morocco, began in the sixteenth century. The Siba (political and legal chaos) movement was followed by French colonization between 1906 and 1956 (Le Régime de la Porte Ouverte or the Open Door Regime).

Throughout the French colonial period, constant efforts were made to Christianize and franchise the Moroccan society. Priests, missionaries, physicians, religious nurses (R'hibates), teachers, administrators, and general residents encouraged and enforced an educational and cultural imperialism. Very few in the population benefited from this system. Less than 10 percent of the population, most of whom were males, enrolled or were allowed to enroll in this French system of education. When allowed, it was with the purpose of creating local bureaucrats. Islam, Arabic, and Islamic philosophy and sciences were not allowed.

After much resistance from the locals, one to two hours of formal Arabic a week were included in the French schools. Local freedom fighters (the Alaouite dynasty, Allal Fassi and the Independence (Istiqlal) Party, Socialist and Liberation Movements, inter alia) adopted and competed with the French by launching several types of schools. Ulema schools taught Islamic theology. Qur'anic schools taught the Holy Qur'an. Madaressh schools taught Arabic and Islam as well as French, mathematics, geography, history, the arts, and the modern sciences.

In 1956 Morocco was politically liberated. The new national government, led by King Mohammed V, centered the public policy on massive education. After Mohamed V's death in 1961, his eldest son, King Hassan II, continued to emphasize the role, values, mandates, and the high socio-economic potential and priority of educating Moroccans. The first Moroccan macro-economic plan was developed for 1961 through 1965. King Hassan II recognized that multidisciplinary education in French and Arabic was paramount.