The Moroccan Nationalist Movement and its Anticolonial Activism from 1925 to 1944

Abstract

During the latter part of the Nineteenth Century, the European colonial rivalry over Morocco intensified. The European powers targeted the North African country because of its strategic location and rich natural resources. Hence, after establishing the French and Spanish Protectorates over Morocco, the colonial powers started to implement their exploitative policies in the Sherifian Kingdom. Those policies provoked the Moroccan people, who refused any foreign presence in their country and pushed them to engage in armed resistance. However, the failure of the armed resistance to liberate Morocco and the emergence of a new generation saturated with the spirit of peaceful resistance contributed to the birth of the Moroccan nationalist movement as a political organization aiming to confront the colonizers’ plans and ambitions by peaceful means. The present paper is intended to highlight the political struggle of the Moroccan nationalist movement from its inception to 1944. More specifically, the paper aims to outline the factors contributing to the emergence of the movement and the means of actions it adopted in its peaceful struggle against colonialism. Finllay, it discusses the historical events that encouraged the nationalist movement to move from calling for reforms to calling for full independence.