Morocco



Morocco Geography-  This kingdom is located in North Africa and is slightly larger than California with an area of 446,550 square miles worth of land. It is about one-tenth bigger than California and is across from the Straight Gibraltar. of It borders the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, Western Sahara, and Algeria. Its land consists of mostly coastal plains, mountains, and a lot of desert. On the Mediterranean coast there are many mountains and on the Atlantic coast there are a lot of fertile plains. The Atlas Mountains go from the south near Algeria to the northeast The capital city of Morocco is Rabat. Culture-  There were 33,757,175 Moroccans as of 2007 and 99.99% of them are Islam, with the rest being Jewish and Christian. They speak Arabic for daily life, but French for business, government, and diplomacy. Their population as of 2008 was 34,272,968 people. Most of their population is Sunni Muslim or Berber. They gained their independence March 2, 1956 and now have a constitutional monarchy. Their national holiday is "Throne Day" on July 30th. Their ruler is King Muhammad VI and their prime minister is Abbas El Fassi. It was a French colony from 1912 to 1956. Natural Resources- Their natural resources that they have are phosphates, manganese, lead, silver, iron ore, salt, oil, and copper. There are also many areas for fishing since it is so close to the coast of Africa.

Agricultural Resources-   Their agricultural resources are barley, citrus fruits, vegetables, and livestock. Imperialistic Reasons-  France had a "sphere of influence" here because of its location and resources that it has. "Spheres of influence" are when a foreign country has more power and say in politics or economics in an area than the host nation does. There are many uses for its natural resources which made Morocco valuable and made many different countries want to control Morocco and almost cause a couple of wars. The land is mostly very rich in minerals which makes it extremely useful for farming.

Effects on Native People & Colony- While being under the control of France many nationalist political parties started forming and they based their arguments for Morocco's independence on some World War II declarations. They also speak French business, government, and diplomacy even though their national language is Arabic because of being colonized by France. The French interfered with Morocco's trade and foreign affairs which made them dependent on France for money which also in turn weakened Morocco's leaders. The French improved Morocco's roads, railroads, towns, legal system, and then made education more widely available.