Morocco since 1830: A History

Rating:
Summary: A badly needed and accurate history
Review: Morocco was the first nation with which the USA ever signed a treaty of peace and friendship, in June of 1786, and the two countries have been friends ever since. In November, 1942 Moroccan troops helped American troops evict Vichy French troops and the "German Armistice Commission" from Morocco. However, the history of Morocco is not well known in the USA, largely because there has been no good book in English on the subject until this one.

Having been an eyewitness of events in Morocco from 1951 to 1954, and having talked to many residents of Morocco (Arab, Berber, French, etc.) about their recollections, I am deeply impressed by how much Pennell knows about the period I saw or heard about. For example, he briefly mentions a fact I never expected to see in print: that many (perhaps most) of the weapons used by the Moroccan independence movement in the '50s were supplied by American enlisted men and junior officers on bases in Morocco; the weapons were gotten from NATO stocks in Europe and flown secretly into Morocco by US military pilots in USAF and USN aircraft. Because every American involved was risking a general court-martial, they all took great care to keep this traffic a secret. But Pennell mentions it in one sentence, although he doesn't quite get it correct. Amazing that he found about it at all!

I could cite various other facts that I'm surprised Pennell unearthed. However, he doesn't always get the context quite right. For example, after discussing the final phase of French military conquest in 1934, he leaves the impression that French rule in the French "Protectorate" was complete. He seems to be unaware that the fighting in the High Atlas and AntiAtlas had been so difficult that the French unofficially agreed that they would not attempt to establish French rule in certain parts of those areas, provided that the Berber tribes didn't take military action against the French elsewhere.

He also has a difficult time disentangling the activities and motives of Si Thami El Glaoui, the pasha of Marrakesh from 1918 to 1956. This is not surprising; El Glaoui was one of the most complex and enigmatic characters of the 20th Century. Pennell portrays El Glaoui basically as a supporter of the French, and of conservative forces. I believe this is somewhat of a misinterpretation. El Glaoui used the French, and was used by the French, for most of El Glaoui's years in power; however, El Glaoui's primary motive was neither radical nor conservative, neither pro-European nor anti-European, neither a modernizer nor a foot-dragger. El Glaoui's overriding motive was to keep the Berber tribes of Central and Southern Morocco united enough, under his control, to prevent them from being completely subjugated by the French, the Arabs, or anybody else. To do that, he would have made a pact with the Devil, and several times more or less did. This doesn't come across clearly in Pennell's book, although he has his facts straight about El Glaoui's words and actions.

And he fails to convey clearly the unpredictability and occasional intensity of the fighting between the independence movement on one side and the French and Spanish on the other, throughout the period between the start of the independence movement and the achievement of independence. Indeed, by 1952, some senior French civil servants in Morocco considered that the French had already lost, and by 1954 the heart of the Casablanca Arab section was completely under control of the independence movement; no French force smaller than a platoon could enter that area without taking heavy casualties.

Despite such minor quibbles, this is an admirable, carefully researched book, with plenty of source notes and a good bibliography. I believe it will be the standard work on its subject for many years.