Professional Documents
Culture Documents
at the straits
a light rain fall of not over the mountainous and over The result
practical in the plains but a large product some of the best varieties including into our West over with in the region
known
introduced
of Morocco. in origin,
four-fifths is Berber
the practicing independence, an unusual tery, iron and copper with are men for the large interior handicraft cities, all of which feet. The plains are occu? at an elevation of over a thousand with occasional Arab population villages pied by a wandering coast The the plains. folk who have of mountaineer sought cities vigor of food The a mingling possess of the land resides of all these therefore elements. The in the mountains, in the plains. Whatever in the cities. rests upon under successive one leader of recorded fighting its source cultiva?
principally supply rule exists tion and settled historical north formula of the
years through each los? each dynasty up from the south, coming history, in their the the cities in the of its stronger power north, ing across over straits the onset their power Spain. carrying 133
all the
TALCOTT WILLIAMS is familiar between of to you the same all, with and mountainous arts in moun? the same
same
of the north
substratum
Navarre, Hapsburg, came under first great onset on Spain from Africa was Semitic of whom the generals, greatest Hannibal, legion Under in the open field, to the mountaineers Rome from north Africa forays of Marcus Aurelius of north
who owed all his line, the only line which ever destroyed the
as began, show. After
inscriptions reign lesser invasions, in the first conquest many they culminated in the ninth and again of Moorish mountaineers century, led by Semitic wave Arab next The of conquest generals. came under Yusuf came Al who from Mohades, Taschfyn beyond the Atlas and entered which Spain in the same century
in the
which
saw William
of
last, omitting
the northern,
all the thousand years through one family or another has never or Berber, itself to any Mohammedan, in Arab presented those terms of exact, are and rule which exclusive complete the product almost alone after law. is Morocco European lands in having been converted, among Moslem the brief occupation of the coast by Musa, by mission of Roman and
DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS
OF MOROCCO
135
The descendant of Mohammed, ary effort. Idris, grandson in the ninth of Ali, who reached Morocco and century as in founded Fez, carried on a peaceful propaganda. Exactly
Germany
won by conversion shrines
it is possible
the sword
to distinguish
between
those latter
the regions
acquired by old heathen
so inMorocco, and changed, after re-baptized narrow on which litoral fronts the the Mediterranean passing and going south of Fez, one finds the perpetual proof that the to Moslem saints without changed The whole land is therefore shock. Moslem. essentially even villages of the plain, Its village and the whole tribes, the do not in of dwellers look upon the cities, body gathered as sovereign in our jurai sense. He is instead, being as Sultan earlier shrines has been through the female line from the begin? he always all the of and of Moham? under blood descent ning dynasties head Moslems for the of the of purpose med, conducting war with a general order, and acting as the infidels, preserving religious exercise sect head of of the nation. power This carries with it a wide But this despotic ruthlessly In theory, in the strait for any man learned of Mohammedan in Morocco, law which obtains the exercised. pay This of the Koran, believers interpretation a common to the makhzen, contribution is in the hand time has of the descendant been selected of are equal; or treas? were
by remain
and in the
being by in prayer in the great of the Mosque and the use of his name of the of the land as Sultan, and keeper sanctuaries Caliph of of the Emir commander the believers, treasury faithful, el Moumenin. It was but the other day that a sultan was
for the
of a man method rising prescribed by the ancient in Fez, in in the great mosque the worshipers among leading and when the prayer for the ruler came, substituting prayer, a new name. around When the believers joined in the sup? deposed plication, proscriptive the change election. can was legally For Moslem made law and is accepted by a almost alone in
by which
the capture
TALCOTT WILLIAMS were con? of Andalous, as the various treat? lacking, relations nations what between about seemed its to
conquest
on even
four
watched
Rapine,
invincible of Turkish tide conquest. advancing on through battle and war went all the massacre, was a but there Moslem Christian between and mutual period, never in the eastern Mediterranean. relation which existed even handed were relations diplomatic by the merciless persecution suddenly which and con?
These
of that great period of reac? chapter in led into back central the Spain rolling Europe of in tide the south the remains and of past Protestantism, Mohammedan invasion. There is a sense?not always tion when clearly fanciful trative ern 16th remembered?in which this movement was in no a re-conquest interpretation by the great adminis? machine of territories which by Rome bequeathed tribes had had seized occupied in the the in Europe and the south? Iberian The peninsula. time when the first decrees until the the their final
pronounced of treaties,
expulsion by Philip
was marked solemn barity, by covenants the
in 1618,
the
capitulations, and at last the summary pitiless persecution, of nearly half a mill'on men, women and children some Chris? to north Africa, them among including descent and stoned to death whose held in north
from homes
all the fifteen through the stream of savage barbarity, of prisoners becom? no quarter Moor and every every slaves, given, being in fight remembering the torture, the barbarous
treated by the
DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS
OF MOROCCO
137
hate which enemy, sepa? dug the deep pit of measureless in northwest? and Christian rated and still separates Moslem ern Africa. two hundred For nearly 1600 to 1800 the years relations between entire and powers diplomatic European the varying authorities which held the coast in the of Morocco a precarious and preserved in treaties which embraced captives as well as the treaties, fostered the open tian held in slavery other north same sovereignty interior, were for the release of Chris? states. ports of Morocco, These various
for ransom, were line, all providing it was after they were because really needed, of the maritime nations of avowed the policy
to discourage led by England, any flag but Mediterranean, to all other their own by making the sea perilous flags are the frank recognition of Moorish There through piracy. still, near Mequinez, ants of Christian who mixes much of the been inhabited by the descend? become since Moslem. One captives long a in the market with the Moor with place whole villages across is perpetually language coming recall this origin. which have They save for an occasional in the population the Spanish Christian believed visited and the pen?
agnomen, fourth
for while
alty of Moorish
with
of those who generation the Mohammedan him, gives convert. the newest citizenship Our own a century diplomacy another under flag and burned a great vessels change
own deeds
daring
prowess, of the
vessel clipper provided to quarters called and being of the possibility of being
up during
off the coast by Riffian pirates more there is probably than one in
their scanty Cape Cod who had made som American inMorocco. sailors captive
meeting contribution
to ran?
With
century
there
relations of diplomatic chapter a the treaties with which ago century begun a con? and ruthless powerful (1794-1822), with type, negotiated Christian From Morocco excluded as from any the different had Euro? been khan? am? travel repre? in the there residents
of the old
pean powers. as completely ates. bassador permitted sentatives coast was which and a cities little precisely elsewhere, of in A
trip under periodical to the Court of the to a European. was jealously particularly quarter through experience with the which lived on repeated The
guard Sultan
restricted
foreign to Tangiers, and at Mogador and Mazazan and side walled the water of the Hongs Chinese trade was the Moorish of
residence
conditions which
But
administra?
the
as em? exterritorialty the Jewish communities dawn laws. of Moham? The site of
in Morocco,
the first began with own their under apart at Fez was the
bought himself. Prophet therefore the continued principle Europe or accepted it as a part of the common tact. exists aeval trader This times from was was the the that easier because in Morocco
from
in medi? which jurisdiction personal the and guided all over Europe universal still carries which little place on the Thames League in some of its streets by centuries to in Chinese
later warehouses
ports, preceding merchants. of European sense therefore in the modern relations began lines of international under the same general
law which
guided
them in negotiation
with
the Sublime
139 re? so
day
Turkey
singularly the
Exactly of Austrian
secured 1794,
the
so far as any exist. in foreign hands has trader of his own the foreign advantage courts over the native in the Levant, he has in To one who had empire. in the fifties, there was when in the respect similar something paid before the recent revolts, which have prac? the sheriffian as a boy travel in Morocco shown for for the the European last eight 50
respect in outlying But Morocco, unlike parts of Turkey. never a new has been able to organise administra? Turkey, or a successful The army, tion, a disciplined sovereignty. years ago
in Turkey inMorocco
this diffi?
of persecution in the sixteenth and interp?n?? in the Ottoman the mercies of Moslem the Prince Morocco as it was of Sep? which of
face
relations in 1844
bombarded
centuries. The French treaty of negotiations the train 10, 1844, began in the European ended of Algeciras and the pres? conference For ent diplomatic situations. the first time a boundary was de? and its eastern between Morocco neighbor Algeria tember over to give France agreed jurisdiction a area broad the left uncharted tribes; treaty in regard to wandering and desert tribes with provisions were basis of last the These (kessour). villages provisions limited; certain Morocco and
in the
possessions
TALCOTT WILLIAMS in such the English a manner Niger of Sokoto to comprise Company and leave all in the that
fairly belonged to France. These, which Senegal, France which in had enclosed
to the kingdom
all above
to the early and ancient joined rights in one of the very first of its colonies in Morocco in the great edge curve of French and at the northern of Senegal
in France?temporary All enclosed Oudja. side was Algeria and the the exception of the
(Rio Oro),
Bay,
29, 1885, accepted Spanish remnant the solitary 28, 1885, Ceuta, by England January of the expedition to at the of Charles confirmed V, Spain same time as Joinville of treaties October treaty by Spanish
6, 1845. Between
as enclosed been
of Morocco
of strong had sovereigns of in and order interior of the empire the peace degree to an elevation of 1500 or 2000 feet, where the territory the mountain and unentered some traveler But risk. tribes remained little save by Europeans, this unmarked crossed by as an occasional controlled
up of
own boundary in all the ports in the territory them and around in the trade of the interior of the the possession cities, consular trader of protection, trial and the ability European to enforce contracts Moorish the ruthless governors through
by paying
merchant. siderable tive could
areas
to European hands very con? a of land and still larger share of the produc?
who in cattle native and in grain. agriculture Any secure a partner to pay heavily for the could afford
DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS
OF MOROCCO
141
if he had and there were plenty large properties, privilege a very in the coast towns who derived of Europeans livirg as partners. their names fair support lendirg by simply a celerity un of this with took advantage Jewish traders practiced by had the Moor. their The cheap manufactures of Europe
destroyed
which
Moslem
families
an unbroken through of a thousand years themselves numbering Through every sign all reduced
untouched and possessions property of often sacred line, descent, literally and recorded A ancestry, found to beggary. population of Morocco trade Spanish appeared out? colony in Tangiers.
of known
new house and every or farming some represented for its chief had diplomacy too and often the the whole the fraudulent, and intent spirit aid and comfort
but
of contracts
created under imports of revision, which destroyed capable to those which existed similar precisely Portugal, five which had the happier to the fortune
in? and by treaty all local industries, of in the mountains of being now protected in progress. with which
by a high tariff until their final collapse has come in the last
or ten years, their leading revolution the
and
and of the neighborhood, In instance each years ago. with their proportion very large of privates,
"war"
TALCOTT WILLIAMS
of military Under the reports. interpretation of twenty 1859 a war million dollars indemnity and under under that of 1893, four million dollars, sum still to be for received the only return adjusted a prodigal expenditure by was all for the money treasure, in
of?one Spain borrowed?but battle neglect around Bugeaud years tasks. without was ago No and of
say to pay, and of heavy of obligations loss worse to the unspeakable loss by disease due
cannot
military experience Every under Marshal frontier at Casa man Blanca that the two con?
this number would be engaged first and last before the task
completed.
When
began saved the
devastating was over the Americas and Asia, Morocco fought by Europe save in international for the French unnoticed agreement the and acceptance noted. declaration Spain was already
odd exception
which mitting and expenditure
which only a precedent for any acquisition In addition almost any purpose. was negotiated between Great in order to complete
the unchallenged encircling the British agree government empire by France, of the Moorish the government property by purchase African This Company at Terfaya, recognized the better known treaty as Bojador and land between
The sover?
exerted
the basis
of the decision
DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS
OF MOROCCO
143
lish courts
Sutrobe
in deciding
Tourmaline
had no
and the
Trading right to trade Company a of in coast with full possession of local the Moorish portion so far as the sheriffian tribes but forbidden adminis? territory was This tration concerned. of treaties, group including and 1890 and 1895, between France, Spain, England Morocco, Venture
had established for the three countries the principle that the
entire noted, coast was to Senegal, the Spanish down with exception that French the under Moorish and sovereignty in the interior merged with that of Morocco or, was separated to take whenever to the from it by tribes which it desired. three France
was the only one, France, on one, Morocco, European bordering Spain, was the with which had relations had the power longest European and one, Great Britain, the empire, monopolised practically cer? more the trade of Moorish ports. Nothing appeared power
empire than
and later In preparation
subsidised
its aid and countenance gave Moslem ecclesiastical potentates and educated his of Wazan, commissions
a pre? but when youth, on 10 in the mountains years ago bordering appeared so who escaped seizing power Bouhamara, Algeria, narrowly inMorocco and was executed this year at Fez, his payments tender were made in freshly minted French gold for arms and sup? a French minister at which As appeared. plies mysteriously once this about said when it, smilingly questioned Tangier was to the well of the north known confidence "owing African The tribes rest of in the purity the Moslem of French coinage." world Mediterranean had by
in Algeria, them giving of in the expectation service from the usual effect suffered
144 successive
TALCOTT WILLIAMS
under the joint guardianship of Eu? steps passed was an It of international law that rope. accepted principle no change of territory, not even if it came after a victorious war in the Treaty of San Stephano, could take place without the consent necessary when of Europe, to determine the and new any of Unkiar treaty for Egypt from a European was conference for Tur? This began stage. was Skelessi It challenged.
key was
the days of Mohammed Ali. of Algiers needed European acceptance. of Tunis was the fruit of a secret agreement of came later to be the subject which Germany,
This of the ill feeling awak? compacts. experience ened by the failure to consider European relations was a warn? in the Mediterranean would meet ing that any other change with protest. Morocco had been excluded from this horizon. The mutual iality long tangle of which protests in the empire despatches, conventions, had attended the exerise under prescriptive right treaties rather and than of exterritor?
of mutual
the precise regulations which established it in Turkey led to the Madrid Conference in 1880, in which this country was for the first time allied with Europe in the affairs of
Morocco. laid those down resident In as the Madrid to the Conference of general rules were exercise exterritoriality in Mo? the inter? it of
rocco.
agreement
France, Spain and England. Germany to interfere. As soon as the sultan, Mulai
1894?it
cable from
is believed by many
from the German intention out its
France emperor prevented of the descendant carrying seating of Sheriff on the throne. of Wasan no official proof While exists it is so generally so believed and well accredited that I do not think that anyone that the succession in questions despatch
DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS included which means, waters of the Tangiers, cised by the two French
145 in criti?
directly
in terms which
that empire. on went policies that trade overtaking rapidly, its consular gave ministry agents, the travel tance, and encouraged
in the official press of by Germany two contrary ten 1895-1905 years nearly in the empire. extended its Germany its multiplied a new impor? of Germans and exploration teemed German scientific journals of England, in Tangier
the empire. throughout the country, which with them papers upon rapidly made a had which the chief source of opinion upon subject long and English been held explorers. by French exclusively France on the other routes hand steadily continued to extend
its
in case there was customs the right to collect Moorish was certain. There in the interest, which reasonably a over series entire Moorish followed the empire instantly out of outbreaks which made roads even two days' journey of Tangiers to European dangerous and the closed much German between of south Morocco still City or though coast merchants Morocco
travelers, to and fro on passed Fez without challenge. of the position theories
and by one accident all agreements among the diplomatic monopolised continued to act
two years longer these opposing of Morocco continued. Germany, of its independence asserted another, had so long the three powers which For
and France of Morocco, relations as as the French minister declared, foreign " a country which in the had and exclusive rights particular" of The German had on its side the course empire. theory events in the East during The French the last century. theory supported by a related series of acts and facts and agree?
was
felt throughout in regard to this Morocco antagonism can no of France there what? and be policy theory question as seem most ever. to Moors the Ignorant traveler, passing are aware that the fact that a man the East those who know does not change read or write cannot the strength of his
lack of acquaintance and a complete with all modern brain, in a ruler or administrator, or co-exist science may governor a clear and with of statesmanlike the minister, conception for his own country. This any course will have to us in mediaeval but it is im? is familiar almost history, to for the modern the observer realise that average possible same phenomenon in exists all oriental lands like today risks which
Morocco.
All Morocco
The Fez. alities Pretender Rais but
lowing who of the Sultan, had been banished as Pretender aided was
Uli, captured the German, held the historical precedents had failed to a distant
of Morocco.
the past, the elder to secure the succession town beyond the southern
and marching from at every turn by the German merchants of Fez. its asserted tribe and every petty petty Every independence was not to send tribute to the capital. lord ceased Morocco
into hopeless the and hapless but only plunged disorder, and it became clearer fighting spirit of the land was aroused M. Delcass? than ever that the peaceful which usurpature was wholly France promised impracticable. in At this moment, the Kaiser his uttered 1905, July, at Tangier words memorable and dramatically asserted Ger? man is a passage There in Kinglake's "Crimea" policy. had he points out how one great general has and another the tide of battle by suddenly at the critical appearing so far within moment the apparent lines of his enemy that and headlong their defeat retreat was brought about by the in which turned spectacle. stage and A similar keen sense for the center of the world's of senti the exent to which diplomacy is a matter
OF MOROCCO
147
asserted when he suddenly the German Emperor guided of to in share the on Tangiers the German disposition right that to suppose there any reason At no time was Morocco. a to control Morocco, though seriously expected Germany a was Ger? it But in mind. been have easy, by port may to Hafed Mulai aid man clandestine loan to the Sultan, by on his march from the south, by contract secured for works
and finally by
the acquisition to make Convention, a source of weakness, and loss, expense, advantage. had come, in which neither side cared of interna? the broad
in the were
the ethics case, in which on the side of France and action on the side
was to rest with the power certain was tomobilise its army in order to secure its end. resort willing of 1905, the fall of this became When clear in the autumn was of France, and Delcass? certain and the defeat Combes
policy success
international
Taking
which has
diplomatic
was was
advantage
of the Conference
of 1880 in
insisted
the dubious
regard some difficulty in securing so that the presence of a conference give moral support of the conference The United States
of having all its territory, with succeeded at selected the assembly Algeciras, at Madrid should
not
to Spain in Morocco. The full history to at Algeciras written. remains be yet come in rescu? forward had conspicuously by Rais Uli, surrender only effected
ing Perdicaris,
captured
when France found itself face to face with the possibility of the use of force by the United States in In the Morocco.
conference temperament archial and at Algeciras and personal the American relations representative, by in sympathy with mon an important played
not republican Europe, in the for defeat which was a substantial part adjustment, was not as to details France. The real issue at Algeciras but as to whether in the task should appear France alone of pacifying and developing Morocco, or whether France
only rights,
speaking control
rests
equal powers, In a country like over the ra? power natioral was ports divided and be?
service
of Spain, of England, the Bank the Bank extra shares for and the Bank with of France, of Germany, loan bankers who had advanced those French the previous to that all future Morocco whose loans protocol provided should majority by tunity the a hands. This French pass gave France through in the Commission but it gave Germany the oppor? an interference at once made for interference, visible appearance by a small in Tangier. over outburst of German officers to drill the Sultan's and by massacre a loan, by mining concessions, Morocco escaped narrowly
in every the proposed French control in and alone there dwelt, Tangier a and foreigners of every nationality,
eight and ten thousand living as com? laws as a foreign settlement at Sharg a gen? Convention of Algeciras upon agreed its own near its own scanty Spain was to command and Spain were to hold at Tar gier France was here excluded, the coast. along Germany
which
which
a victory in point for France of detail, but this exclusion it possible still rendered to obstruct for Germany the organ? ization of this force. A long tangle of negotiation followed. On July 31, 1907, there came a trivial riot at Casa Blanca, of Dr. Marchand in Morocco preceded by the murder City, the French which offered an opportunity for representative, to act. France needless The with which Casa brutality was Blanca shelled was a massacre out of all proportion, more were criminal than the nine lives which in sacrificed a street than the French prodigious exposed brawl. to have joint Nothing been forced and force could have been Casa and has worse Blanca later been for France first with with the the heavy, has been to military to occupy
French
Algerian
DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS hazards. tion The Casa has The been work of carrying out
therefore
from
Ger? has land, its
Moorish
many England, lost in position and prestige. little order has lost what which foreign checked, another first trade and destroyed, the misery its which
to France, yielded Meanwhile the wretched it possessed, for opportunity broods which over have all has had
to the pitiful chapters of Mohammedan since power freed from the invader This
eight
of Moorish confused all sovereignty conception on the side of the which relations have Europeans diplomatic as in the of Morocco the Sultan insisted as regarding always " " sense while all the people of Morocco sovereign, European extreme and arbitrary however upon his rights, they as limited the for which in be their purpose may exercise, by in the Atlas which for an he exists. Nor is there a village look the view that any sultan accept soil upon which it stood. of both between the This gap conceptions was widened the circumstances civilization by instant would could cede the tended ranean. began reached the ebb of Mohammedan The with advance the Ottoman of Boston of Moslem power of Morocco of at?
systems which
its culmination
Empire in the siege of Vienna, and New York thanksgiving and has continued was reached culmination
of the Turk,
for the
hundred
in the western
of organi? the full height reached century, to ebb, had disappeared zation in the eleventh, and beginning in the same year America. in which discovered Columbus in the ninth
The
has been accompanied ebb in the east Mediterranean in general, not refluent march the steady though by always, on in Bui of the Moslem in Crete, population going today
TALCOTT WILLIAMS
to Greece ceded years territory thirty since the white-crossed For ago, flag was raised there. from the beginning four centuries of Christian in conquest to its triumph in the 15th, no such migra? the 11th century ever tion took been in Spain. of "capitulations" The place system races which Christian lived in the Ottoman Empire exercised for the in the eastern of south, Mediterranean those after of our own centuries, four almost faith. in protection from Galicia
under has
which
treaties
the Christian
and
had
rulers with
of Mahmud, in the first place granted succeeded jects, were by precisely agreements granted by Christian Down interior to the cities end of the fifteenth
matched the capitulations of course a far earlier origin, then Moslem to rulers Christian sub? by rulers and capitulations to Moslem subjects. all the coast and century similar
of Morocco, all the territory of practically was familiar the with of Moslems Spain spectacle living at under Christian rulers and of Christians at peace living so even under Moslem that cities which half peace rulers, a century visited with ago were difficulty by Europeans, like Morocco had City, tolerably as as late the 17th century peans, season was John Smith, the head of Euro? colonies large one for a brief of whom of the Virginian colony,
inMorocco City
in his wandering
life.