Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
UNDERSTAND MOROCCO
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Morocco Today
Mohammed VI has ruled since 1999 and overseen small but reformist steps, including elec-
tions, and the Mudawanna, a legal code protecting women's rights to divorce and custody.
The king has also forged closer ties with Europe and overseen a tourism boom, aided in
great part by the arrival of European budget airlines. Morocco's human-rights record is one
of the cleaner in North Africa and the Middle East, though repressive measures were re-
vived after September 11 and the 2003 Casablanca bombings.
Clever politicking by Mohammed VI saw the sting drawn from the Arab Spring when re-
volutionary events overtook Tunisia and Egypt. The nascent 20 February protest movement
was overtaken by the announcement of a new constitution in 2011, drafted without con-
sultation but approved in a national referendum. Amazigh, the main Berber language, was
granted official language status, although political power continues to be concentrated in
the palace rather than in a move to a more constitutional monarchy.
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History
Berbers & Romans
Morocco's first-known inhabitants were Near Eastern nomads who may have been distant
cousins of the ancient Egyptians. Phoenicians appear to have arrived around 800 BC. When
the Romans arrived in the 4th century BC, they called the expanse of Morocco and western
Algeria 'Mauretania' and the indigenous people 'Berbers', meaning 'barbarians'.
In the 1st century AD, the Romans built up Volubilis into a city of 20,000 (mostly Ber-
ber) people, but emperor Caligula declared the end of Berber autonomy in North Africa in
AD 40. However, Berber rebellions in the Rif and the Atlas ultimately succeeded through a
campaign of near-constant harassment.
As Rome slipped into decline, the Berbers harried and hassled any army that dared to in-
vade, to the point where the Berbers were free to do as they pleased.
