Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Footloose & Duty-Free in Tangier
Order became increasingly difficult to maintain in Moroccan cities and in Berber moun-
tain strongholds, and Moulay Hassan employed powerful Berber leaders to regain control
- but accurately predicting Moulay Hassan's demise, some Berbers cut deals of their own
with the Europeans. By the time Moulay Hassan's teenage successor Sultan Moulay Ab-
delaziz pushed through historic antidiscrimination laws to impress Morocco's erstwhile
allies, the Europeans had reached an understanding: while reforms were nice and all, what
they really wanted were cheap goods. By 1880, Europeans and Americans had set up their
own duty-free shop in Tangier, declaring it an 'international zone' where they were above
the law and beyond tax collectors' reaches.
But the lure of prime North African real estate proved irresistible. By 1906, Britain had
snapped up strategic waterfront property in Egypt and the Suez; France took the prize for
sheer acreage from Algeria to West Africa; Italy landed Libya; Spain drew the short stick
with the unruly Rif and a whole lot of desert. Germany was incensed at being left out of
this arrangement and announced support for Morocco's independence, further inflaming
tensions between Germany and other European powers in the years leading up to WWI.
According to the 2010 Human Development Index, 28.5% of Moroccan households are poor,
and another 11.4% are at risk. Moroccan oicials dispute the validity of these statistics, pla-
cing the poverty igure nearer 9%.
