Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
widow and makes a thorough fool of him-
self. In both of these plays Moreto makes
artful use of comedy and witty dialogue to
achieve his moral lesson. He also introduces
the figure of the cunning servant who is
more than a mere stock image, but actually
a major character advancing the resolution
of the drama. The clever servingmen of
Moreto are, in fact, prototypes of Beau-
marchais's Figaro and a long line of similar
characters. Although not a dramatist of the
highest rank, Moreto is a genial and pleas-
ing playwright, who made his own distinc-
tive contribution of the literature of the
S
IGLO
DE
O
RO
.
Spain's enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla
were repeatedly besieged during the 1600s
and 1700s. In 1859-60 the Spanish prime
minister, General L
EOPOLDO
O'D
ONNELL
led
a major invasion of Morocco to intimidate
Spain's old antagonist. After an interna-
tional conference at M
ADRID
(1885) and
subsequent negotiations in the early 1900s
Spain emerged as master of a protectorate
over western Morocco as well as several
disputed provinces collectively referred to
as Spanish Sahara.
Beginning in 1911 both Spain and
France, which controlled eastern Morocco,
were challenged by tribal uprisings in their
respective territories. The Spanish conflict
in Morocco came to a crisis in 1921 in the
B
ATTLE
OF
A
NUAL
, when thousands of Span-
ish troops were overrun and slaughtered
while retreating from their overextended
line of fortifications in the interior. Driven
back to their coastal outposts, the Spaniards
came close to complete disaster, and the
political reaction to these events in Spain
precipitated the coup d'état of General
M
IGUEL
P
RIMO
DE
R
IVERA
. By the end of the
1920s the Spaniards, working in coopera-
tion with the French, had regained domi-
nance in Morocco. Fighting in Morocco
during World War II between Axis and
Allied forces and the emergence of a new
Moroccan national movement led to desta-
bilization in the 1950s. By 1956 Spain had
followed France in surrendering her protec-
torate in Morocco, retaining only the Span-
ish Sahara region, which was reorganized
as an “overseas province.” The Franco
regime, which had launched from Morocco
the 1936 military uprising that brought it to
power, retained a symbolic link with
Morocco and the image of past imperial
glory that it represented. Furthermore, dis-
Morocco (Marruecos)
Occupying the northwestern corner of Africa
and facing the Iberian Peninsula across the
Strait of Gibraltar, Morocco and its inhabit-
ants were destined by geographical proxim-
ity for warlike interaction with the Spaniards
and Portuguese. Following the Arab con-
quest of this region in the late seventh cen-
tury, the Moors (or “Moros,” as the Spaniards
called them) joined, under the banner of
Islam, in the invasion of the Iberian king-
doms. As the R
ECONQUISTA
of the Middle
Ages drove the intruders back, Spain and
Portugal repeatedly attacked Moroccan rul-
ers. Portugal conquered C
EUTA
in 1415 (the
first European colony on the African conti-
nent), and Spain took M
ELILLA
in 1497. Both
of these cities would be in Spanish hands
into the 21st century. The pattern of capture
and loss was more varied in the rest of
Morocco. Following the annihilation of a
Portuguese invading army in the Moroccan
desert in 1578 and the acquisition of Ceuta
by Spain two years later, Portugal ceased to
be a significant presence in North Africa.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search