Morocco is located in the western corner of North Africa, bordered by the North Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, Algeria and Western Sahara. The capital, Rabat, is located in the north of the country on the Atlantic coast. Morocco’s largest city and the country’s principal port is Casablanca.
The population of Morocco is an estimated 35 million people. The ethnic breakdown is 99% Arab-Berber, 1% other. The median age in Morocco is 29.1 years and the population is growing at a rate of 0.96%. Life expectancy is 73.3 years. The literacy rate is 73.8%. Unemployment is 10.5%.
Government
Morocco is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The King holds the highest authority in the state, as Commander of the Faithful and highest commander of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces. The King appoints the prime minister from the majority party following legislative elections.
The Parliament in Morocco is formed of two parliamentary chambers. The House of Representatives has 395 members who are elected directly for a five-year term. The House of Councillors has between 90 – 120 members and these are elected indirectly for a six-year term. Morocco has a mixed legal system of civil law based on French civil law and Islamic (Sharia) law.
Following the establishment of its bicameral legislature in 1997, Morocco’s first opposition-led government came to power in 1998. King Hassan II was succeeded by his son, King Mohammed VI, in July 1999, bringing in a period of social and economic liberalisation.
History
The seat of numerous dynasties from the 11th Century onwards, namely the Almoravids – which at their height controlled the Maghreb and much of present-day Spain and Portugal – Morocco has for most of its history resisted outside invasion.
In 1904, France and Spain carved out their respective zones of influence, with the latter’s focus situated along the Moroccan coast. The Treaty of Fez in 1912 saw Morocco officially become a French protectorate (as opposed to the formal colonies imposed in neighbouring lands), with the Sultan’s status guaranteed.
Morocco gained its independence from France and Spain in 1956, although Spain to this day retains two coastal enclaves on the north Mediterranean coast, Ceuta and Melilla (see below).
In 1957, Sultan Mohammed V bin Yusuf adopted the title of King Mohammed V, being succeeded four years later by his son, King Hassan II.
Religion
99% of Morocco’s inhabitants are Sunni Muslim, which is the state religion. Other minority religions make up the remaining 1%, including Christianity, Judaism, and Bahaism.
Economy
Through privatisation and a series of pro-market reforms, since the mid-1980s Morocco has strengthened its once ailing and heavily indebted economy into one that is now more diverse, open and stable, with steady growth and low inflation.
Its currency is the Moroccan Dirham (MAD). Key sectors of the economy include tourism, mining and processing phosphates for export, the manufacture of textiles and clothes, and agriculture. Although only making up around 14% of GDP, the latter accounts for around 40% of the country’s workforce.
Morocco entered into a bilateral Free Trade Agreement with the US in 2006 and an Advanced Status agreement with the EU in 2008, considerably boosting its export potential. Together, almost 50% of its exports are destined for Spain and France.
In recent years the Government has invested heavily in infrastructure to drive investment and increase Morocco’s competitiveness, including through a new port and free trade zone near Tangier – the largest in the Mediterranean in terms of container capacity.
Morocco and the Abraham Accords
In December 2020, Morocco became the third country in the region to sign a normalisation agreement with Israel known as the Abraham Accords, joining Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which had both signed the Accords three months earlier.
Western Sahara
From the mid-1970s King Hassan II sought to assert Morocco’s claim to Spanish Sahara (subsequently Western Sahara under joint Moroccan-Mauritanian control), leading to a protracted guerrilla war with the Polisario Front, which represents Western Sahara's Sahrawi people.
In November 1975, Rabat encouraged thousands of its citizens to cross over into Western Sahara and demand that Spain expedite its withdrawal from Western Sahara. This brought an angry response from neighbouring Algeria, and the 2 neighbours fought each other in the early stages of Morocco's annexation.
The UN brokered a ceasefire in 1991 and an agreement included a referendum on self-determination. It was supposed to be held in 1992 but it failed due to disagreement between both sides. In November 2020, the Polisario Front announced the end of its 29 year ceasefire, citing Moroccan border operations as an incitement.
There have been repeated attempts to resolve the differences, including by former US Secretary of State James Bake, but the situation seems as intractable as ever. In November 2020, the Polisario Front ended its 29 year ceasefire, citing Moroccan border operations as an incitement.
The "berm"
In 1981, Morocco started constructing a buffer strip made primarily out of sand and other materials for fortifications, and bristling with around 5 million landmines. The "berm" stretches the length of the disputed territory and separates the Moroccan-administered western portion of Western Sahara, the so-called "Southern Provinces", from the eastern areas, controlled by the Polisario Front, known as the free zone, or the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
The berm is estimated at 1,700 miles in length (2,700 kms.) Moroccan settlers are said to constitute two thirds of the 500,000 or so population of Western Sahara. It is said to be the longest such structure in the world, as well as the world's longest continuous minefield. Approximately 100,000 Moroccan soldiers guard the berm. In places the structure extends several kilometres into official Mauritanian territory.
Morocco occupies an estimated 75% of the total territory of Western Sahara.
Tension between Morocco and Algeria
For nearly 50 years, Morocco has had very poor relations with Morocco and the border between the two countries has been closed since 1994. In August 2021, Algeria severed diplomatic ties with Morocco.
Relations began to sour almost immediately after Algeria won its independence from its former French colonial masters. In October 1963, Morocco attempted to annex parts of two Algerian provinces. The short border conflict that followed was called "the Sand War", and saw the involvement of several foreign powers including Cuba, which backed Algiers. The conflict was resolved in Algeria's favour, recognising pre-conflict frontiers. But suspicion on both sides has simmered severe since.
The issue of Western Sahara is at the core of the bitterness between the two countries. Algeria was furious at Morocco's annexation of the territory in 1975 following its evacuation by Spain. In fact, Algerian president Houari Boumediene ordered the expulsion of 350,000 Moroccans in the wake of Morocco's so-called "Green March" of November 1975. Rabat had encouraged hundreds of thousands of Moroccans to advance in Western Sahara to help the expedite the Spanish withdrawal. Morocco later gained control over most of the territory. (*See Western Sahara page.)
Algeria has no territorial claims on Western Sahara itself, but was averse to any of its neighbours annexing such a large territory and it has supported the Polisario Front of the native Sahrawi people in their fight to found an independent nation.
Ceuta and Melilla
Spain has retained two tiny enclaves along the north Moroccan coast: Ceuta, opposite Gibraltar, and Melilla, some 250 miles along the coast to the south and east. Together, they cover roughly 12 square miles of territory. Each city has a population of approximately 80,000.
After independence, Morocco had success in regaining a number of Spain's Moroccan possessions, namely Ifni, in 1969, and then by annexing Western Sahara in 1975. However, Ceuta and Melilla have staunchly remained with Spain, as they have for hundreds of years. Spain first conquered Melilla in 1497 and Ceuta remained under Spanish control in 1668 with the formal dissolution of the union of Spain and Portugal.
Both cities now enjoy status as Autonomous Communities within Spain and have a limited degree of self-government. They also share Spain's membership of the European Union. Both both cities are technically "special territories" of the EU, and movements to and from the enclaves are subject to specific rules. These are laid out in the agreement for Spain's accession to the Schengen Convention
Morocco has claimed these last remnants of Spanish Africa and so they remain as flashpoint between Morocco and Spain to this day. In November 2007, Rabat protested at the visit made to Ceuta by the then Spanish monarch, King Juan Carlos I.
The two enclaves are also magnets for African migrants. In May 2021, 6,000 migrants managed to cross into Ceuta, many by swimming around the border fences jutting out to sea. Most were returned to Morocco. In June 2022, 23 migrants died in a stampede when 2,000 people attempted to cross into Melilla from Morocco. Spanish authorities blamed Mafia people traffickers for the tragedy.
Other "plazas de soberania"
Spain has a number of other tiny possessions mainly off the coast of Morocco, which it calls plazas de soberania (strongholds of sovereignty), such as the Chafarinas islets (Islas Chafarinas) and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, a small rocky outcrop attached to the Moroccan mainland by a short sandy isthmus.
