Morocco–United Kingdom relations are the bilateral relations that exist between the
Kingdom of Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
and the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
.
History
First exchanges
According to some accounts, in the early 13th century, King
John of England
John (24 December 1166 – 19 October 1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philip II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Emp ...
(1167–1216) sent an embassy to
Almohad
The Almohad Caliphate (; ar, خِلَافَةُ ٱلْمُوَحِّدِينَ or or from ar, ٱلْمُوَحِّدُونَ, translit=al-Muwaḥḥidūn, lit=those who profess the Tawhid, unity of God) was a North African Berbers, Berber M ...
Sultan
Muhammad al-Nasir
Muhammad al-Nasir (,'' al-Nāṣir li-dīn Allāh Muḥammad ibn al-Manṣūr'', – 1213) was the fourth Almohad Caliph from 1199 until his death.Évariste Lévi-Provençalal-Nāṣir Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Brill Online, 2013. ...
(1199–1213) to request military support and an alliance against
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
. At home, King John was faced with a dire situation in which his barons revolted against him, he had been excommunicated by the
Pope
The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
and France was threatening to invade. The embassy of three was led by Bishop Roger, and King John supposedly offered to convert to Islam and to pay a tribute to al-Nasir in exchange for his help. Al-Nasir apparently dismissed the proposal.
Anglo-Moroccan alliance
Relations developed following the sailing of ''The Lion'' to Morocco in 1551. According to
Richard Hakluyt
Richard Hakluyt (; 1553 – 23 November 1616) was an English writer. He is known for promoting the English colonization of North America through his works, notably ''Divers Voyages Touching the Discoverie of America'' (1582) and ''The Pri ...
, quoting
Edmund Hogan
Edmund Ignatius Hogan S.J. (23 January 1831 – 26 November 1917) was an Irish Jesuit scholar.
Life
Hogan was born at Belvelly near Cobh, co. Cork on 23 January 1831, the youngest son of William Hogan and his wife Mary Morris. He joined the So ...
, the ruler "Abdelmelech" (
Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik I
Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik I ( ar, أبو مروان عبد الملك الغازي), often simply Abd al-Malik or Mulay Abdelmalek, (b. 1541 – d. 4 August 1578) was the Saadian Sultan of Morocco from 1576 until his death right after the Battle o ...
) bore "a greater affection to our Nation than to others because of our religion, which forbids the worship of Idols".
In 1585, the establishment of the English
Barbary Company
The Marocco Company or Barbary Company was a trading company established by Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1585 through a patent granted to the Earls of Warwick and Leicester, as well as forty others. When she wrote the patents, Elizabeth emphasi ...
, trade developed between England and the
Barbary states, especially
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
.
Diplomatic relations and an alliance were established between Elizabeth and the Barbary states.
[Nicoll, p.90] Queen Elizabeth I sent Roberts to Moroccan Sultan
Ahmad al-Mansur
Ahmad al-Mansur ( ar, أبو العباس أحمد المنصور, Ahmad Abu al-Abbas al-Mansur, also al-Mansur al-Dahabbi (the Golden), ar, أحمد المنصور الذهبي; and Ahmed al-Mansour; 1549 in Fes – 25 August 1603, Fes) was the ...
to reside in Morocco and to obtain advantages for English traders.
England entered in a trading relationship with Morocco detrimental to Spain by selling armour, ammunition, timber and metal in exchange for Moroccan sugar, in spite of a
Papal
The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
ban, prompting the Papal
Nuncio
An apostolic nuncio ( la, nuntius apostolicus; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international or ...
in Spain to say of
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
El ...
: "there is no evil that is not devised by that woman, who, it is perfectly plain, succoured Mulocco (
Abd al-Malik) with arms, and especially with artillery".
1600 embassy
![Mohammed bin Hadou Moroccan ambassador to Great Britain 1682](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Mohammed_bin_Hadou_Moroccan_ambassador_to_Great_Britain_1682.jpg)
In 1600,
Abd al-Wahid bin Mas'ud, the principal secretary to Moroccan Sultan
Mawlay Ahmad al-Mansur, visited England as an ambassador to the court of Queen Elizabeth I.
Abd al-Wahid bin Mas'ud spent six months at the court of Elizabeth to negotiate an alliance against Spain.
[Vaughan, p.57] The Moroccan ruler wanted the help of an English fleet to invade Spain. Elizabeth refused but welcomed the embassy as a sign of insurance and instead accepted to establish commercial agreements.
Elizabeth and Ahmad continued to discuss various plans for combined military operations, with Elizabeth requesting a payment of 100,000 pounds in advance to king Ahmad for the supply of a fleet and Ahmad asking for a tall ship to be sent to get the money. Discussions, however, remained inconclusive, and both rulers had died within two years of the embassy.
In 1660, Britain took control of Tangier in Morocco following the marriage of
Catherine of Braganza
Catherine of Braganza ( pt, Catarina de Bragança; 25 November 1638 – 31 December 1705) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England, List of Scottish royal consorts, Scotland and Ireland during her marriage to Charles II of England, ...
to
King Charles II in 1661. Along with a large sum of money, the British crown took control of the city, intending to turn it into a major trade gateway into the Mediterranean. Difficulties with administering the city were compounded by religious divisions between the Protestant king in London and the Catholic administrators in Tangier hindered the ability to capitalize on the city's potential as a trade gateway, which culminated in a British withdrawal in 1683.
Later relations
The
English Garrison of the
Colony of Tangier was almost constantly under attack by locals who considered themselves ''
mujahideen
''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' ( ar, مُجَاهِدِين, mujāhidīn), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' ( ar, مجاهد, mujāhid, strugglers or strivers or justice, right conduct, Godly rule, etc. doers of jihād), an Arabic term th ...
'' fighting a
holy war
A religious war or a war of religion, sometimes also known as a holy war ( la, sanctum bellum), is a war which is primarily caused or justified by differences in religion. In the modern period, there are frequent debates over the extent to wh ...
. The
Earl of Teviot
Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form ''jarl'', and meant "chieftain", particular ...
and around 470 members of the garrison
were killed in an ambush beside Jew's Hill. Although the attempt by Sultan
Moulay Ismail
Moulay Ismail Ibn Sharif ( ar, مولاي إسماعيل بن الشريف), born around 1645 in Sijilmassa and died on 22 March 1727 at Meknes, was a Sultan of Morocco from 1672–1727, as the second ruler of the Alaouite dynasty. He was the se ...
of Morocco to seize the Tangier had been unsuccessful, a crippling blockade by the
Jaysh al-Rifi
Jaysh al-Rifi ({{Lang-ar, جيش الريف, lit=Army of the Rif), described in 18th-century correspondence with the British as 'the Army of all the People of the Rif', was the name of an influential Moroccan army corps in the 17th and the 18th ce ...
ultimately forced the English to withdraw.
A treaty signed in 1728 extended the privileges, especially those pertaining to the safe-conduct of English nationals.
19th century
The Sultan banned piracy against European merchants in 1818, and the British perceived this warming of economic relations as a key piece to securing friendly passage into the Mediterranean for strategic and mercantile purposes. In the mid-19th century,
Edward Drummond-Hay and his son
John Drummond-Hay served as the British consuls-general at
Tangier
Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the cap ...
for decades, shaping the country's policies and survival during the
Scramble for Africa
The Scramble for Africa, also called the Partition of Africa, or Conquest of Africa, was the invasion, annexation, division, and colonisation of Africa, colonization of most of Africa by seven Western Europe, Western European powers during a ...
. Initially, relations near the consulate in Tangier were terse, as various persecutions towards British citizens. Shipwrecked British merchant vessels and their crew were often plundered and enslaved, an entire family of British merchants in Tangier were murdered. The consulate in Tangier, however, was barred on orders from London regarding seeking retribution from the Moroccan sultanate, so as to retain positive foundational relations between the two states. This was due to the desire for British access to Mediterranean markets. The Anglo-Moroccan Accords, also known as the
Anglo-Moroccan Treaties of Friendship, were signed on 9 December 1856. This helped prolong Morocco's independence, but reduced its ability to maintain royal trade monopolies within the country and reduced its ability to charge
tariff
A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and poli ...
s on foreign commerce. In 1858, British merchants were barred from importing a variety of cash crops from Morocco, such as sugar, tea, and coffee to further enforce the abolition of monopolies. In 1861, Britain
issued Morocco a £500,000 loan financed by private investors to help the Sultan pay off the
war indemnity
War reparations are compensation payments made after a war by one side to the other. They are intended to cover damage or injury inflicted during a war.
History
Making one party pay a war indemnity is a common practice with a long history.
R ...
of the
Hispano-Moroccan War.
The last 25 years of the 19th century had multiple exchanges between Britain and Morocco strengthen relations, particularly in terms of exchanging technological advances. In 1877, the first smallpox vaccines arrived in Morocco from Gibraltar. By 1880, the connections between Britain and Morocco warranted the laying of an undersea telegraph cable linking Gibraltar to Tangier.
World War II and Pre-Independence
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, British intelligence operated heavily in Morocco. Tensions between Britain and
Vichy France
Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...
, along with her colonial holdings, skyrocketed as World War II continued. From 1941-43, British intelligence agents, aided by the United States, planned to subvert the colonial rule of Vichy France by setting up an insurrection with the goal of an independent Morocco. Britain was concerned about the balance of power in the region following
Francoist Spain
Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...
's occupation of Tangier in 1940, and saw a potential entry of Spain on the side of the Axis as a growing concern. However, by 1944, these concerns had faded into the background of British intelligence policy towards Morocco, and British intelligence focused their efforts on remaining within the occupied city of Tangier for information collection. Following World War II, French colonial officials in Morocco were hostile to British involvement in the region, and remained suspicious of potential British activity sponsoring
Moroccan independence
The Revolution of the King and the People () was a Morocco, Moroccan Anti-imperialism, anti-colonial national liberation movement to end the French Protectorate in Morocco, French Protectorate and break free from the French colonial empire. The n ...
movements. The incongruity between British and French objectives allowed for Moroccan nationalists to coalesce more efficiently.
British journalism played an important role in pushing for Moroccan independence abroad, particularly in the west. BBC journalist
Nina Epton
Nina Consuelo Epton (1913 – 29 October 2010) was a British radio producer, broadcaster and travel writer, particularly active in the 1950s and 1960s. She travelled alone through Spain, North Africa, and Indonesia. In the 1970s she published a ...
traveled to Morocco in 1946, visiting the notably
international city of Tangier. In Tangier, she met with
Allal al-Fassi
Muhammad Allal al-Fassi (ⵄⵍⵍⴰⵍ ⵍⴼⴰⵙⵉ) (January 10, 1910 – May 13, 1974), was a Moroccan politician, writer, poet and Islamic scholar.
Politics
He was born in Fes, Morocco. He studied at the University of Al-Qarawiyyin. For ...
, who told her to "tell people abroad the truth" about Morocco's need for independence. Upon returning to London, Epton wrote in favor of the nationalists multiple times, which helped the independence movement gain traction internationally.
Her positive coverage of the nationalist movement included recounting meetings with nationalist leaders, and their alignment to western ideals, in particular the contemporary
Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was a statement issued on 14 August 1941 that set out American and British goals for the world after the end of World War II. The joint statement, later dubbed the Atlantic Charter, outlined the aims of the United States and ...
. This coverage was received poorly by colonial officials, however, and Epton was increasingly harassed, even one time being detained and called a highly effective British intelligence agent.
Moroccan Embassy
The
Moroccan embassy is located in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
.
* Ambassador
Hakim Hajoui
United Kingdom Embassy
The United Kingdom embassy is located in
Rabat
Rabat (, also , ; ar, الرِّبَاط, er-Ribât; ber, ⵕⵕⴱⴰⵟ, ṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan populati ...
.
* Ambassador Simon Martin
See also
*
List of Ambassadors of Morocco to the United Kingdom
*
Anglo-Moroccan alliance
The Anglo-Moroccan alliance''Britain and Morocco during the embassy of John Drummond Hay, 1845-1886'' Khalid Ben Srhir, Malcolm Williams, Gavin Waterson p.13-1/ref> was established at the end of the 16th century and the early 17th century between t ...
*
British Moroccans
British Moroccans are citizens and/or residents of the United Kingdom whose ethnic origins lie fully or partially in Morocco.
Migration history
Mass migration from Morocco to the United Kingdom began in the 1960s, primarily consisting of migrant ...
Notes
References
* Virginia Mason Vaughan ''Performing Blackness on English Stages, 1500–1800'' Cambridge University Press, 2005
* Allardyce Nicoll ''Shakespeare Survey. The Last Plays'' Cambridge University Press, 2002
* George Cawston,
Augustus Henry Keane
Augustus Henry Keane (1833–1912) was an Irish Roman Catholic journalist and linguist, known for his ethnological writings.
Early life
He was born in Cork, Ireland.George Grant MacCurdy, James Mooney and A. B. Legía - Antonio Flores, ''Anthrop ...
, ''The Early Chartered Companies (A.D. 1296–1858)'' The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd., 2001
File:Ambassador Admiral Abdellah Ben Aicha 1685.jpg, Ambassador Admiral Abdallah ben Aisha, 1685.
File:Moroccan Ambassador Abghali 1725.jpg, Moroccan Ambassador Mohammed Ben Ali Abgali
Mohammed Ben Ali Abgali Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS () was a Moroccan Ambassador to Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, from 14 August 1725 to February 1727.
He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1727.
He corresponded with Martin ...
in 1725.
File:Ambassador Admiral Abelkader Perez 1723 1737.jpg, Ambassador Admiral Abdelkader Perez, 1723–1737.
File:Ambassador Zebdi 1876.jpg, Ambassador Zebdi 1876.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morocco-United Kingdom relations
Bilateral relations of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...