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Casablanca: not just about Bogart

Casablanca is largely renowned in the West for Humphrey Bogart's performance in the classic film. What's less known is the city's pivotal role in Morocco's loss to the French in the early years of the 20th century. After French troops rampaged through the town in 1907, Morocco's future would never be the same.

The early twentieth century was the end of the line for an independent Morocco. For decades European countries – notably France, Britain and Germany - had vied for influence. Yet because it was coveted by so many, Morocco had never fallen under the dominance of a single power. This was to change in 1905 when a conference between the three finally agreed: Morocco would be French (in exchange for unfettered British and German influence elsewhere in Africa). All that Paris needed now needed was a pretext to invade. Casablanca provided the causus belli.

The fighting began over the trivial matter of a railway. Casablanca at the time was dominated by ambitious Europeans - with an eye to turning this provincial town into a commercial hub the resident foreigners constructed a jetty. To assist this they built a small railway which shuttled between the sea and nearby quarry.

This railway passed a cemetery. Each day the local population watched this diabolical machine steam back and forth blowing its whistle – a whistle being a sign of derision in Morocco – an insult to both the living and the dead.

Fired up by rumours that the French were about to invade, in late August 1907 a band of 150 men stormed the engine as it passed the cemetery. The driver was beaten to death. The mob then attacked the quarry, where 8 more workers died.

The French consul in Casablanca sent a message to the Navy, who dispatched a gunboat. In a fit of insubordination the sailors from the boat – unordered – landed on the shore where they charged the narrow streets shooting, bayoneting, and bludgeoning anyone who fell across their path. They charged into the French Consulate and barricaded themselves in. The gunboat began to shell the town and as ordinance reigned down, Casablancans took to the streets in an orgy of pillage. Locked into the consulate the Europeans stood by and watched as the enraged locals hunted down any Europeans they could find.

The French then landed Foreign legionnaires – men who usually enlisted after a drinking spree, to escape the law or or to avoid some personal problem or other. When they arrived in Casablanca in 1907 they reverted to type: chasing out the looting Moroccans, stripping houses, shooting any man they came across and looting what there remained to loot.

Five days later, many had been court-martialled. But the damage had been done. Citing the security of the resident Europeans – a security issue they had by and large provoked - the French determined to stay. This invasion by stealth was the first French foothold in the country; Casablanca provided the pretext they needed for a wider colonisation. The bloody occupation of the town was the first step of a bloody conquest that would last for 50 years.

For more information on our On Hendrix's Trail Morocco holiday, click here