How did Morocco become independent?

The road to 1956 is a genuinely stirring story, and it centres on one figure: Sultan Mohammed V. Through the 1930s and 40s a nationalist movement gathered force, crystallising in 1944 when the Istiqlal — the Independence party — issued a formal manifesto demanding sovereignty. What made Morocco's case distinctive is that the sultan himself, far from being a French puppet, increasingly aligned with the nationalists, lending the monarchy's enormous popular legitimacy to the cause. That alliance of throne and movement is the key to the whole thing.

France miscalculated badly. In 1953, hoping to break the resistance, they deposed and exiled Mohammed V to Corsica and then Madagascar, installing a compliant relative. Instead of quieting Morocco, it enraged it — the exiled sultan became a national martyr-hero, his face reportedly 'seen' in the moon by ordinary people, and unrest and armed resistance escalated across the country. The exile is one of those rare political blunders that visibly accelerates exactly what it was meant to prevent.

By 1955, with Algeria's war erupting next door and Morocco ungovernable, France relented and brought Mohammed V home to a rapturous welcome. Negotiations moved fast: on 2 March 1956 France formally recognised Moroccan independence, and Spain relinquished most of its zone in April. Tangier's international status ended later that year. Mohammed V took the title of king in 1957, and the centuries-old Alaouite monarchy emerged not just intact but as the symbol and guarantor of the new nation — a very different outcome from the republics that followed decolonisation elsewhere.

I bring this up with travellers because it explains the monarchy's standing today and the affection you'll notice for the royal family. Mohammed V is revered as the father of independence; the mausoleum holding him and his son Hassan II in Rabat, beside the Hassan Tower, is one of the most beautiful and quietly moving sites in the country, and it's free to enter. Standing there, you understand that Moroccan independence wasn't handed down — it was won through a monarchy and a people pulling in the same direction, which still shapes the nation you're visiting.