ONE LAND · 11 ATLASES
History of Morocco in maps
Morocco as it appears in 11 interactive history atlases, from 264 BC to 2015: Mauretania, Morocco. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.
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What was Morocco before it was Morocco? Below, every era of this land in the Maps of History atlases — who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed — each line linked to the dated map that shows it. Modern borders stand in as an honest approximation; every atlas says so on the map itself.
Mauretania (mod. Morocco) · Ancient Rome
Mauretania: client kingdom of Juba II — the scholar-king Rome educated in Italy and married to Cleopatra Selene, daughter of Antony and Cleopatra; their capital at Caesarea (Cherchell) was a Greco-Roman court on the African Atlantic. Caligula had the last king, Ptolemy of Mauretania, murdered in AD 40 — reportedly for wearing too splendid a cloak at the games — and annexation followed the revolt that murder provoked. Rome held it as two thinly-garrisoned provinces, the empire’s far western edge; it slipped from imperial control early in the fifth century, and the Vandals passed through it on their way to richer Africa in 429.
| 264 BC | Tribal peoples & confederations — the opening position |
| 30 BC | Roman clients & allies |
| Roman territory | |
| Former Roman lands (lost) |
ANCIENT ROME: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Morocco · Industrial Revolution
| Colony or dependency — the opening position | |
| Colony or dependency |
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Morocco · Age of Revolutions
| Neutral / uncommitted — the opening position |
AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Morocco · Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia
MEIJI JAPAN AND POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Morocco · WWI
Morocco — an independent sultanate that became the prize in two crises. The Kaiser’s ride through Tangier in 1905 and the gunboat at Agadir in 1911 (Ch. 1–2) were German attempts to break the Anglo-French entente, and both drew Britain and France closer. In 1912 France made Morocco a protectorate and Spain took a strip in the north, and Moroccan resistance in the Rif mountains continued into the 1920s.
| Entente-aligned & imperial territories — the opening position | |
| Entente-aligned & imperial territories |
Morocco · Road to WW2
| Colonial empires & possessions — the opening position |
ROAD TO WW2: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Morocco · WW2
| Western Allies — the opening position | |
| Axis allies & puppets | |
| Western Allies |
Morocco · Cold War
| NATO & core Western allies — the opening position | |
| Non-aligned & neutral | |
| Non-aligned & neutral |
COLD WAR: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Morocco · Decolonization of Africa
Morocco, a French protectorate with a Spanish northern zone, regained independence in March 1956 when France, choosing to concentrate its strength on Algeria, let its protectorates go. Sultan Mohammed V, exiled by the French in 1953, returned as the hero of independence and founded the monarchy that rules still. Morocco later absorbed most of Spanish Sahara, a claim still disputed.
| French-ruled — the opening position | |
| Independent Africa |
DECOLONIZATION OF AFRICA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Morocco · Feminism and the Tunisian Revolution
| Authoritarian, one-party or colonial rule — the opening position | |
| Right won in law | |
| No reform yet / outside this story |
FEMINISM AND THE TUNISIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Morocco · Refugee crises
| Western bloc or democracy — the opening position |
REFUGEE CRISES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
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