IN THE COURTS OF THE NATIONS - DataSpace - Princeton ...

Epilogue
On March 30, 1912, France declared a protectorate over most of present-day Morocco,
and later that year Spain established its own protectorate over the north. In designing their
colonial policies, the French authorities followed a different path from that taken in Algeria,
which France had annexed in 1848. The protectorate instead followed the model they had
created in Tunisia (colonized in 1881), which theoretically preserved the indigenous government
alongside that of the French colonial authorities. 1 Hubert Lyautey, France’s first resident general
in Morocco, was particularly intent on maintaining at least the appearance of the “traditional”
Morocco alongside the changes introduced by the colonial regime’s modernization efforts. 2 Of
course, the appearance of continuity was largely an illusion; in reality, the French colonial
authorities held nearly all the political power, and their far-reaching reforms constituted a
significant departure from what had existed before. Although Morocco had changed profoundly
in the nineteenth century, 1912 represented a rupture unlike any the country had experienced for
centuries.
The legal regime instituted by the protectorate authorities followed the pattern of
appearing to preserve the status quo. The French made a point of declaring Moroccan Jews
“indigènes” (natives) alongside Muslims, in contrast to the policy in Algeria which had granted
Jews citizenship in 1870. 3 Many, especially the AIU, lobbied hard for Jews to be naturalized as
French citizens en masse like their Algerian coreligionists, but to no avail. 4 In their reform of
1
On the colonization of Tunisia, see esp. Kenneth J. Perkins, A History of Modern Tunisia (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2004), Chapter 2.
2
On Lyautey in Morocco, see esp. Daniel Rivet, Lyautey et l’institution du Protectorat français au Maroc, 1912-
1925, 3 vols. (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1996).
3
Kenbib, Juifs et musulmans, 407-11.
4
Laskier, The Alliance Israélite Universelle, 163-71.
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