THE CONQUEST OF MOROCCO

by Douglas Porch ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1982

On the one hand, exotic Morocco of capricious sultans and French misfits; on the other hand, Morocco the side-door colony and precursor of Vietnam. As a historian, Porch combines an interest in French colonial warfare, and in the political role of colonial armies generally, with a delight in the vagaries of personality, in the touch-and-go incident, even in the disputed facts of the touch-and-go incident. Morocco, 1902-1914--from Hubert Lyautey's occupation of Colomb Bechar, just across the border from Algeria (ostensibly, to deter raiders) to his return as France's first Resident Commissioner General--is a tangle of Balkan proportions; and it cannot be said that Porch keeps anything but his major themes in clear view. His spotty, offhand footnoting also makes his heterodox conclusions difficult to assess. But what an array of ideas, crises, eccentrics, curiosa! Overall, Porch wants it known that French forces triumphed in Morocco through superior firepower, not by winning the ""hearts and minds"" of the Moroccans or by successfully playing ""native politics."" He makes the point that the French, unlike the British, were not ardent colonialists, seeing little or no profit, and much shame (the Socialist position), in African conquest, as well as a distraction from the anticipated war with Germany. So Lyautey had to disguise his provocations and present the seizure of Morocco as Moroccan-inspired: successive sultans requested help in keeping order; ""the Moroccans actually preferred the French presence to their normal state of anarchy."" Not that excuses to intervene were hard to find. In the mountains were dissident chieftains, some ""of exceptional savagery,"" ready to take advantage of the sultan's perceived weakness; in Tangiers were resident Europeans, ripe for kidnapping. And between Western ignorance of Muslim customs, and Muslim quickness to take offense, the least misunderstanding could spark a conflagration. Porch, who distinguishes precisely among Muslims and French (per his splendid portrait of Lyautey as ""a magnificent anachronism""), tends to caricature the expatriates and to exaggerate whatever involves them. (TR didn't need to ballyhoo the Perdicalis kidnapping to win renomination.) At the same time, he gives short shrift to the international, history-book crises of 1905 and 1911, the Algeciras conference, etc. But readers who like their history pungent and opinionated won't object.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1982

ISBN: 0374128804

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1982

Categories: NONFICTION