The prelude to colonial penetration in Maghreb’s space: Opposition and resistance by the Alawid sultans

Abstract

This article analyses the prelude to colonial intervention in the Maghrebi space and, in the particular case of Morocco, the opposition and resistance that was brought to it by the Alawid sultans. Contrary to the dominant narrative elaborated by the great and medium European powers that used it to justify the colonialist and “civilizing” intervention, other sources are used, originating from envoys from small peripheral powers without any ambitions to dominate that space. The Moroccan sultans, contrary to the epithet of uncivilized that many of the sources of the time attribute to them and the classification of violent, xenophobic and isolationist with which much of contemporary European historiography gives them, will try to oppose the prelude of European colonialism, using the same weapons as the powers on the northern shore of the Mediterranean: diplomatic means and military action. But without the same results they will end up delaying the inevitability of foreign intervention.