Fundamental obstacles to modernization in precolonial MoroccoGeography, institutions and culture

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to identify the fundamental obstacles that stood in the way of Morocco’s modernization in the decades spanning from the conquest of Algiers in 1830 to the official establishment of the Franco-Spanish Protectorate in 1912. The analysis adopted in this dissertation is inspired by the three-hypothesis approach developed by a number of economic historians to study the success and failure of national economies. “Geography, institutions or culture”, rather than determining which of the three is the culprit, this dissertation explores how each of these “fundamental determinants” played its part in hindering Morocco’s economic modernization and preventing its subjection to European colonization.