Early history The area that is today Casablanca was founded and settled by
Berbers by the seventh century BC. It was used as a port by the Phoenicians, then the Romans. In his book
Description of Africa,
Leo Africanus refers to ancient Casablanca as "
Anfa", a great city founded in the Berber kingdom of
Barghawata in 744 AD. He believed Anfa was the most "prosperous city on the Atlantic Coast because of its fertile land." Barghawata rose as an independent state around this time, and continued until it was conquered by the
Almoravids in 1068. After the defeat of the Barghawata in the 12th century,
Arab tribes of
Hilal and
Sulaym descent settled in the region, mixing with the local Berbers, which led to widespread
Arabization. During the 14th century, under the
Merinids, Anfa rose in importance as a port. The last of the Merinids were ousted by a
popular revolt in 1465.
Portuguese conquest and Spanish influence In the early 15th century, the town became an independent state once again, and emerged as a safe harbour for pirates and
privateers. The Portuguese consequently bombarded the town into ruins in 1468. The town that grew up around it was called Casa Branca, meaning "white house" in
Portuguese.
Reconstruction under Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah, 1756–90 Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah constructed
the port and rebuilt the town between 1756 and 1790. The town was called
ad-Dār al-Bayḍāʼ (الدار البيضاء), the
Arabic translation of the Portuguese
Casa Branca.
Colonial struggle In the 19th century, the area's population began to grow as it became a major supplier of wool to the booming textile industry in
Britain and shipping traffic increased (the British, in return, began importing
gunpowder tea, used in Morocco's national drink,
mint tea). By the 1860s, around 5,000 residents were there, and the population grew to around 10,000 by the late 1880s. Casablanca remained a modestly sized port, with a population reaching around 12,000 within a few years of the French conquest and arrival of
French colonialists in 1906. By 1921, this rose to 110,000, largely through the development of
shanty towns.
Bombardment of Casablanca The
Treaty of Algeciras of 1906 formalized French preeminence in Morocco and included three measures that directly impacted Casablanca: that French officers would control operations at the customs office and seize revenue as collateral for loans given by France, that the French holding company
La Compagnie Marocaine would develop the
port of Casablanca, and that a French-and-Spanish-trained police force would be assembled to patrol the port. To build the port's breakwater,
narrow-gauge track was laid in June 1907 for a small
Decauville locomotive to connect the port to a quarry in
Roches Noires, passing through the sacred Sidi Belyout graveyard. In resistance to this and the measures of the 1906 Treaty of Algeciras, tribesmen of the
Chaouia attacked the locomotive, killing 9
Compagnie Marocaine laborers—3 French, 3 Italians, and 3 Spanish. In response, the French
bombarded the city in August 1907 with multiple gunboats and landed troops inside the town, causing severe damage and killing between 600 and 3,000 Moroccans. Estimates for the total casualties are as high as 15,000 dead and wounded. In the immediate aftermath of the bombardment and the deployment of French troops, the European homes and the
Mellah, or Jewish quarter, were sacked, and the latter was also set ablaze. As
Oujda had already been occupied, the bombardment and military invasion of the city opened a western front to the
French military conquest of Morocco. File:Derailed locomotive in Casablanca 1907.jpg|A man inspects the derailed
Decauville locomotive at the scene of the attack that served as the pretext for the French bombardment of Casablanca in 1907. ) in 1917. With its landmark
Clock Tower, this space became a contact point between what the colonists called the to the left—comprising the
Medina and —and the European to the right. 's plans to extend Street (now Street) from the
port to the (now
United Nations Square), part of his redesigns of Casablanca's urban landscape.|alt= French control of Casablanca was formalized March 1912 when the
Treaty of Fez established the
French. Under French imperial control, Casablanca became a port of colonial extraction. Right at the beginning of the twentieth century, when
Morocco was officially declared a French protectorate, the French decided to shift power to Morocco's coastal areas (i.e.
Rabat and Casablanca) at the expense of its interior areas (i.e. Fez and Marrakesh). Rabat was made the administrative capital of the country, and Casablanca its economic capital. General
Hubert Lyautey assigned the planning of the new colonial port city to
Henri Prost. As he did in other Moroccan cities, Prost designed a European outside the walls of the
medina. In Casablanca, he also designed a new "" to house Moroccans arriving from other cities. Europeans formed almost half the population of Casablanca. A 1937–1938
typhoid fever outbreak was exploited by colonial authorities to justify the appropriation of urban spaces in Casablanca. Moroccans residing in
informal housing were cleared out of the center and displaced, notably to . French colonists in Morocco generally supported Pétain, while Moroccans tended to favour
de Gaulle and the
Allies.
Operation Torch, which started on 8 November 1942, was the British-American invasion of
French North Africa during the North African campaign of
World War II. The Western Task Force, composed of American units led by
Major General George S. Patton and
Rear Admiral Henry Kent Hewitt, carried out the invasions of
Mehdia,
Fedhala, and
Asfi. American forces captured Casablanca from Vichy control when France surrendered 11 November 1942, but the
Naval Battle of Casablanca continued until American forces sank
German submarine U-173 on 16 November. Casablanca was the site of the Berrechid Airfield, a large American air base used as the staging area for all American aircraft for the
European theatre of World War II. The airfield has since become
Mohammed V International Airport.
Anfa Conference Casablanca hosted the
Anfa Conference (also called the Casablanca Conference) in January 1943. Prime Minister
Winston Churchill and President
Franklin D. Roosevelt discussed the progress of the war. Also in attendance were the
Free France generals
Charles de Gaulle and
Henri Giraud, though they played minor roles and didn't participate in the military planning. It was at this conference that the Allies adopted the doctrine of "unconditional surrender", meaning that the
Axis powers would be fought until their defeat.
Roosevelt also met privately with Sultan
Muhammad V and expressed his support for Moroccan independence after the war. This became a turning point, as Moroccan nationalists were emboldened to openly seek complete independence.
Riots in Casablanca took place from 7–8 December 1952, in response to the assassination of the Tunisian labor unionist
Farhat Hached by
La Main Rouge—the clandestine militant wing of
French intelligence. Then, on 25 December 1953 (Christmas Day),
Muhammad Zarqtuni orchestrated a bombing of Casablanca's
Central Market in response to the forced exile of Sultan
Muhammad V and the royal family on 20 August (
Eid al-Adha) of that year.
Since independence Morocco gained independence from France in 1956. The post-independence era witnessed significant urban transformations and socio-economic shifts, particularly in neighborhoods like Hay Mohammadi, which were deeply impacted by neoliberal policies and state-led urban redevelopment projects.
Casablanca Group On 4–7 January 1961, the city hosted an ensemble of progressive African leaders during the
Casablanca Conference of 1961. Among those received by King
Muhammad V were
Gamal Abdel Nasser,
Kwame Nkrumah,
Modibo Keïta, and
Ahmed Sékou Touré,
Ferhat Abbas.
Jewish emigration Casablanca was a major departure point for Jews leaving Morocco through
Cadima (1949–1956) and
Operation Yachin (1961–1964).
1965 riots The
1965 student protests organized by the
National Union of Popular Forces-affiliated National Union of Moroccan Students, which spread to cities around the country and devolved into riots, started on 22 March 1965, in front of
Lycée Mohammed V in Casablanca. The protests started as a peaceful march to demand the right to public higher education for Morocco, but expanded to include concerns of labourers, the unemployed, and other marginalized segments of society, and devolved into vandalism and rioting. The riots were violently repressed by security forces with tanks and armoured vehicles; Moroccan authorities reported a dozen deaths while the
UNFP reported more than 1,000. He personally machine-gunned rioters from his helicopter. King
Hassan II blamed the events on teachers and parents, and declared in a speech to the nation on 30 March 1965: "There is no greater danger to the State than a so-called intellectual. It would have been better if you were all illiterate."
1981 riots On 6 June 1981, the
Casablanca Bread Riots took place, Hassan II appointed the French-trained interior minister
Driss Basri as hardliner, who would later become a symbol of the
Years of Lead, with quelling the protests. The government stated that 66 people were killed and 100 were injured, while opposition leaders put the number of dead at 637, saying that many of these were killed by police and army gunfire.
Mudawana In March 2000, more than 60 women's groups organized demonstrations in Casablanca proposing reforms to the legal status of women in the country. About 40,000 women attended, calling for a ban on
polygamy and the introduction of
divorce law (divorce being a purely religious procedure at that time). Although the counter-demonstration attracted half a million participants, the movement for change started in 2000 was influential on
King Mohammed VI, and he enacted a new
mudawana, or family law, in early 2004, meeting some of the demands of women's rights activists.
Further history On 16 May 2003, 33 civilians were killed, and more than 100 people were injured when Casablanca was hit by a
multiple suicide bomb attack carried out by Moroccans and claimed by some to have been linked to
al-Qaeda. Twelve suicide bombers struck five locations in the city. Another
series of suicide bombings struck the city in early 2007. These events illustrated some of the persistent challenges the city faces in addressing poverty and integrating disadvantaged neighborhoods and populations. One initiative to improve conditions in the city's disadvantaged neighborhoods was the creation of the
Sidi Moumen Cultural Center. However, in December, thousands of people demonstrated in several parts of the city, especially the city center near la Fontaine, desiring more significant political reforms. On 1 November 2023, Casablanca along with
Ouarzazate joined UNESCO's
Creative Cities Network. == Geography ==