Rethinking Moroccan nationalism, 1930–44

Historians and social scientists studying the French protectorate era in Morocco have suggested that nationalist resistance began by the 1930s, if not earlier. Accordingly, the efforts to reform French rule in the 1930s have been called ‘proto-nationalism’ or ‘early nationalism’ in histories that portray nationalism as an evolutionary process, one that grows in a linear, unidirectional fashion. This article explores the tensions between nationalist and reformist demands, and stresses the distinctiveness of these mobilisation platforms. It argues against subsuming calls for reform into the nationalist narrative, proposing instead that calls for reform constituted an alternative to nationalist demands for independence. Proponents of reform emphasised equality and opposed the authoritarian nature of French rule. In contrast, the Independence Party, founded in 1944, challenged the foreign nature of imperial rule. Attention to these differences points to the diversity of responses to French rule. Moroccan anti-colonialism took multiple forms and did not always espouse nationalist goals. Labelling all opposition ‘nationalist’ inhibits our understanding of how actors come to seek national independence. Further, recognising that activists espoused different goals over time is important because it helps make sense of the different visions of the post-colonial order that elites espoused in the years after independence.