Bold Phoenician pilots founded a trading post close to the present site of Casablanca during the seventh century BC and the discovery of a Roman galley indicates use, if not settlement, of the area in the first century BC. (The silver coins found on this vessel are on show at the Banque National du Maroc in Rabat.) In the seventh century AD the Berber tribe, the Barghawata, held this area. It was conquered by the Almohads in 1188, and developed by Sultan Abd el Moumen as a port. In the 14th century the Portuguese established a settlement here on the site of the village of Anfa, but when it became a pirates’ base in 1468, they destroyed it, repeating this act in 1515. The Portuguese re-established themselves in the late 16th century, and stayed until 1755, when an earthquake destroyed the settlement. The town was resurrected in the mid-18th century for strategic reasons, under Sultan Mohammed Ben Abdallah. There are various stories about how the town acquired its name (‘the white house’, Dar el Baydha in Arabic). One version says that it was named after the Caïd’s house, a large white building visible from a distance. Mohammed Ben Abdallah built walls, military installations and a customs house. There was neither palace nor monuments, and no urban bourgeoisie at first.
French colonization
In the 19th century, European traders settled at Casablanca, and at the beginning of the 20th century the French obtained permission from Sultan Abd al Aziz to construct an artificial harbour. This was the beginning of Casablanca’s rapid expansion. The French occupied the city in 1907 (and the rest of Morocco in 1912). Adventurers of all kinds were attracted to the place with its Wild West frontier feel. This first wave of French immigration greatly displeased the aristocratic resident-general, Lyautey, who wrote that “The citizens were Frenchmen who had built, beside the Moroccan city, a town to their own liking, but of the same disorderly, speculative and soulless nature as the American boom towns.”
The town grew quickly: in 1907, the population was 20,000, including 5000 Jews and 1000 Europeans; by 1912, the population was 59,000, of which there were 20,000 Europeans and 9000 Jews. Morocco’s first factory was founded in 1908 in Casablanca, the first labour union was founded in 1910, and the first modern banks came with the Protectorate. Land speculation was rampant, with both Muslims and Europeans involved.
Lyautey was highly suspicious of the European inhabitants of this boom town on the coast of ‘traditional’ Morocco. (When he decided that Rabat should be the capital in 1913, there were street protests in Casa.) However, it became imperative to do something for the city: in 1913, an observer described it as “an ocean of hovels, a sort of unstructured suburb to an as yet unbuilt metropolis”.
Planning the new city
In 1915 Lyautey and his chief architect, Henri Prost, began work on planning the new city centre, creating a grid of wide boulevards, lined with fine stucco office and apartment buildings. Key state buildings (as in Rabat) were styled with detailing derived from Moroccan traditional architecture, a style known as Arabiasance. And one of the first acts of the new city administration was to create a 4 km ring boulevard, considered far too wide at the time. But the city was to grow far more rapidly than anyone predicted.
Prost certainly had no easy task, given the settler interests at stake. His plan covered an area of 1000 ha. With a proposed density of 150 people per hectare, the city was designed for 150,000 people – which led to accusations of megalomania. Industrial areas were situated north and east of the centre, on rocky ground, while residential areas, on more fertile soil, were to the west and southwest. Between the two, Prost laid out a centre focusing on two large public squares, the Place de France, centre for commercial activity, and the Place Lyautey, site of the main administrative buildings. The walls of the médina were in part demolished. The Avenue du 4ème Zouaves, today’s Avenue Houphouêt Boigny, led down to the railway station and the port. A fan-shaped system of roads and ring boulevards structured the new city – and it is a tribute to Prost’s planning that the traffic runs as smoothly as it does today.
In terms of physical planning, colonial Casablanca was a relatively successful city – even though Prost’s zoning was not always respected, and the suburbs subsequently sprawled far beyond the core, with vast planned projects and unplanned bidonvilles (the original bidonville or tin can city was in Casablanca). The Second World War saw Casablanca with a population of 700,000. Between 1921 and 1951 the number of inhabitants grew by 85 – due to an exodus from the Moroccan countryside and arrivals fleeing the wars of Europe. With rising unrest in the expanding slums, it was essential to improve housing conditions. Planner Ecochard and the Atbat-Afrique team developed the concept of culturally adapted housing for the masses, that is to say inward looking, multi-storey patio houses for the poor Muslim communities. However, as André Adam, chronicler of Casablanca’s development, put it, “in her hanging patio, today’s woman is like a bird in a cage”.
After the war
In 1950, Casablanca was an exciting place to be, drawing in capital fleeing the socialist government in France, and where the focus of debates was Moroccan independence. A new building boom produced some modest skyscrapers and Casablanca-based trade unions were important in the nationalist struggle, notably in the riots of 1952 and insurrection from 1953 to 1955.
The city has continued to expand, and has constructed a number of new architectural landmarks: the gigantic Hassan II Mosque, right on the Atlantic, and on the Boulevard Zerktouni, the Twin Center, designed by Catalan architect Richard Bofill, dwarfing the Maârif neighbourhood. A huge new US$500 million marina, funded by money from Saudi Arabia, is under construction, complete with entertainment complexes, and the little enclave of tin-roofed poverty around the lighthouse at El Hank was been purchased for hotel development.
Despite the increased building speculation at the expense of older property, it seems that Casablanca’s architectural heritage is gaining recognition and there is increased official awareness that the city’s architecture is potentially a draw for tourists. But Casablanca also has problems. The mix of ocean-humid air and diesel pollution makes an unpleasant cocktail. There are huge economic disparities between the wealthy villa quarters of Anfa Supérieur and Aïn Diab and extensive areas of sub- standard housing. There are still numerous bidonville areas. Some, like Beni Msick, have seen major rehousing projects, others huddle on odd strips of land next to railway lines and derelict factories.
Upstart city
Casablanca, grimy and frayed at the edges though it may be, also has a glitzy side. Alongside the imperial cities, it is an upstart. Its streets bear the names of rebel heroes, of French and Moroccan cities – and of trees and artists. If Rabat is a home-loving civil servant, and Fès an austere imam, then Casablanca is a golden boy, often stressed-out but always on the move. Casablanca has a go-getting air which builds glamorous careers for some – and leaves many in the gutter. The old Lusitanian port, destination for camel and mule trains coming up from plains and mountains far inland, is a very long way away. Casablanca is a place where an anonymity impossible in the traditional city can be found, where identities can sometimes break free of the old constraints. Although not the most attractive or hospitable of places to visitors, it is definitely the place where Morocco’s future is made. Casablanca, stylish child of French colonial capitalism, has grown up. The vast city, made a household name by a Hollywood film, watches the world on satellite TV. Morocco watchers observe its potentially turbulent suburbs and listen to the gossip in its villas and cafés to follow how things in the wider country are going.
The Casablanca suicide bombings of 2003, in which 45 people died, and the bomb of 2007, which killed a further five people, were carried out by young men from the shanty towns and poorest suburbs of the city. Since 2003, efforts have been made to help the poor of the city, with education and literacy programs and attempts to improve housing. Many Moroccans blame Algerian influences for the fundamentalist streaks in Casablancan society, but most of the contributory factors are probably nearer to home.
more Casablanca photos
Casablanca videos
