Morocco

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المملكة المغربية
Al Mamlakah al-Maghribiyah

In Detail (Full size)
Official language	Arabic
Capital	Rabat
Largest City	Casablanca
King	Mohammed VI
Prime Minister	Driss Jettou
Area  - Total	Ranked 56th 446,550 km²
Population  - Total (2003)  - Density	31,689,267 70/km² Ranked 36th
Independence	(From France) March 2, 1956
Currency	Dirham
Time zone	UTC
Internet TLD	.ma
Calling Code	212

The Kingdom of Morocco is a country in northwest Africa. It has a long coastline on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea.

Morocco has annexed Western Sahara, but this is not universally recognized.

Name

The full Arabic name of the country translates to The Western Kingdom. Al-Maghreb (meaning The West) is commonly used in Arabic. The name in most other languages originates from the name of the former capital, Marrakech.

History

Main article: History of Morocco

Morocco was a French protectorate from 1912, remaining a Kingdom, and achieved independence in 1956. It then took control over Tangier, formerly an international city. The northern area of Morocco was under a Spanish protectorate concurrently. Morocco annexed Western Sahara in the 1970's, which had been a colony under the Spaniards since the 19th century. Previous to that it had been an area of Moroccan influence, but this has not been recognized by many nations.

Morocco was the first nation to recognize the fledging American republic in 1777 and has the oldest non-broken friendship treaty with this country, the Moroccan-American Treaty of Friendship, which has been in effect since 1783. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were the American signatories. The United States legation (embassy) in Tangier, now a museum, is one of the oldest official American buildings outside the US.

Politics

Main article: Politics of Morocco

The King of Morocco is an active leader, although decreasingly so. Political parties are legal and a plethora of them exist.

See also: List of political parties in Morocco

Provinces

Provinces of Morocco

Morocco is divided into 37 provinces and 2 wilayas*:

Three additional provinces, Ad Dakhla (Oued Eddahab), Boujdour, and Es Smara, as well as parts of Tan-Tan and Laayoune, fall within Moroccan-claimed Western Sahara.

note: as part of a 1997 decentralization/regionalization law passed by the legislature, 16 new regions (provided below) were created, although the full details and scope of the reorganization are limited:

Geography

Geography of Morocco

Algeria borders Morocco to the east and southeast, though the Algerian border is closed [1]. There are also four Spanish enclaves on the Mediterranean coast: Ceuta, Melilla Peñon Velez de la Gomera and Peñon de Alhucemas, as well as several islands including Perejil (status disputed) and Chafarinas. Off the Atlantic coast the Canary Islands belong to Spain, whereas Madeira to the north is Portuguese.

Morocco's capitol city is Rabat, and its largest city is Casablanca.

Other cities include Agadir, Dakhla, Essaouira, Fes, Laayoune, Marrakech, Meknes, Oujda, Safi, Smara, Tangier, Tiznit, Salè and Tan-Tan.

• List of cities in Morocco

Economy

Economy of Morocco

Morocco has signed a Free Trade Agreement with the European Union and the United States of America.

Demographics

Demographics of Morocco [2]

Culture

Culture of Morocco

• Cuisine of Morocco
• List of writers from Morocco
• Music of Morocco

Miscellaneous topics

• Communications in Morocco
• Transportation in Morocco
• Military of Morocco
• Foreign relations of Morocco
• Moroccan Wall
• Portal of Moroccans in the U.S.
• Moroccan newspapers

See also

• List of Spanish territories in Morocco
• Morocco (1930 movie)

External links

• Moroccans on the world - Morrocan Portal
• Morocco365 a complete guide to Morocco. Lots of pictures
• Pictures Of Morocco
• Lexicorient a very complete guide to Morocco
• a map of Moroccan cities
• a travel guide to Morocco
• Traditional Moroccan music from Morocco's Ministry of Communication
• The Moroccan entry in the Yahoo Travel Destination Guide
• The Moroccan entry in the Yahoo Countries Guide
• The Moroccan entry in the Open Directory
• Moroccusafta a site about the Morocco/US Free Trade Agrement
• The American Legation in Tangier
• OujdaCity an interesting web portal about Oriental Morocco
• MoroccoLinks.com - Moroccan Directory, with categorized links to Moroccan sites, updates, resources and more.

Much of the material in these articles comes from the CIA World Factbook 2000 and the 2002 U.S. Department of State website.

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