Hassan II of Morocco

Prince Hassan at 13 years old, fourth from left in the back row, photographed behind Sultan Muhammad V, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill during the Casablanca Conference of 1943.

Prince Hassan Ibn Muhammad studying in 1943

Hassan was educated at the Royal Academy in Rabat, where a class created for him was instructed by a faculty including Mehdi Ben Barka.[2] Hassan then earned a law degree from the University of Bordeaux.

He was exiled to Corsica by French authorities on 20 August 1953, together with his father Sultan Mohammed V. They were transferred to Madagascar in January 1954. Prince Moulay Hassan acted as his father's political advisor during the exile. Mohammed V and his family returned from exile on 16 November 1955.

Prince Moulay Hassan participated in the February 1956 negotiations for Morocco's independence with his father, who later appointed him Chief of Staff of the newly founded Royal Armed Forces in April 1956. In the unrest of the same year, he led army contingents battling rebels in the mountains of the Rif. Mohammed V changed the title of the Moroccan sovereign from Sultan to King in 1957. Hassan was proclaimed Crown Prince on 19 July 1957, and became King on 26 February 1961, after his father's death.

Hassan's rule, one characterized by a poor human rights record that was labelled as "appalling" and perhaps one of the worst in Africa.[3] strengthened the Alaouite dynasty. In Morocco's first constitution of 1963, Hassan II reaffirmed Morocco's choice of a multi-party political system, the only one in the Maghreb at that time. The constitution gave the King large powers he eventually used to strengthen his rule, which provoked strong political protest from the UNFP and the Istiqlal parties that formed the backbone of the opposition.[4]

In June 1965, Hassan suspended the constitution of 1962, dissolved the Parliament, declared a state of emergency, and ruled directly, although he did not completely abolish the mechanisms of parliamentary democracy.[5] When elections were eventually held, they were mostly rigged in favour of loyal parties. This caused severe discontent among the opposition, and protest demonstrations and riots challenged the King's rule. A US report observed that "Hassan appears obsessed with the preservation of his power rather than with its application toward the resolution of Morocco's multiplying domestic problems."[4]

Many militants of the National Union of Popular Forces were imprisoned and some party leaders sentenced to death. Student protests that took place 21 March 1965 in Casablanca, and devolved into general riots the following day; their violent repression caused many casualties. In the aftermath, on 26 March, Hassan II gave a speech that he concluded with: "There is no greater danger to a country than a so-called intellectual; it would have been better if you had all been illiterate."[6][7]

In October 1965, Mehdi Ben Barka was kidnapped in Paris and secretly murdered by Mohamed Oufkir.[2]

King Hassan II, on his way to Friday prayers in Marrakesh, 1967.

In the early 1970s, King Hassan survived two assassination attempts. The first, on 10 July 1971, was a coup d'état attempt allegedly supported by Libya, organized by General Mohamed Medbouh and Colonel M'hamed Ababou and carried out by cadets during a diplomatic function at the King's summer palace in Rabat during his forty-second birthday party.[8] Important guests, including the Belgian Ambassador Marcel Dupert, were placed under house arrest, and the King himself was taken to a small pavilion.

Rabat's main radio station was taken over by the rebels and broadcast propaganda stating that the King had been murdered and a republic founded. The coup ended the same day when royalist troops took over the palace in combat against the rebels. It was subsequently claimed by the Moroccan authorities that the young cadets had been misled by senior officers into thinking that they were acting to protect the king.

On 16 August 1972, during a second attempt, four F-5 military jets from the Royal Moroccan Air Force fired upon the King's Boeing 727 while he was travelling back to Rabat from France, many bullets hit the fuselage but they failed to bring the plane down.[9] Allegedly, the King himself hurried to the cockpit, took control of the radio and shouted: "Stop firing you fools, the Tyrant is dead!" Eight people were killed when the jets strafed the awaiting reception dignitaries.[10] General Mohamed Oufkir, Morocco's defense minister, was the man behind the coup and was officially declared to have committed suicide after the attack. His body, however, was found with several bullet wounds.[11]

In the Cold War era, Hassan II allied Morocco with the West generally, and with the United States in particular. There were close and continuing ties between Hassan II's government and the CIA, who helped to reorganize Morocco's security forces in 1960.[12] Hassan served as a back channel between the Arab world and Israel, facilitating early negotiations between them such as Operation Yachin to secretly migrate Moroccan Jews to Israel.[13][14]

According to Shlomo Gazit of Israeli intelligence, Hassan II invited Mossad and Shin Bet agents to bug the Casablanca hotel where the Arab League Summit of September 1965 would be held to record the conversations of the Arab leaders.[15] This information was instrumental in Israel's victory in the Six-Day War. According to Ronen Bergman, Mossad then supplied information leading to Mehdi Ben Barka's capture and assassination in October.[16]

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History of Morocco
Prehistoric Acheulean Mousterian Aterian Iberomaurusian Capsian
Classical to Late Antiquity (8th century BC – 7th century AD) Phoenician Carthaginian Roman Mauretania Mauretania Tingitana
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Territorial fragmentation (10th–11th century AD) Caliphate of Córdoba Fatimid Caliphate Ifranids Miknasas Maghrawas
Empire (beginning 11th century AD) Almoravids Almohads Marinids Wattasids Saadis Alaouites
Decline (beginning 19th century AD) Franco-Moroccan War Anglo-Moroccan Treaty of 1856 Hispano-Moroccan War Treaty of Wad Ras Treaty of Madrid Tangier Crisis Treaty of Algeciras Agadir Crisis Hafidiya French conquest of Morocco
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Modern (Since 1956) Ifni War Sand War Coup d'état attempt in 1971 / in 1972 Years of lead Madrid Accords Green March Western Sahara conflict 2011–12 protests
Related topics Morocco in the 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s History by topic Economic Military Postal Imperial cities
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During Hassan II's reign, Morocco recovered the Spanish-controlled area of Ifni in 1969, and militarily seized two-thirds of Spanish Sahara through the "Green March" in 1975. The latter issue continues to dominate Moroccan foreign policy to this day. Relations with Algeria have deteriorated sharply due to the Western Sahara affair, as well as due to Moroccan claims on Algerian territory (Tindouf and Bechar), which unleashed the brief 1963 Sand War. Relations with Mauritania were tense too, as Morocco only recognized it as a sovereign country in 1969, nearly a decade after Mauritania's independence, because of Moroccan claims on the country (see Great Morocco). In 1985, Hassan II suspended Morocco's membership of the Organization of African Unity and enters into conflict with Burkinabe President Thomas Sankara because of his decision to recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

Economically, Hassan II adopted a market-based economy, where agriculture, tourism, and phosphates mining industries played a major role. On 3 March 1973, Hassan II announced the policy of Moroccanization, in which state-held assets, agricultural lands, and businesses that were more than 50 percent foreign-owned—and especially French-owned—were transferred to political loyalists and high-ranking military officers.[17][18] The Moroccanization of the economy affected thousands of businesses and the proportion of industrial businesses in Morocco that were Moroccan-owned immediately increased from 18% to 55%.[17] 2/3 of the wealth of the Moroccanized economy was concentrated in 36 Moroccan families.[17]

Morocco's human rights record was extremely poor during the period from the 1960s to the late 1980s, which was labelled as the "years of lead"[19][20] and saw thousands of dissidents jailed, killed, exiled or forcibly disappeared. During this time, Morocco was one of the most repressive and undemocratic nations in the world. However, Morocco has been labelled as "partly free" by Freedom House, except in 1992 and 2014 when the country was labelled "Not free" in those years respectively. The country would only become more democratic by the early 1990s amid strong international pressure and condemnation over the nation's human rights record. Due to the strong rebuke from other nations and human rights groups, and also because of the realistic threat of international isolation, Hassan II would then gradually democratize the nation over time. Since then, Morocco's human rights record has improved modestly, and improved significantly following the death of Hassan II.

King Hassan II had extended many parliamentary functions by the early 1990s and released hundreds of political prisoners in 1991, and allowed the Alternance, where the opposition assumed power, for the first time in the Arab World. He set up a Royal Council for Human Rights to look into allegations of abuse by the State.

Hassan died of pneumonia and other health consequences in his birth town at the age of 70 on 23 July 1999. A national funeral service was held for him in Rabat, with over 40 heads of state in attendance, notably UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, American President Bill Clinton and French President Jacques Chirac. He was buried in the Mausoleum of Mohammed V. The coffin of Hassan II, carried by King Mohammed VI, his brother Prince Moulay Rachid and his cousin Moulay Hicham, was covered with a green fabric, in which the first prayer of Islam, "There is no god but God", is inscribed in golden writing.[21]

Royal styles of King Hassan II of Morocco
Reference style	His Majesty
Spoken style	Your Majesty

National orders:

• Grand Master of the Order of Muhammad
• Grand Master of the Order of the Throne
• Grand Master of the Order of the Independence
• Grand Master of the Order of Ouissam Alaouite
• Grand Master of the Order of Fidelity
• Grand Master of the Order of Military Merit
• Grand Master of the National Order of Merit
• Grand Master of the National Order of Prosperity

Foreign orders:

• Grand Star of the Order of Merit of the Austrian Republic
• Grand Collar of the Order of al-Khalifa of Bahrain
• Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold of Belgium
• Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Cambodia
• Knight of the Order of the Elephant of Denmark
• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Nile of Egypt
• Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour of France
• Grand Cross Special Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer of Greece
• Grand Collar of the Order of Pahlavi of Iran
• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Two Rivers of Iraq
• Knight Grand Cross with Collar of Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
• Collar of the Order of al-Hussein bin Ali of Jordan
• Collar of the Order of Mubarak the Great of Kuwait
• Extraordinary Grade of the Order of Merit of Lebanon
• Grand Cordon of the Order of Idris I of Libya
• Grand Cross of the National Order of Mali of Mali
• Grand Cordon of the Order of National Merit of Mauritania
• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion
• Special Class of the Order of Oman
• Grand Cross of the Order of Pakistan, First Class
• Grand Collar of the Order of Prince Henry of Portugal
• Grand Cross of the Order of the Tower and Sword of Portugal
• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Independence of Qatar
• Order of Abdulaziz al Saud of Saudi Arabia, 1st Class
• Collar of Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise of Spain
• Collar of the Order of Charles III of Spain
• Grand Cordon of the Order of Merit of Sudan
• Wissam of the Order of Oumayid of Syria
• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Republic of Tunisia
• Grand Collar of the Order of the Seventh of November of Tunisia
• Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
• Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
• Collar of the Order of Etihad (Order of the Federation)
• Yugoslav Great Star