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(hä'sän) , 1929–99, king of Morocco (1961–99). Formerly crown prince Moulay Hassan ben Mohammed Alaoui, he ascended the throne on the death (1961) of his father, Muhammad V. A graduate of the Univ. of Bordeaux, Hassan became chief of staff of the Moroccan army in 1957. In 1965 political unrest in Morocco caused him to assume full executive and legislative control, but an abortive coup (July, 1971) led him to yield some of his powers to the Moroccan parliament. King Hassan's monarchy survived a series of attempted coups that same year and throughout the 1970s as he maintained relative stability by suppressing dissent. In 1984 he appointed a coalition government. Internationally, Hassan pursued a neutralist course, aided in attempts at Middle Eastern peace with Israel, and for a long period of time managed to receive aid from both the West and Communist nations. In 1970, after high casualties in 1963, he reached agreement with Algeria over a long-contested border. After 1974 he sought to incorporate the former Spanish Sahara (now Western Sahara) into Morocco, challenging first the Spanish, then fighting Algerian-backed guerrilas seeking independence for the region. The king was succeeded by his son Muhammad VI.

1929 - 2000

King of Morocco, 1961 - 2000.

Hassan II was the son of Muhammad V, king of Morocco. As Crown Prince Mulay Hassan, he graduated from the University of Bordeaux in France. In 1961, when his father died unexpectedly, the thirty-two-year-old playboy prince came to power. The heir of the Alawite Dynasty, which has governed Morocco since the sixteenth century, Mulay Hassan had been well prepared by his father - as early as World War II - to assume the throne. He had also attended the 1942 meeting between Muhammad V and U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt.

When the French entered North Africa in the nineteenth century they established a policy of colonization and protectorates. Hassan had therefore been trained in both Arabic and French and had studied law and economics at the university; he was at ease in both cultures. He was also acutely aware of the ideas and changes that might come to Morocco from outside. Since his adolescence he was known to favor nationalism, as did many Moroccans of his age. He was said to have some influence on his father, who was more cautious and less brilliant than Hassan. When in 1948 there was a conflict with France's resident general that had to do with the signing of legal texts presented by French colonial authorities, Hassan was among those who favored a break with France. The consequence was Muhammad V's exile to the French-controlled island of Madagascar. Supporting his father, Hassan participated in the negotiations through intermediaries to reestablish links with the French government and effect Muhammad V's return, which was accomplished in 1955.

In contrast with Muhammad V, who was careful not to offend the parties who had joined the struggle for independence - especially the Istiqlal Party - Hassan wanted to preserve the autonomy of the monarchy. Designated chief of staff of the Royal Armed Forces, Hassan II appeared as the main guarantor of his peoples' destiny. He gathered around himself the former Moroccan officers who had served in the French army, and he ended rebellions in al-Rif, Tafilalt, and Beni-Mellal that had been provoked by various dissident movements. He also reduced the size of the Liberation Army, born of the Moroccan resistance, because it was almost autonomous in the south; it pretended to be fighting the French and Spanish colonial powers, but could easily have offered armed and organized support to any given opposition.

France and Spain recognized Morocco's independence in 1956; by 1958, Hassan II's forces prevailed throughout the country and dissidents were no longer a threat to the monarchy. Thus Muhammad V was able to incorporate the various splinter groups of the former nationalist movement within the government. Hassan was sometimes irritated by his father's caution and he tried to convince him to take back direct control. A change began in May 1960, when Hassan was appointed prime minister. When his father died in March 1961 Hassan II had both the experience and the means to put his theories into practice.

The independence of Algeria (5 July 1962) appeared to be a potential threat to Hassan II's monarchy. Algeria bordered Morocco to the east and south, and Algeria's National Liberation Front (Front de Libération Nationale) was known to support the Moroccan left (socialists) against the monarchy. Hassan sought a new legitimacy by mobilizing universal suffrage, which was largely supported by the rural populace. The December 1962 referendum guaranteed Hassan's success with 80 percent approval of his new constitution.

The results of the March 1963 election did not give him similar support. The old Istiqlal had lost its governmental majority and the king's followers were not able to form a political coalition quickly enough. Most of the ministers were defeated, and it seemed that the parliament could not easily be governed despite a promonarchy majority. In the meantime, the danger posed by Algeria had faded. The October 1963 border war and rivalry related to Tindouf had revived in Morocco a strong nationalist feeling that produced support for the monarchy.

Hassan II dismissed the parliament in 1965 and relied mainly on his army for legitimacy. He protected those in the military who had served French and Spanish colonialism, although some of the young officers were not as loyal or as committed as he had expected. Tempted by populist idealism, some succeeded in convincing former officers of the French colonial army (who controlled the military organization) to join their project. In July 1971 and September 1972 General Medboh and General Muhammad Oufkir, among others, faced death after their rebellion failed.

Paradoxically, Hassan succeeded in restoring faith in his monarchy in 1975 when a dispute with Spain (at the time of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco's death) led to the defense of Morocco's position in the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara. A local nationalistic movement, POLISARIO, which was supported mainly by Algeria and Libya, emerged to challenge Morocco. Both Algeria and Libya saw opportunities in the situation; Algeria, especially, under President Houari Boumédienne, wanted to demonstrate its control over the Maghrib before the new European Community. Bolstered by petroleum revenues, the growing power of Algeria had the effect of reuniting Morocco under Hassan.

Although Hassan had plans for political pluralism (albeit pluralism controlled by the monarchy), his army had been reequipped for possible conflict with Algeria. Many officers disagreed with that policy, and they attempted another coup. General Ahmed Dlimi was to be their leader, but the plot was discovered by the home secretary and Dlimi disappeared
in an accident. In the long run, Morocco benefited from its tactical building of the wall (fortified sand barriers in Western Sahara), and Algeria succeeded in having seventy-five countries recognize POLISARIO and make it a member of the Organization of African Unity (OAU).

Hassan managed Moroccan nationalism cautiously to establish national unity. He found external financial resources by getting Western countries as well as the Arab oil monarchies to support his military efforts and to launch economic development based on a private sector far larger than those of neighboring countries. For that reason, as the Pahlavi dynasty in Iran did before the Islamist Iranian Revolution of 1979, Hassan's monarchy became a major economic actor through the All North Africa association (Omnium Nord-Africain; ONA), not only to find resources, but also to prevent other entrepreneurs from obtaining power and becoming politically influential. Because Morocco had no oil, Hassan encouraged and often provided an example of an economic-development policy based on modern agriculture, launching a program to irrigate 2.47 million acres. He also encouraged small and medium-sized manufacturing industries.

In 1984 Hassan signed a treaty of unity with Libya after Libya withdrew its support for POLISARIO in the Western Sahara and Morocco agreed to refrain from sending troops to aid the French in Chad. In 1986, Libya abrogated the treaty when Hassan became the second North African leader to meet with an Israeli leader during Prime Minister Shimon Peres's visit to Morocco.

In 1988 international factors continued to prevail over those within Morocco. After Tunisian president Habib Bourguiba was replaced by General Zayn al-Abidine Ben Ali in November 1987, a process of realignment occurred among the North African countries. A consequence was the reintegration of Morocco, first at a meeting in Algiers (August 1988), then when the Union of the Maghrib (Union du Maghreb; UMA) treaty was signed in Marrakech, Morocco (March 1989). The treaty marked the end of the Algerian/Moroccan rivalry related to the Western Sahara, but at the same time, it deprived Morocco of a compelling reason for internal unity.

The UMA had another, hidden agenda: to constitute a united front against strengthening political movements in North Africa that aimed to establish Islamic religious regimes. Tunisia appeared to be the weak link at the time, and it needed support. Political changes in Algeria, too, had ramifications for Morocco. After the October 1988 riots in Algiers, President Chadli Bendjedid controlled the situation by creating a pluralistic political system open to Islamists; this led to competitive elections. Algerian pluralism looked attractive in comparison to the established Moroccan political system, where the same actors repeated their opposition to the existing power year after year. At a time when the annexation of Kuwait by Iraq (1990) became a military crisis and thus reduced the possibilities of action, Algeria was seen as a model rather than a threat by Moroccans.

In Morocco, the riots that took place in provincial cities by the end of 1990, the important demonstrations in the capital city at the beginning of 1991, and the reports of deserters leaving the Moroccan army to go to Iraq (by way of Algeria) indicated the public's disapproval of Hassan's cautious move in sending a limited contingent to help the United Nations coalition forces to defend the oil monarchy of Kuwait. Moroccan public opinion favored Iraq's President Saddam Hussein, and the Gulf War made visible the differing factions in Morocco.

In the last ten years of his reign Hassan's main preoccupation was to build a national consensus that would support the monarchy for the next century. He incorporated opposition parties into his government, but he was not ready to give up his power to rule directly public affairs without sharing decisions. In 1997 he compromised with socialist leader Alederrhamane Youssouf, dividing government departments into sovereign departments (Interior, Foreign Affairs, Army) that were under the control of the king and the members of the royal house, and ordinary ministries (Education, Finances, Social Affairs, Agriculture, etc.) that were under the direct control of the prime minister. But the minister of the interior, Driss Basri, appeared as a deputy prime minister exercising a global control of public activities on behalf of the king. More attention was given to human rights, and political prisoners were released, but sometimes they were expelled from the country for fallacious reasons. In spite of the limited scope of the changes, they helped to produce a political climate that progressively excluded violence from the functioning of Moroccan political life. The illness of the king and the presumed frailty of the heir apparent, Prince Mohamed, increased public desire for a broad national consensus that would include even moderate Islamist parties to build a more liberal political system after the king's death. Hassan II died in July 2000.

Bibliography

Waterbury, John. The Commander of the Faithful: The MoroccanPolitical Elite, a Study in Segmented Politics. New York: Columbia University Press, 1970.

— RÉMY LEVEAU

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