Why did France decolonize Morocco?

Answer 1

Technically speaking, France never colonized Morocco, but rather made Morocco a Protectorate from 1912-1956. The difference between a Protectorate and a Colony is that a Protectorate is ruled indirectly, by maintaining the pre-Western ruling elite in power and simply imposing certain regulatory and developmental requirements. (This is as opposed to colony which is ruled directly by foreigners who come over as local governors.) As a result, the Alaouite Dynasty remained in power throughout the Protectorate Period.

In 1956, Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia were all pushing for independence. However, since Algeria was considered part of France at that point (much the way that Hawaii is considered part of the United States today), the French wished to keep Algeria under French sovereignty to a much greater degree than either Morocco or Tunisia. Additionally, since Morocco had been a Protectorate and King Mohammed V was himself leading the charge for independence, the French knew that it would take a very large number of soldiers to put down a Moroccan uprising. As a result, in 1956, France gave both Morocco and Tunisia independence in order to focus on retaining Algeria.