Scientific travellers, whose attention was mainly engaged in their own special pursuits, and whose opportunities for gaining information were restricted by ignorance of the native languages, have no claim to speak with authority of the condition and prospects of a country so extensive as the Marocco Empire. But it would be strange if we had failed to derive some conclusions from the results of our personal observation and the information gained on the spot.
Of the material resources of Marocco it is difficult to say too much. Even under existing conditions, a great portion of the territory is extremely fertile, and supplies for export a large amount of agricultural produce. The two natural disadvantages with which it has to contend are, occasional deficient rainfall and the ravages of locusts. For the first, the remedy is to be sought in irrigation. The unfailing streams from the Atlas already serve to a limited extent; but the area of productive land might by intelligent management be very largely increased. We have seen an estimate of the quantity of water discharged by the five principal streams that fall into the Atlantic north of the Atlas, which fixes the amount at 9,000 cubic feet per second; and if to these were added the Moulouya, which falls into the Mediterranean, and the Siss, the Draha, the Asakka, and the Sous, which drain the southern slopes of the main chain, we should probably double the above estimate, and find an aggregate amount sufficient to irrigate three millions of acres. These figures must of course be considered as mere guesses; but there can be no doubt that they indicate a very large reserve of unused natural resources. With an almost unequalled climate, there is scarcely any one of the productions of the warmer temperate and subtropical zones that may not here be obtained. Besides grain, the country now supplies large quantities of olive oil, dates, oranges, and almonds, with a little cotton. The latter may be largely increased; and there seems to be no reason why coffee, tea, sugar, indigo, and other valuable exotic produce, should not be raised in the southern provinces.
There can be no doubt of the existence of mineral wealth in the Great Atlas. We have the direct testimony of Leo Africanus to the working of mines of copper and iron in the districts visited by him; and specimens brought by Shelluh mountaineers show that ores of lead, silver, nickel, and cobalt are likewise to be found. The forests of the Atlas would, if saved from wanton destruction, be a further important source of national wealth.
Rich in all the material elements of prosperity, this great territory, whose area may be roughly estimated at 190,000 square miles, is cursed by a Government which has in the past wrought nothing but ruin and degradation, and whose continued existence forbids the faintest hope of future improvement.
Nothing seems to be more clear than the decadence of the race who now represent the Arab conquerors of Mauritania. In their better days they united to martial vigour and skill some aptitude for progress in arts and learning. Works of public utility were not unknown; and, at a time when nearly all Europe was plunged in intellectual darkness, Fez was one of the chief centres of Arabic culture. The history of the last four centuries in Marocco has been one of continuous and uninterrupted decline. Unable to establish their authority over the larger portion of the region which they claim to govern, the Sultans have left to anarchy the mountain region into which the best part of the population was compelled to retire when driven from the fertile lower country. Over the provinces wherein they are able to enforce it, the rule of the Moorish Sultans is little else than an organised system of extortion, in which unchecked license is given to the agents of the central authority, on the sole condition of making this the final depository of whatever wealth the country can produce. The springs of industry and enterprise are broken; no man can dream of improving his own condition or that of his family, unless by elaborate fraud and concealment he can hoard up wealth, which he dare not employ in any way useful to the community.[1]
When we inquire what prospect there may be of any escape from the miserable condition to which Marocco is now reduced, no hopeful answer can be found. The most sanguine believer in the future of the Mohammedan races can suggest nothing better than the chance of the appearance of a Sultan, intelligent and energetic, and powerful enough to revive the traditions of the better days when rulers took some thought for the welfare of their subjects, and who might initiate an era of security and progress. But, to say nothing of the improbability of the appearance of such a man in a family that by frequent intermixture with the black race has become more Negro than Moorish, it seems a pure illusion to imagine that even an extraordinary man seated on the throne of Marocco, and surrounded by such agents as he would have at hand, could accomplish salutary reforms, and, more than that, to suppose that these could have any permanence. It is conceivable that if the Moor and Arab did not stand in the way, and the Berber stock were restored to their original inheritance, a great ruler might overcome their fatal tendency to tribal decomposition, weld them into a nation, and set them on the path of progress. History affords examples of some such transformation among vigorous barbarians or semi-savages. But with an effete race, corrupted by luxury, who have lost the spirit, but preserved many of the traditions, of a decayed civilisation, no such miracle is to be worked. Men of great powers, such as one cannot expect to see on the throne of Marocco, have ere now failed in the attempt, or the little they have effected has died with them.
No rational believer in progress can cling to the belief that this is the spontaneous tendency of all branches of the human race, the ultimate condition to which, with whatever delay, all must conform. Far from this, all history shows that the task of leading mankind on the onward road has always been the privilege of a few races only. The larger part of the earth is even now inhabited by people either in a stationary or a retrograde condition, and of the latter state Marocco affords one of the most striking examples.
The one reasonable prospect of improvement in the condition of Marocco is to be sought in its passing under the control of a civilised State, strong enough to overcome speedily the inevitable resistance of the Moorish ruling class, and advanced enough to consult the welfare of the people it undertakes to govern. If we ask what European State is by character and circumstances best fitted for such an undertaking the answer must be—France. Having already achieved with tolerable success a similar task in the adjoining region of Northern Africa, the French have every motive to add to their possessions a territory offering far greater natural advantages; and it is probable that they would have already effected the conquest, but for the inevitable jealousy of other European Powers. The French are not successful colonists; nor have the economic results of their annexation of Algeria been as brilliant as might have been expected. But in Marocco colonisation is not to be sought or desired. Under a government affording security for industry the Berber would settle in the unoccupied lands of the lower country, and carry out under intelligent control the works which would fit them for a large increase of population.
Many readers who hold to the traditional political ideas of the past will shrink from the conclusion here expressed. Not concerning themselves with the results of such a change on the future condition of Marocco, they will urge that such a great territorial extension of the French possessions in Africa would increase to a formidable extent the power of our ancient rival throughout the Mediterranean region; and they will with justice argue that it is not for the general interest of the civilised world that any single Power should obtain a preponderating influence over the rest.
Experience seems to supply an answer to these objections. If extensive foreign possessions be in some respects a source of strength to a country, they not less certainly are a cause of weakness in others; and in the case of a Power not holding maritime supremacy, the possession of valuable dependencies easily assailable by sea acts as a weighty check on the aggressive tendencies of the people.