PC: Morocco becoming a colonial power?

Was it at all possible during the time that the 1500-1700's that Morocco could have joined Europe in the colonial race in the new world, or elsewhere? What effect might this have had on European colonialism?
 
Their's a possible potential, but it would require alot of changes, though it's not ultra difficult.
 
The UN decolonization committee seems to think so.

Yeah, the U.N thinks a lot of weird things these day's. Western Sahara as a colony is one of those weird things. Honestly I think Spain should have let Morocco have all of Western Sahara, and not run it as a joint administrative territory.

As far as Morocco as a colonial power? You would half to have a point of divergence prior to 1860 as Morocco would half to be able to repulse the Spanish invasion of 1860, and retain enough strength to prevent the creation of a Spanish protectorate in 1864.
 
Does colonizing Western Sahara count?

The UN decolonization committee seems to think so.

Yeah, the U.N thinks a lot of weird things these day's. Western Sahara as a colony is one of those weird things. Honestly I think Spain should have let Morocco have all of Western Sahara, and not run it as a joint administrative territory.

West Sahara is on the U.N. Decolonization list, however Morocco is'nt technically involved, rather it's still listed as, and in some legal way still is, a Colony of Spain.
 
West Sahara is on the U.N. Decolonization list, however Morocco is'nt technically involved, rather it's still listed as, and in some legal way still is, a Colony of Spain.

I thought it was currently administered by Morocco. I have no idea why people are saying it shouldn't count as a colony, seeing that its people want independence and Morocco won't let them.
 
How about a Meiji Morocco that benefits from a long-standing alliance with the US, similar to the UK and Portugal? They'd have no problem outmuscling their non-French/Spanish neighbors, and by the time Morocco itself was colonized OTL, the US could conceivably be powerful enough to guarantee its independence, to the extent it can't defend itself. That sound workable?
 
I thought it was currently administered by Morocco. I have no idea why people are saying it shouldn't count as a colony, seeing that its people want independence and Morocco won't let them.

About 60% of Western Sahara is controlled by Morocco, however the other 40% is controlled by the Sahrawi's and the situation has basically been frozen since the early 90's.

EDIT: Here's a simplified map, Morocco controls the Western part and the Polisario the Eastern part.

West Sahara Border.png
 
Last edited:
West Sahara is on the U.N. Decolonization list, however Morocco is'nt technically involved, rather it's still listed as, and in some legal way still is, a Colony of Spain.

I thought it was currently administered by Morocco. I have no idea why people are saying it shouldn't count as a colony, seeing that its people want independence and Morocco won't let them.

The majority is administered by Morocco, a smaller amount by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, but it was added to the UN Decolonisation list as a Spanish Colony and Morocco refuses to view it as a colony (and the handover was a bit complicated), it's basically ended up frozen that way on the UN's decolonisation list.

As is, Morocco's basic claim is that the SADR is nothing more than an Algerian puppet organisation aimed at trying to break up the country so they can exert their influence (to be fair, this is or has been in the past at least partially true) or Moroccan origin, while trying to acertain the opinion of the Sahrwari people is complicated by everything from the fact that most of the participants don't really conduct opinion polls on anything to the fact that estimates of the population vary wildly (the number of Sahwari in Morocco proper is somewhere between 90,000 and 221,000; the numbers in Western Sahara are either a very small minority of 30,000 or just short of half the population at 247,000; the number of refugees in Algeria is also somewhere between 90,000 and 165,000 in refugee camps, with either another 184,000 or 20,000 native to Algeria depending on how you read the figures).
 
you can't a Meiji insert state here. Although what if the Sultans of Morocco got wind of Spanish and Portuguese efforts in the Canaries and Madeira, could those 2 islands count? Possibly reverse engineering some ocean going ships make some changes accordingly, or would population and political problems make it unlikely.
 
you can't a Meiji insert state here.

Indeed, the industrialization and economic explosion following the Meiji Restoration was the result of many different facts including but not limited to Japan already having over a century of minor industry established to build on and the government basically subsidising everything and absorbing every economic and industrial idea from the West it could find.
 
Top