2023-12-27 10:18:02
Retrospective. The year is 1923. Tangier’s new status is that of an international city. A city which is a crossroads of paths, languages, cultures and interests. The convention of December 18, 1923 on the organization of its regime, better known as the Tangier Protocol, clearly sets out the particularities of its new role in the region and in the world.
The city of the Detroit, transformed in the space of a few scribbled signatures into what the American media promptly baptized “World City”, is in reality only the translation of a dream formulated for the first time by Uncle Sam in 1856, during a succession of media appearances. At the time, the city was already considered the “diplomatic capital of the Mediterranean”, thanks to its openness to the different countries in the region.
From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, the old Tingis became, as if by a sleight of hand, a pole of attraction for international elite exchanges. Moreover, the French Protectorate of 1912 only confirmed this singularity. As a result, the city is subject to an exceptional regime “to be determined”, the First World War having postponed this objective to more lenient circumstances.
Unveiled in December 1923, promulgated in May 1924 and implemented the following summer, the Tangier Protocol subjects this territory of 375 square kilometers to a colonial regime shared between the three opposing powers in the North of Morocco: France, Spain and, to a lesser extent, the United Kingdom.
These three powers were soon joined in 1928 by Italy, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden. The United States initially remained on the sidelines. But officially, the city remains under the sovereignty of the Sultan of Morocco, represented by a delegate called “Mendoub”, the equivalent of a pasha but with a rather symbolic role. From 1940 to 1944, Tangier was under the control of Spain, which attached it to the Rif territory, in order to artificially guarantee its neutrality in the midst of the slaughter of the Second World War on the central and eastern coasts of the Mediterranean.
The adjacent city of Gibraltar regained its transnational splendor following the war, thanks to the arrival of a new player: the United States. It is home to a Coca-Cola manufacturing plant and a Voice of America agency. At the time of the Marshall Plan, Tangier became one of the many witnesses to the birth of American soft power, which superimposed itself on colonial domination. This adventure practically ceased in 1956 with the independence of Morocco. However, the city retained a special status until 1960.
In those years, Tangier became a Gotha for intellectuals. Paul Bowles, René Matisse, Paul Morand, Mohammed Choukri (native of Nador but from Tangier at heart) and Eugène Delacroix made this city shine in the visual arts, cinema and literature.
However, for its 115,000 Moroccans, Muslims and Jews, and its 35,000 Europeans, mainly Spanish, many of whom are part of the urban proletariat, this singular experience is not very profitable. The exceptional geographical position of Tangier on the Strait of Gibraltar has only benefited the wealthy, diplomats and overseas leaders. The prosperity of its maritime activities was, unfortunately, dependent on the Independence of the Kingdom.
A few decades later, among the Nationals, the internationalization of Tangier resulted in an incredible shift in classes, salary inequalities, dropping out of school at an early age in order to find a job, increased precariousness, etc.
In short, this same internationalization, which almost everyone applauded in the 1920s, turned out to be a cosmopolitanism of conflicts which, before Tangier Med, only succeeded in paralyzing the development of the city. with a thousand assets.
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#Tangier #Internationalization #Renaissance
