‘England is fighting us everywhere’: geopolitics and conspiracy thinking in wartime Morocco

Abstract

This article examines allegations that the ‘Intelligence Service’ of Great Britain exploited nationalist movements in the region to ensure the future British domination of North Africa. In some ways this was a classic conspiracy theory with its vision of an omniscient organisation secretly controlling global events. Yet documents in the UK's National Archives reveal that during the Second World War, British agents did indeed provide covert support to Moroccan nationalism, including in particular the Party of Moroccan Unity under Mekki al-Naciri (1906–94). Furthermore, acting in concert with the US Office of Strategic Services, British intelligence prepared for a full-scale uprising in northern Morocco. Although British covert action was halted in 1944–45, its political ramifications, combined with pre-existing fears of British duplicity, explain much of Morocco's suspicion surrounding British intentions during the years leading up to Moroccan independence in 1956. The article concludes that while the belief in an external conspiracy was a paradigm in Moroccan history during the colonial period, on occasion the Great Powers and their agents did in fact plan covert actions in pursuit of their interest in controlling the North African littoral.