Great Britain and southern Morocco in the nineteenth century

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In the latter part of the nineteenth century, British policy was directed towards the protection of Morocco's political integrity and toward maintaining a system of global free trade and freedom of the seas. The policy was only ended as a result of the Entente Cordiale in 1904. With respect to southern Morocco and the Western Sahara region, British merchants, such as Donald Mackenzie, were able to breach the monopoly on trade established by the Sultanate although, in the end, the Sultanate was able to reestablish its claim to sovereignty. This, however, proved to be the precursor to a far more effective Spanish and French occupation which presaged the complete colonial subjugation of the region.