ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the rural development and resettlement schemes within the evolving context of social, economic, and material conditions upon which the programme of modernizing the country was built. The French regarded the Gharb valley, even before the establishment of the Moroccan Protectorate in 1912, as one of the most promising areas for the development of a modern agricultural hub and for the settling of colonist farmers. The centralization of political, administrative, and financial activities necessarily entailed information exchange between the capital and the provinces, as well as the mobilization of people, military equipment, goods, and services to ensure control of the whole country. The specialized literature and the rich promotional material produced in the early phase of French colonial occupation converged on the idea that the environmental decay of Morocco’s rural landscape was due primarily to neglect and the native population’s limited technical knowledge, the country’s climatic and geographic features.
