ABSTRACT
On the local level France's commercial penetration of Tafilalt aroused resistance spirit, partly because a significant portion of the population was all too willing to tie the Ziz valley economically to the French railroad. Figuig preceded Oujda and Casablanca as a territorial beachhead in France's drive to take possession of Morocco. Although the people of the oasis became only 'informal' subjects of France following the bombardment, they found themselves from that time on falling further and further behind the front lines of conquest and therefore increasingly isolated from the forces of popular resistance. The Dawi Mani' and Awlad Jarir who did make peace with the French began at once to cash in on the new trade brought by the railroad and Louis-Hubert-Gonsalve Lyautey's markets. After the shelling of Zenaga, Figuig quickly settled into a new relationship with the French already having the essential characteristics of the protectorate that was to be formalized nine years later.
