Social History of 18th- and 19th- Century Morocco: The Role of the Makhzen in Deepening Livelihood Crises

Abstract

The article aims to answer the question: How did the Makhzen's management of the country's political conditions during the 19th century contribute to the deterioration of public conditions? To address this issue, we have adopted excavation and investigation of time sources to collect its diaspora, focusing on the two reigns of the Sultans, Moulay Suleiman and Moulay Hassan I. The features of the policy of the Makhzen varied from one sultan to another, and changed with the change in the general conditions of the country. However, what distinguished this relationship during the nineteenth century was that it was complex, marked by the increasing intransigence of European colonial powers, and the exacerbation of the pressures that they exercised on Morocco. It was obvious that the relationship of the storehouse with the population was affected, as the levies increased, and their names varied, at a time when they spread in the locality, and the famines that were accompanying them, so the tribes that existed on the margins rebelled, and the response of the sultans was to organize "movements" to discipline the tribes and collect taxes and fines.