Morocco is officially known as Kingdom of Morocco. It is situated in North Africa bordering the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, Western Sahara in the south and Algeria in the east. It has land area of 446, 550 sq. km and a total estimated population for 2012 is 32,545,170. Rabat is the capital city and Casablanca is the largest city. The terrains are mostly mountains, dessert and coastal plains. The climate in north is Mediterranean but going toward the interior regions and the south it becomes extreme.
History
The history of Morocco was shaped by its strategic location. Many foreigners such as Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantine Greeks and Visigoths ruled the area. During the 7th century it was the time that forces of the Arabs starts to occupy the country. The resources of the country as well as its location resulted to European competition. The Portuguese controlled the Atlantic coast during the 15th century. It was followed by France in the 1830’s and because of the 1912 Treaty of Fes, Morocco became the colony of France. On March 2, 1956, the Moroccans had their independence from France.
Government
The Moroccans type of government is constitutional monarchy. In executive branch, the head of the state is the King and the prime minister is the head of the government. The legislative is bicameral parliament while in Judicial it is headed by the Supreme Court. The current king of Morocco is Mohammed V1 and the prime minister is Abdelillah Benkirane.
Economy
The major resources of the economy of Moroccans are phosphates, tourism and agriculture as well as seafood sales. The industry types vary from manufacturing, mining, public works and constructions, energy and handicrafts. The most common agricultural products are vegetables, olives, livestock, fishing and barley. Morocco is the third largest producers of phosphates in the world after United States and China. The fluctuation of phosphates price in international market largely influences their economy. The remittances of the workers as well as the tourism industry played an important role in the economy since their independence. The monetary unit of the country is called Moroccan dirham with a 2011 average exchange rate of 8.09 per U.S dollar.
People
The people are called Moroccans and most of them are Sunni Muslim, others are Berber or mixed Arab-Berber. The Islam including the Arabic language was brought by the Arabs to the Arabian Peninsula region during the 7th century Muslim conquests. Today, there are still some small community of Jewish and some Christian community that remains in Morocco. Both religious community enjoy full freedom and has civil rights.
The official language is Arabic and the second unofficial language is Berber which is spoken by more than 15 million of Moroccans. French is the third unofficial language and usually taught in school. It is also the language used in economics, commerce and government. Some Moroccans in the northern part also speaks Spanish. The English is slowly becoming popular as the choice of foreign language by the educated youth and is being widely taught in several public schools.