Hassan II of Morocco
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
King Hassan II (July 9, 1929-July 23, 1999) (Arabic: الحسن الثاني) was King of Morocco from 1961 to his death. He was the eldest son of Mohammed V, Sultan, then King of Morocco and his wife Lalla Abla bint Tahar, whom he married in 1926.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
[edit] Youth and education
King Hassan was educated at the Imperial College at Rabat and earned a law degree from the University of Bordeaux.
He was exiled to Corsica by French authorities on 20 August 1953, along with his father Sultan Mohammed V. They were transferred to Madagascar in January 1954. Prince Hassan acted as his father's political advisor during the exile. Mohammed V and his family returned from exile on 16 November 1955.
Prince Hassan participated in the February 1956 negotiations for Morocco's independence with his father, who later appointed him Chief of Staff of the Royal Armed Forces in April 1956. In the unrest of the same year, he led army contingents battling Berbers in the mountains of the Rif. Mohammed V changed the title of the Moroccan sovereign from Sultan to King in 1957. Hassan was proclaimed Crown Prince on 19 July 1957, and became King on 3 March 1961, after his father's death.
[edit] Rule
Hassan's conservative rule strengthened the Alaouite Dynasty, but his refusal to share power with the political parties, instead relying on the makhzen elite, provoked political protest. In 1965, while the King did not abolish the mechanisms of parliamentary democracy, he dissolved parliament and ruled directly. When elections were eventually held, they were blatantly rigged in favor of loyal parties. This caused severe discontent among the opposition, and protest demonstrations and riots challenged the King's rule.
In the early 1970s, the mounting discontent spread to the army, and King Hassan survived two assassination attempts. The first, in 1971, was organized by the army and carried out by cadets, during a function at Skhirat, an ocean resort. In 1972, during a second attempt at a coup d'état, jets from the Royal Moroccan Air Force fired upon the King's Boeing 727 while he was traveling back to Rabat, but did not bring it down.
Hassan served as a back channel between the Arab world and Israel, facilitating early negotiations between them. During his reign, Morocco gained control over Western Sahara after the "Green March" in 1975, an issue which was to dominate Moroccan foreign policy until this day. Relations with Algeria deteriorated sharply due to this and due to the 1963 Sand War.
In 1984, Morocco withdrew from the Organisation of African Unity because of its admission of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, unilaterally proclaimed by the Polisario Front.
The rigidly dictatorial period from the 1960s to the early '90s was labelled by the Moroccan opposition as the "years of lead", and saw many hundreds of dissidents shot, jailed, exiled or forcibly disappeared. Although King Hassan II had restored many parliamentary functions by the early '90s and released hundreds of political prisoners in 1991, and allowed the Alternance, where the opposition assumed power, for the first time in the Arab World, the "years of lead" ended definitely only with the taking of the throne by his son Mohammed VI in 1999.
[edit] Family
King Hassan II had five children with his wife Lalla Latifa Hammou, whom he married in 1961 :
- HRH Princess Lalla Meryem (b.1962)
- HM King Mohammed VI (b.1963)
- HRH Princess Lalla Asma (b.1965)
- HRH Princess Lalla Hasna (b.1967)
- HRH Prince Moulay Rachid (b.1970)
He also was married to Fatima Amhourok, a daughter of el Qaid Amhourok; they had no children.
[edit] See also
[edit] References and links
| Preceded by: Mohammed V |
King of Morocco 1961–1999 |
Succeeded by: Mohammed VI |
