Morocco

The Kingdom of Morocco (Al-Mamlaka al-Maghribiya) is at the westernmost part of the Maghreb states and has a total area of 446,550 square kilometers. Including the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara, which Morocco has occupied since the late 1970s, the area is 710,850 square kilometers. At the northwestern tip of Africa, it is separated from Europe by the 13-kilometer-wide Straits of Gibraltar. Its immediate neighbors are Algeria, Spain (with the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, over which Morocco claims jurisdiction), and Mauretania (which borders on the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara now occupied by Morocco). Unlike many other African states, Morocco, with roughly 33 million inhabitants, was not created by colonial officials at the drawing board. The constitutional monarchy has a strong continuity ...