Hassan II

Biography

Hassan II was born in Rabat in 1929, the eldest son of Sultan Mohammed V. He was educated at the Royal College in Rabat, where Mehdi Ben Barka taught him mathematics, and took law degrees from the University of Bordeaux in 1951 and 1952. He shared his father's exile in Corsica and Madagascar from 1953, took part in the 1956 independence talks, and as commander of the new Royal Armed Forces put down the Rif revolt. He was named crown prince in 1957.

He became king in February 1961 and gave Morocco its first constitution in 1962, a constitutional monarchy that kept wide powers for the throne. After the bloody Casablanca riots of 1965 he declared a state of exception and ruled by decree, and in the same year his leading opponent, Ben Barka, disappeared in Paris. He survived the Skhirat palace attack of 1971 and the attack on his plane by air force jets in 1972.

In 1975 he organised the Green March into Spanish Sahara, which brought most of the territory under Moroccan control and began a long conflict with the Polisario Front. Abroad he sided with the West, acted as a channel between Israel and Arab states, including in the Egyptian-Israeli talks of 1977, and founded the Al-Quds Committee.

His rule, especially the 'years of lead' from the 1960s to the 1980s, saw thousands of opponents jailed, killed or made to disappear; he began to ease repression in the 1990s. He died in Rabat in July 1999 and was succeeded by his son Mohammed VI.