Fez country8/17/2023 Intent on maximizing economic returns while minimizing the need for manpower, their occupation extended inland only as far as Volubilis and was supported by a token military force of an estimated 28,000 troops and auxiliaries. ![]() Thus by the time Carthage had lost its grasp, in the 2nd century BC, the Berbers had organized themselves into several large kingdoms.įollowing the fall of Carthage in 146 BC, Rome chose to focus its authority in the northern coastal plain of Morocco, which it called the province of Mauretania Tingitana (from which the word ‘Moor’). Even so, the tribes maintained their political hierarchies throughout and evolved by adopting Carthaginian practises in farming, trade, manufacture and weaponry. While the Phoenicians had had little interest in territorial gain or control beyond that required to protect their commercial interests, Carthaginian political authority spread to the regions immediately adjoining their colonies.Īt the height of the empire, for almost a century, the flow of tributes was reversed: Berbers occupying land claimed by Carthage were obliged to pay taxes, taken as slaves or drafted into its armies by the 4th century BC, Berbers made up a substantial part of the Carthaginian forces. In Morocco these included Lixis (modern Larache), Sala (Rabat) and Mogador (Essaouira), the latter a production centre for a highly prized purple dye, Tyrian, which was made from ground shells.īy the 5th century BC the Phoenician colonies and trading routes had been ceded to the Carthaginians, based in modern Tunis, who added new colonies close to Fez at Tamuda (Tetouan) and Qantara (near Al-Qasr al-Saghir) and expanded their activities inland by paying Berber tribes annual tributes for the right to extract raw materials. By the 8th century BC Phoenicians from the eastern Mediterranean had several well-established trading posts along the North African coast, which gradually evolved into colonies. ![]() The indigenous people of Morocco were pastoral or nomadic Berbers who were organized into tribes.
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