Rabat – On this day, August 14 in the year 1844, Moroccan forces clashed with the French in an ultimately doomed attempt to end French colonial expansion in the Maghreb. In an attempt to push back the French Empire after its successive victories in Algeria, the armed forces of Morocco and France clashed at Isly, near Oujda.
A pact between Algerian religious and military leader Emir Abd el-Kader and the Moroccan Sultan Abd al-Rahman resulted in the mobilization of thousands of Moroccan infantry and cavalry following the August 6 French bombardment of Tangier.
An epic battle ensued 8 kilometers from Oujda, with a massive Moroccan army consisting of primarily cavalry units facing off against the technologically superior French army of the colonial Marshall Thomas Robert Bugeaud.
Despite the might of the French army, Morocco’s sultan sent his forces in support of Algeria’s defense. Between 20,000 and 25,000 Moroccan cavalrymen charged against the lines of France’s Napoleonic-style army of muskets and cannon.
French military superiority won the day in a swift but bloody battle, yet the Battle of Isly will forever stand as an example of Moroccan-Algerian solidarity in the face of Western colonialism.
Morocco’s decision to fight the French in defense of Algeria eventually led to the colonial partition of Morocco into two Spanish controlled regions in the north and south, with France controlling the center.
This division of Morocco’s pre-colonial territory continues to handicap the country to this day as it attempts to regain international recognition for its pre-colonial southern borders.
