stories and histories

Europeans in Morocco- the coastal presence
    In 1960, a great earthquake shook Agadir, ridding the landscape of anything that may have stood in Leo's days. Today, what was once the emplacement of the 'old town' is nothing but a pile of rubbles sitting atop a hill, right outside modern day Agadir.
    The 35,000 inhabitants whose life was so seriously threatened in February 1960 would be shocked to see the agglomeration which now houses over 300,000 inhabitants: the beachfront is busy with sprawling hotels and restaurants, Agadir's three ports are home to much of Morocco's exporting activity and the surrounding country side feeds tons of tomatoes, oranges and other produce to the world.
    In many ways, Agadir is a European gateway to Morocco.

The bustling fish port and market in Agadir
      European presence in Agadir antedates this influx of tourism: long before hordes of German and French vacationers arrived in search of a bit of sunshine not too far from home, the Portuguese claimed Agadir and its surroundings for selfish reasons of their own. In Leo's days, the Portugese were at the height of their presence in Morocco, controlling much of the Mediterranean and Atlantic Coast. On the Atlantic, Agadir (known as Santa Cruz de Aguer- probably a derivative of the Berber word Agadir, meaning community barn, a building where all members of a given village used to store grains) was one of the furthest South "frontieras" (Portuguese enclave) and had been built by a Portuguese nobleman, Joao Lopez de Sequeira, who personally paid for all expenses. This fortified port was attached to the more official Portuguese presence at Massa, established in 1497.
     The internal conflicts tearing Morocco apart made it difficult for any sovereign to take these ports away from the Portuguese When writing about Agadir, Leo mentions a failed attempt by the local ruler to re-conquer the fortress. In 1511, the Moroccans laid siege to the fortified place, and lost many men in battle, but returned home, vanquished. Leo writes that despite this defeat, the nearby populations did not abandon the hope of recuperating these lands someday. Led by the man who would later become the first Sultan of the Saadien dynasty, they waited patiently, gathering men and forces for upcoming battles:
"When I left the Cherif's court ( Cherif is a name given to any descendant of the Prophet, Muhammad), he had gathered more than 3000 horsemen and a great many footmen, along with huge quantities of war materials." (92)
Leo's words seem to presage the victories that awaited the Moroccans only a few years later. Had the Portuguese read his words when they were written in the 1520s, they may have better anticipated the change in fortune...
    At the height of their North African power, the Portuguese controlled all but 2 of Morocco's main ports (Sale, the port closest to Rabat, was one of these exceptions). However, starting 1540, the rise of a unified Morocco under Saadien power spelled the end of Portuguese coastal dominance. Agadir was re-conquered by Moroccan troops in 1541, 15 years after Leo finished writing his book.