History of Casablanca control of Casablanca was not formalised until 1910. It was especially during the years of military governor Hubert Lyautey that Casablanca became Morocco's economic center and Africa's biggest harbour. The famous 1942 film "Casablanca" underlined the city's colonial status at the time—depicting it as the scene of a power struggle between competing European powers, carried out without any reference to the local population, and with the film's vast cosmoplitan cast of characters (American, French, German, Czech and some other nationalities) including not a single Arab. During the 1940s and 1950s, Casablanca was a major centre of anti-French rioting. A terrorist
History of Casablanca bomb on Christmas Day of 1953 killed 16 people. Casablanca was an important strategic port during World War II and hosted the Casablanca Conference -called even "Anfa Conference"- in 1943 (from January 14 to January 24), in which Churchill and Roosevelt discussed the progress of the war. Casablanca was the site of a large American air base, which was the staging area for all American aircraft for the European Theater of Operations during World War II. Morocco regained independence from France on 2 March 1956. In 1930, Casablanca hosted a round of the Formula One world championship. The race was