Spanish Protectorate of Morocco (1912-1956)

Last modified: 2005-04-16 by antónio martins
Keywords: solomon seal | magen david | caliph | vizir | protectorate | star: 6 points (yellow) | star: 6 points (black) | star: 5 points (yellow) | star: 5 points (white) | makhzen | error | doubt |
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Merchant Flag (1937-1956)

• Presentation
• Description of the flag
• Previous version (1912-1937)
• Kingʼs (?) personal flag
• Caliphʼs personal flag
• Grand Vizirʼs personal flag

• Ifni-Sahara Spanish Maritime Province (1946-1975)
• French Protectorate of Morocco (1912-1946)
• International Zone of Tangiers (1912-1956)
• Republic of Er Rif
• Morocco (historical)
• Morocco
• Western Sahara

Presentation

In the end of the XIXth century, there were a lot of revolts in Morocco and the European powers decided to solve the “Moroccan problem”. France occupied Ujda and Casablanca in 1907, whereas Spain occupied Salwan and other strategic places in 1909. In spite of German protest, the French Protectorate over Morocco was established on 30 March 1912. The Sultan kept a nominal sovereignty. The Spanish zone was completely autonomous (treaty from 27 November 1912). Independance of Morocco was accepted by France on 6 November 1955 and officialized on 2 March 1956, when King Muhammad V came back from exile. Spain gave back the Rif area to Morocco on 7 April 1956 and the port of Ifni in June 1969.
Ivan Sache, 15 Jun 2003, based on [lux01]

Description of the flag

In Neubeckerʼs Flaggenbuch [neu92] the Merchant Flag of the Spanish Zone is a red flag with white fimbriated green canton containing a white pentagram in the middle (ratio: 2:3). The canton is hlaf the hoist high, and the pentagram is in relative the same ratio to it as in the (current) national flag, i.e. inscribed in circle 1/3 of the canton height.
Željko Heimer, 12 Jun 2002

I do not know on what date was this flag adopted, but it appears in both Flaggenbuch 1939 and Neubecker 1939. The latter quotes it as «Spanische Marokko 1937», may be this was the adoption date. However the protectorate was established in 1912.
Santiago Dotor, 05 Apr 2000

According to Flaggenbuch, the fimbriation around the canton is white. Canton, fimbriation included, is 1/2th of the flag. Star diameter is 1/3rd of the canton height, fimbriation included. (No national flag mentioned.)
Ivan Sache, 05 Dec 2000

Yellow star variant

The image of the flag of the Spanish Occupation zone in Morocco in the book of K. A. Ivanov, Drapeaux marocains [ivaXX] is red with a green canton with in the canton the pentagram in yellow. I have a written description of this flag where the pentagram is said to be white, also the fimbration of the canton is not mentioned.
Harald Müller, 14 Jun 1996

Square canton variant

According to Lux-Wurmʼs book [lux01], in the Spanish zone the civil ensign was red with a square green canton charged with a white Magen David.
Ivan Sache, 15 Jun 2003

Previous version (1912-1937)

1926 Flaggenbuch 1934 correction [rwm34a] shows a square red flag as national and merchant flag of the Spanish zone — no trace yet of the green canton with white pentagram, which supports the theory that the latter flag was adopted in 1937.
Santiago Dotor, 18 Jun 2003

The 1926 Flaggenbuch [rwm26] copy from München City Library does include two flags for Marocco — the national flag (the usual red with green pentagram) and the ensign for the French zone. I can't say how much corrections are included (and performed) in the München library copy (certainly on some pages traces of sticking small pieces of correction patches are noticable), but the only two flags for Marocco seems to indicate a stage between the original 1926 edition and 1934 correction.
Željko Heimer, 18 Jun 2003

Kingʼs (?) personal flag

I vaguely remember a flag for the Spanish possessions in Northern Africa: identical in design to the Moroccan flag, but colours white pentagram on dark green.
Harald Müller, 12 Feb 1996

According to Lux-Wurmʼs book [lux01], the “Royal standard” was a green square flag with a yellow pentagram. I canʼt figure out which King would have used such a flag. There was no King in Morocco at the time and I cannot imagine the King of Spain using such a flag when in Morocco. However, both Calvo & Grávalos [cag83] and Neubecker [neu92] reported the Kaliphʼs flag as a green square flag with a yellow Magen David. Therefore, I believe that Lux-Wurm [lux01] either mixed things up or used erroneous sources.
Ivan Sache, 15 Jun 2003

Such “royal standard” is most probably a mistaken version of the Caliphʼs standard.
Santiago Dotor, 17 Jun 2003

Caliphʼs personal flag

In Neubeckerʼs Flaggenbuch [neu92] the Caliphʼs Standard is a green square flag with yellow hexagram (ratio: 1:1).
Željko Heimer, 12 Jun 2002

Flag of the Khaliph of the Spanish Protectorate of Morocco, which can be seen in Calvo and Grávalos [cag83]. This was used from 1945 (Reglamento de Banderas, Insignias y Distintivos of 11th October 1945) till the independence of Morocco, 28th March 1956. It is described as «a square flag, green with the Makhzen emblem in yellow». The so-called Makhzen sign happens to be an outlined six-pointed star. Though the star is reminiscent of the shield of David, the word Makhzen has nothing to do with magen or mogen (Hebrew for shield). The Makhzen is the name given in Morocco to the central administration together with the Sultan's governmental suite.

The Arabic term khaliph (deputy) is used here in its strict sense and has nothing to do with the supreme imam of the Muslim community (khalifah rasul Allah or deputy of the messenger of God), a title held by the Ottoman sultans up to this century. During the Spanish protectorate, the Khaliph acted as supreme authority as the Sultanʼs deputy, under the control of the Spanish High Commissioner.

Santiago Dotor, 25 Sep 1998

The original edition of Flaggenbuch 1926 [rwm26] showed no flags for Morocco. Correction no. 329 [rwm34a], issued 1st December 1934, shows several flags for the French and Spanish zones. The sultanʼs standard is not shown but the kaliphʼs (and the vizierʼs) standard certainly is, which implies that the two latter were adopted in the early 1930s (if not before).
Santiago Dotor, 18 Jun 2003

Depiction according to legal typo

I am not sure what are the differences between the image from Flaggenbuch [neu92] and the one from Calvo and Grávalos [cag83]. I realise that [cag83] has a too large hexagram — according to the 1945 regulation, its width should be a third of the flagʼs side. Also, the width of the yellow lines making up the hexagram should be 1/25th of the flagʼs side.
Santiago Dotor, 13 Jun 2002

This regulation just canʼt be right: it produces a too thick hexagram, nothing like the images in Flaggenbuch [neu92] nor in the law quoted by Calvo and Grávalos [cag83]! I assume that there may be some typo, and that width of the yellow stripes is maybe 1/25 of "c" (i.e., 1/3×1/25 of hoist) which makes an image much more similar to images in the two sources.
Željko Heimer, 13 Jun 2002

Grand Vizirʼs personal flag

In Neubeckerʼs Flaggenbuch [neu92] the Grand Vezirʼs Standard is a red square flag with black hexagram (i.e., same as the Caliphʼs flag, but in different colours; ratio: 1:1).
Željko Heimer, 12 Jun 2002