The French Protectorate in Morocco was a French colonial regime which governed much of Morocco from 30 March 1912 to 7 April 1956. The French, who had signed a 1904 agreement with Spain to partition Morocco, used the assassination of Emile Mauchamp in 1907 to justify occupying the country, and the 1912 Treaty of Fez led to France's formal establishment of a protectorate over Morocco. While the Sultan continued to reign, he did not rule, and the French used urban planning and colonial education to prevent cultural mixing and to uphold Morocco's traditional society. By the 1920s, most Moroccan resistance to French rule had been suppressed, but, after World War II, violent resistance once again broke out in the late 1940s and 1950s in the form of massacres, bombings, and riots, especially in the urban and industrial center of Casablanca. Thousands died in riots and massacred until the French, recognizing the widespread public support for the Sultan's return, agreed to restore Moroccan independence in 1956, relinquishing its protectorate on 7 April 1956 and restoring Sultan Mohammed V to the throne.
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