Thami El Glaoui - Aftermath

Aftermath

T'hami had already participated in one dethronement of a sultan in 1907, which had been met with popular indifference. With this "ossified" memory in mind, he never expected another dethronement would lead to an insurrection. The great mistake made by T'hami and his associated pashas and caïds, according to his son Abdessadeq, was that unlike Mohammed V they simply failed to realise that by 1950 Moroccan society had evolved to the stage where feudal government was no longer acceptable to their subjects.

A popular uprising began, directed mainly against the French but also against their Moroccan supporters. French citizens were massacred, the French forces responded with equal brutality, and French colonists began a campaign of terrorism against anyone (Moroccan or French) who expressed nationalist sympathies. T'hami was the target of a grenade attack, which did not however injure him. His chamberlain Haj Idder (formerly a slave of Si Madani) was injured in another such attack, and on recovery came to oppose the French. Finally, an all-out war began in the Rif.