Casablanca is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic coast of the Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a population of about 3.22 million in the urban area, and over 4.27 million in Greater Casablanca, making it the most populous city in the Maghreb region, and the ninth-largest in the Arab world.
The Port of Casablanca is one of the largest artificial ports in Africa, and the third-largest port in North Africa, after Tanger-Med (40 km or 25 mi east of Tangier) and Port Said. Casablanca also hosts the primary naval base for the Royal Moroccan Navy.
Casablanca is a significant financial centre, ranking 38th globally in the September 2026 Global Financial Centres Index rankings. The Casablanca Stock Exchange is Africa's third-largest in terms of market capitalization, as of December 2022.
Major Moroccan companies and many of the largest American and European companies operating in the country have their headquarters and main industrial facilities in Casablanca. Recent industrial statistics show that Casablanca is the main industrial zone in the country.
Etymology
Anfa
Before the 15th century, the settlement at what is now Casablanca had been called Anfa, rendered in European sources variously as El-Anfa, Anafa or Anaffa, Anafe, Anife, Anafee, Nafe, and Nafee. Ibn Khaldun ascribed the name to the Anfaça, a branch of the Awraba tribe of the Maghreb, though the sociologist André Adam refuted this claim due to the absence of the third syllable. Nahum Slouschz gave a Hebrew etymology, citing the Lexicon of Gesenius: anâphâh (a type of bird) or anaph (face, figure), though Adam refuted this arguing that even a Judaized population would still have spoken Tamazight. Adam also refuted an Arabic etymology, أنف (anf, "nose"), as the city predated the linguistic Arabization of the country, and the term anf was not used to describe geographic areas. Adam affirmed a Tamazight etymology—from anfa "hill", anfa "promontory on the sea", ifni "sandy beach", or anfa "threshing floor"—although he determined the available information insufficient to establish exactly which.
The name "Anfa" was used in maps until around 1830—in some until 1851—which Adam attributes to the tendency of cartographers to replicate previous maps.
Casablanca
When the ʿAlawi Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah (c. 1710–1790) rebuilt the city after its destruction in the earthquake of 1755, it was renamed "ad-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ " (الدار البيضاء The White House), though in vernacular use it was pronounced "Dar al-Baiḍā" (دار البيضاء literally House of the White, although in Moroccan Arabic vernacular it retains the original sense of The White House).
The origins of the name "Casablanca" are unclear, although several theories have been suggested. André Adam mentions the legend of the Sufi saint and merchant Allal al-Qairawani, who supposedly came from Tunisia and settled in Casablanca with his wife Lalla al-Baiḍāʾ (لالة البيضاء White Lady). The villagers of Mediouna would reportedly provision themselves at "Dar al-Baiḍāʾ" (دار البيضاء House of the White).
In fact, on a low hill slightly inland above the ruins of Anfa and just to the west of today's city centre, it appears there was a white-washed structure, possibly a Sufi zawiya that acted as a landmark to sailors. The Portuguese cartographer Duarte Pacheco wrote in the early 16th century that the city could easily be identified by a tower, and nautical guides from the late 19th century still mentioned a "white tower" as a point of reference. The Portuguese mariners calqued the modern Arabic name to "Casa Branca" ([kazɐ'bɾɐ̃kɐ] White House) in place of Anfa. The name "Casablanca" was then a calque of the Portuguese name when the Spanish took over trade through the Iberian Union.
During the French protectorate in Morocco, the name remained Casablanca (pronounced [kazablɑ̃ka]). Today, Moroccans still call the city Casablanca or Casa for short, or by its Arabic name, pronounced d-Dār l-Biḍā in Moroccan Arabic or ad-Dāru-l-Bayḍā' in Standard Arabic.
History
Early history
The area that is today Casablanca was founded and settled by Berbers by the seventh century BC. It was used as a port by the Phoenicians, then the Romans. In his book Description of Africa, Leo Africanus refers to ancient Casablanca as "Anfa", a great city of Tamasna founded in the Berber kingdom of Barghawata in 744 AD. He believed Anfa was the most "prosperous city on the Atlantic Coast because of its fertile land." Barghawata rose as an independent state around this time, and continued until it was conquered by the Almoravids in 1068. After the defeat of the Barghawata in the 12th century, Arab tribes of Hilal and Sulaym descent settled in the region, mixing with the local Berbers, which led to widespread Arabization. During the 14th century, under the Merinids, Anfa rose in importance as a port. The last of the Merinids were ousted by a popular revolt in 1465.
Portuguese conquest and Spanish influence
In the early 15th century, the town became an independent state once again, and emerged as a safe harbour for pirates and privateers. The Portuguese consequently bombarded the town into ruins in 1468. The town that grew up around it was called Casa Branca, meaning "white house" in Portuguese.
Reconstruction under Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah, 1756–90
Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah constructed the port and rebuilt the town between 1756 and 1790—likely after the Portuguese evacuation of Mazagan in 1769, in order to preempt a Christian attack or return by fortifying defenses between Rabat and Mazagan (now El Jadida). The town was called ad-Dār al-Bayḍāʼ (الدار البيضاء), the Arabic translation of the Portuguese Casa Branca.
Colonial struggle
In the 19th century, the area's population began to grow as it became a major supplier of wool to the booming textile industry in Britain and shipping traffic increased (the British, in return, began importing gunpowder tea, used in Morocco's national drink, mint tea). By the 1860s, around 5,000 residents were there, and the population grew to around 10,000 by the late 1880s. Casablanca remained a modestly sized port, with a population reaching around 12,000 within a few years of the French conquest and arrival of French colonialists in 1906. By 1921, this rose to 110,000, largely through the development of shanty towns.
Bombardment of Casablanca
The Treaty of Algeciras of 1906 formalized French preeminence in Morocco and included three measures that directly impacted Casablanca: that French officers would control operations at the customs office and seize revenue as collateral for loans given by France, that the French holding company La Compagnie Marocaine would develop the port of Casablanca, and that a French-and-Spanish-trained police force would be assembled to patrol the port.
To build the port's breakwater, narrow-gauge track was laid in June 1907 for a small Decauville locomotive to connect the port to a quarry in Roches Noires, passing through the sacred Sidi Belyout graveyard. In resistance to this and the measures of the 1906 Treaty of Algeciras, tribesmen of the Chaouia attacked the locomotive, killing 9 Compagnie Marocaine laborers—3 French, 3 Italians, and 3 Spanish.
In response, the French bombarded the city in August 1907 with multiple gunboats and landed troops inside the town, causing severe damage and killing between 600 and 3,000 Moroccans. Estimates for the total casualties are as high as 15,000 dead and wounded. In the immediate aftermath of the bombardment and the deployment of French troops, the European homes and the Mellah, or Jewish quarter, were sacked, and the latter was also set ablaze.
As Oujda had already been occupied, the bombardment and military invasion of the city opened a western front to the French military conquest of Morocco.
French rule and influence
French control of Casablanca was formalized March 1912 when the Treaty of Fez established the French Protectorat. Under French imperial control, Casablanca became a port of colonial extraction.
Right at the beginning of the twentieth century, when Morocco was officially declared a French protectorate, the French decided to shift power to Morocco's coastal areas (i.e. Rabat and Casablanca) at the expense of its interior areas (i.e. Fez and Marrakesh). Rabat was made the administrative capital of the country, and Casablanca its economic capital.
General Hubert Lyautey assigned the planning of the new colonial port city to Henri Prost. As he did in other Moroccan cities, Prost designed a European ville nouvelle outside the walls of the medina. In Casablanca, he also designed a new "ville indigène" to house Moroccans arriving from other cities.
Europeans formed almost half the population of Casablanca.
A 1937–1938 typhoid fever outbreak was exploited by colonial authorities to justify the appropriation of urban spaces in Casablanca. Moroccans residing in informal housing were cleared out of the center and displaced, notably to Carrières Centrales.
World War II
After Philippe Pétain of France signed the armistice with the Nazis, he ordered French troops in France's colonial empire to defend French territory against any aggressors—Allied or otherwise—applying a policy of "asymmetrical neutrality" in favour of the Germans. French colonists in Morocco generally supported Pétain, while Moroccans tended to favour de Gaulle and the Allies.
Operation Torch, which started on 8 November 1942, was the British-American invasion of French North Africa during the North African campaign of World War II. The Western Task Force, composed of American units led by Major General George S. Patton and Rear Admiral Henry Kent Hewitt, carried out the invasions of Mehdia, Fedhala, and Asfi. American forces captured Casablanca from Vichy control when France surrendered 11 November 1942, but the Naval Battle of Casablanca continued until American forces sank German submarine U-173 on 16 November.
Casablanca was the site of the Berrechid Airfield, a large American air base used as the staging area for all American aircraft for the European theatre of World War II. The airfield has since become Mohammed V International Airport.
Anfa Conference
Casablanca hosted the Anfa Conference (also called the Casablanca Conference) in January 1943. Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt discussed the progress of the war. Also in attendance were the Free France generals Charles de Gaulle and Henri Giraud, though they played minor roles and didn't participate in the military planning.
It was at this conference that the Allies adopted the doctrine of "unconditional surrender", meaning that the Axis powers would be fought until their defeat. Roosevelt also met privately with Sultan Muhammad V and expressed his support for Moroccan independence after the war. This became a turning point, as Moroccan nationalists were emboldened to openly seek complete independence.
Toward independence
During the 1940s and 1950s, Casablanca was a major centre of anti-French rioting.
On 7 April 1947, a massacre of working class Moroccans, carried out by Senegalese Tirailleurs in the service of the French colonial army, was instigated just as Sultan Muhammed V was due to make a speech in Tangier appealing for independence.
Riots in Casablanca took place from 7–8 December 1952, in response to the assassination of the Tunisian labor unionist Farhat Hached by La Main Rouge—the clandestine militant wing of French intelligence. Then, on 25 December 1953 (Christmas Day), Muhammad Zarqtuni orchestrated a bombing of Casablanca's Central Market in response to the forced exile of Sultan Muhammad V and the royal family on 20 August (Eid al-Adha) of that year.
Since independence
Morocco gained independence from France in 1956.
Casablanca Group
On 4–7 January 1961, the city hosted an ensemble of progressive African leaders during the Casablanca Conference of 1961. Among those received by King Muhammad V were Gamal Abdel Nasser, Kwame Nkrumah, Modibo Keïta, and Ahmed Sékou Touré, Ferhat Abbas.
Jewish emigration
Casablanca was a major departure point for Jews leaving Morocco through Cadima (1949–1956) and Operation Yachin (1961–1964).
1965 riots
The 1965 student protests organized by the National Union of Popular Forces-affiliated National Union of Moroccan Students, which spread to cities around the country and devolved into riots, started on 22 March 1965, in front of Lycée Mohammed V in Casablanca. The protests started as a peaceful march to demand the right to public higher education for Morocco, but expanded to include concerns of labourers, the unemployed, and other marginalized segments of society, and devolved into vandalism and rioting. The riots were violently repressed by security forces with tanks and armoured vehicles; Moroccan authorities reported a dozen deaths while the UNFP reported more than 1,000. This violent suppression happened under the minister of interior Mohamed Oufkir's direction. He personally machine-gunned rioters from his helicopter.