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The Berbers - History
The Berbers have lived in North Africa since the earliest recorded time. References to them date from about 3000 B.C. and occur frequently
in ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman sources.
For many centuries the Berbers inhabited the coast of North Africa from Egypt to the Atlantic Ocean. They continued to inhabit the region
until the 7th century AD, when the Arabs conquered North Africa and drove many Berber tribes inland to the Atlas Mountains and to areas in and near the Sahara.
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After the Arab conquest, the Berbers embraced the Muslim faith of their new rulers. Succeeding centuries were marked by almost continuous struggles for power in North Africa among the various
Berber tribes, between the Berbers and the Arabs, and between both these peoples and Spanish, Portuguese, and Turkish invaders.
During the same period the Barbary Coast of North Africa, the name of which is derived from the word Berber,
became famous as the principal base of Arab and Berber pirates, who preyed on Mediterranean shipping.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries France and Spain subjugated Morocco and Algeria.
After World War I the Berber and Arab populations of North Africa began actively to seek independence.
Beginning in 1920, the Riff, led by the Riff Emir Abd-el-Krim, repeatedly defeated Spanish troops occupying the Spanish zone of Morocco.
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Berbers advanced into French Morocco in 1926, but were repulsed the following year by combined French and Spanish troops.
On August 20, 1955, a force of Berbers from the Atlas Mountains region of Algeria raided two rural
settlements in Morocco and killed 77 French nationals.
After a number of such anti-French outbreaks among the Berbers of Morocco, el-Glaoui, yielding to popular sentiment, adopted a nationalist position.
The loss of Berber support helped to force the French to end the exile of Muhammed V in 1955 and to grant Morocco independence in 1956.
In Algeria violent resistance to French rule by segments of both the Berber and the Arab population continued until the country was granted independence in 1962.
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