Leiden University Student Repository

Rensen, Johan Sebastiaan (2019)

Water governance as a medium for colonial conquest in the early French protectorate in Morocco, 1912-1925

Research master thesis | History (research) (MA)

This thesis researches the colonial water governance strategies of the French administration in Morocco between 1912 and 1925. It shows that water governance was, and remains, a strong tool for transforming traditional power structures using three case studies. The first is public order and the relatonship between the old elites and the Moroccan farmers; the second is the restructuring of legal practises; the third is the decentralisation of power through settler politics. The thesis shows that the aim of the French was not to improve the lives of the Moroccans or their country, but to break old power structures and centralise power and resources under the French authority. The thesis explores the concepts of hydraulic property rights creation and legal pluralism.

Water governance

French Protectorate in Morocco

Colonial conquest

Hydraulic property rights creation

Legal pluralism

Author

Rensen, Johan Sebastiaan

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Colonial and global history

Supervisors

Gewald, Jan-Bart

ECTS Credits

30

Language

en