Hassan << HAH sahn >> II (1929-1999) was king of Morocco from 1961 until his death on July 23, 1999. He was succeeded by his son Sidi Mohammed, who became King Mohammed VI. Under Hassan’s leadership, Morocco expanded mining and other industries, irrigated desert land, and built hundreds of schools.
Hassan was born on July 9, 1929, in Rabat. He was educated in Morocco and in France, where he earned a law degree. He succeeded his father, Mohammed V, as king in 1961. Hassan wrote Morocco’s first constitution, which was adopted in 1962. The constitution made the nation a constitutional monarchy governed by the king and a parliament. The parliament blocked Hassan’s economic program, and, in 1965, he took full control of the government’s lawmaking and executive powers. Another parliament was elected in 1970. Hassan took full control of the government again in 1972 after Moroccan military leaders tried to assassinate him, but another parliament was elected in 1977.
In 1976, Spain gave up its control of Spanish Sahara, an area that borders Morocco on the south. Hassan claimed the area, now called Western Sahara, as Moroccan territory. But the Polisario Front, made up of people who live in Western Sahara, opposed him. Fighting broke out between Moroccan and Polisario Front forces and continued into the 1990’s. A cease-fire was declared in 1991. In spite of the war’s high costs and its burden on Morocco’s economy, Hassan retained the loyalty of most of his subjects.
See also Morocco (Constitutional monarchy).
