Morocco is located in North Africa, bordering the North Atlantic
ocean and the Mediterranean sea, between Algeria and the Western
Sahara. Although it is one-fifth the size of Algeria with a total
area of 446,550 kms, its estimated population of 30,645,305 (July,
2001, est.) is more or less the same as its neighbor. Moroccans
are ethnically Arab and/or Berber, 98.7 percent Sunni Muslim,
with a small local Jewish minority accounting for .02 percent
of population. Arabic is the official language, but Berber dialects
are spoken, and French is often the language of business and
diplomacy. Morocco became independent from France in 1956, and
has had a constitutional monarchy since then. Mohammed V who
took over the kingdom in 1956 died in 1962 and was replaced by
his son Hassan II, who ruled until 1999. At his death, Mohamed
VI his eldest son became king. Morocco has a multiparty system
with a bicameral parliament which consists of an upper house
or Chamber of Counselors, elected indirectly by local councils,
labor syndicates and professional associations for a nine year
term, and a lower house or Chamber of Representatives elected
by popular votes for a five year term. While 15 percent of Morocco's
GDP comes from agriculture, 33 per cent from industry, and 52
percent from services, 50 percent of its labor force works in
agriculture, 35 percent in industry and only 15 percent in services.
It is one of the richest country in phosphates which it has exported
for decades to the rest of the world. Its main trading partners
are the countries of the European Union with which it has signed
a bilateral agreement on lifting trade barriers. Morocco claims
and administers the Western Sahara, but sovereignty of this area
is still unresolved.
Al-Bawaba (http://albawaba.com/)
It is a major portal site that links a number of other websites
on all the Arab countries. It contains up-to-date information on the political, business, social, cultural and religious aspects of a particular country. Just
click on the name of the country for information in English and
Arabic.
Arab Fund for Economic & Social Development (http://www.arabfund.org/)
Search for information on projects funded throughout the Arab world
Arab German Consulting (http://www.arab.de/links.htm)
Major portal site on the Arab countries. Includes up-to-date information on the government, history, economy, education systems.
Arab Net (http://www.arab.net/)
It is a major Arab website that contains information on the government, history, geography, business, culture, transport, tourism of each country, and provides links to other relevant websites.
CIA -- The World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mo.html)
An annual publication of the CIA, contains up-to-date information on all aspects of the political, social and military history of a particular country.
Development Experience Clearinghouse (USA) (http://dec.usaid.gov/)
“The purpose of the DEC is to strengthen USAID's development projects, activities, and programs by making ... development experience documents available to USAID offices and mission staff, PVO's, NGO's, universities and research institutions, developing countries, and the public worldwide.”
Development Gateway Country Overview (http://www.developmentgateway.org/)
“The Development Gateway helps communities, organizations, and individuals build partnerships, share ideas, and work together to reduce poverty.” Search by development projects as well as by country to identify additional web sites and documents.
Encyclopedia.com (http://www.encyclopedia.com)
From the Electronic Library, searching the Encyclopedia.com by country provides numerous narrative articles on its history, culture, politics.
Fares.net (http://www.fares.net)
Site includes a directory and a list of sites on a wide range of subjects including tourism, entertainment, culture, the media, news and business in English and Arabic. Search under the name of the country.
House of Morocco (http://www.maroc.net/)
Small portal on Morocco that focuses primarily on the newsmedia and on travel.
Infoplease (http://www.infoplease.com/)
Part of the electronic Learning Network, this homepage allows searches by country which yield articles in almanacs, dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographical works, etc. Additional reference links are provided as well.
Islamic Calendar Converter (http://www.oriold.unizh.ch/static/hegira.html )
This English language website not only converts the present Gregorian date, in common use in the West, to its modern Hijra equivalent (in common use in the Islamic World), it also provides a mechanism, based on software developed by Waleed A. Muhanna, to convert all past dates from Gregorian-Hijra or Hijra-Gregorian.
Lonely Planet - Destinations (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/morocco/)
Search by country to find information on travel, attractions, history, culture, and environment. of that location.
Maghreb Portal (http://www.maghrebportal.com/)
A small Moroccan portal that also has information on Tunisia and Algeria
Maroc-hebdo (http://www.maroc-hebdo.press.ma/)
Site of major Moroccan weekly in French - Free access to archival data going back to 1997.
Menara (http://www.searchenginecolossus.com/Morocco.html)
Important search engine for Moroccan websites.
Middle
East – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (http://www.carnegieendowment.org/programs/global/index.cfm?fa=proj&id=107&proj=zme)
The main feature of the Carnegie Arabic Web Portal is the Arabic-language version
of the Arab Reform Bulletin, an online monthly journal on the latest political
reform developments from Arab and Western perspectives. Also included are
Arabic translations of select Carnegie Papers, commentaries on the Middle
East and related subjects such as nuclear nonproliferation, as well as writings
originally published in Arabic.
Morocco Directory (http://www.marweb.net/morocco/)
Important Moroccan portal with information on everything from art, to government, and business to sports.
Morocco Online (http://www.maroc1.com/ )
Moroccan portal that links up with a variety of media and cultural sites, including a small Berber site.
OneWorld.net (http://us.oneworld.net/)
Searchable by country, regions and topics. Includes current headlines and special reports.
Princeton
University Library: Near Eastern Studies
Resources (http://www.princeton.edu/~nes/)
Princeton Library’s site dedicated to Near Eastern Studies provides not only invaluable information about Princeton’s programs and collections, but also extensive links to sites (libraries, universities, institutes, think tanks, directories, gateways, newspapers, etc.) around the world concerning all aspects of the discipline.
U.S. Department of State (http://www.state.gov/)
Numerous documents concerning diplomatic and international relations, travel advice and warnings relating to the countries of the world are available on the State Department’s official site by searching under a particular country’s name.
USAID In Morocco (http://www.usaid.gov/locations/asia_near_east/countries/morocco/)
A site with a number of of reports by international organizations on the status of social and economic development in countries of the Middle East and North Africa.
United Nations (http://www.un.org)
The official site of the United Nations provides articles, reports, etc. in several languages on all aspects of the initiatives and mission of that organization as well as on the contemporary life, culture, society, international relations, etc. of all the countries and peoples of the world.
United States. Agency for International Development. Development Experience Clearinghouse (DEC) (http://www.dec.org)
“The purpose of the DEC is to strengthen USAID's development projects, activities, and programs by making ... development experience documents available to USAID offices and mission staff, PVO's, NGO's, universities and research institutions, developing countries, and the public worldwide.”
United States. Library of Congress Country Studies (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/)
A series published by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress under the Country Studies/Area Studies Handbook Program sponsored by the Department of the Army.
United States. Library of Congress. Virtual Reference Shelf (http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/virtualref.html)
The Library of Congress has mounted this useful site on its home page to give scholars and researchers access to common online sources which are excellent for initial stages of research. These online tools are organized by subject and format, e.g., "Almanacs and Fast Facts," "Directories," "Libraries," etc.
University of Texas Middle East Website (http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/mes/ )
Excellent website on the government, politics, news and media, education and the social sciences in the Middle East.
World Desk Reference (http://www.dorlingkindersley-uk.co.uk/nf/Search/QuickSearchProc/1,,morocco,00.html?id=morocco)
Searchable by country, this is the online version of the handbook with more than 5000 illustrations and maps.
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