Colonial City Of The French Empire In North Africa ——A Case Of Casablanca

In the 20 th century,the French Empire gradually built up its large overseas colonies,in order to maintain its overseas colonial territories at low cost,the Empire embarked on a policy of "association" to consolidate its overseas colonies,in which colonial cities played an important role as a means of domination.Casablanca was under construction,and Governor Louis-Hubert-Gonzalve Lyautey,combining his own experience in governance at home and abroad,redesigned Casablanca and dispatched urban planner Henri Prost to implement the program.The city under the joint efforts of them was in order and was used by the Empire as a representative to proclaim its colonial achievements internationally and locally,with the achievements of the colonial territories abroad.The construction of the port of Lyautey helped the Empire to survive the Great Depression and World War II,and it changed the attitude of the native officials and citizen of the Empire who previously did not attach importance to the overseas colonies.In the later stages of Casablanca’s urban development,the shortcomings of urban planning gradually emerged,and the growth of the city’s population and the lack of living space caused discontent and conflict among the locals.The empire focused on building housing in the city,made additional financial investments and dispatched Michel écochard,a new urban planner,to build affordable housing and issuing documents.However,écochard’s transformation of the city failed to solve the endless housing problems and eventually the shanty towns became a flashpoint for nationalist movements until Morocco’s independence.At a time when the international anti-colonial wave and domestic socio-economic problems were in urgent need of resolution,the imperial defence of overseas colonisation added to the economic burdens of the empire.Casablanca is a case that provides a glimpse into the process of building colonial cities in the 20 th century in the French Empire and the response of the locals to it,as well as a reflection of the maintenance and collapse of French overseas colonial system.