Editing Casablanca (section)

==== Bombardment of Casablanca ====
The [[Algeciras Conference|Treaty of Algeciras]] of 1906 formalized French preeminence in Morocco and included three measures that directly impacted Casablanca: that French officers would control operations at the customs office and seize revenue as collateral for loans given by France, that the French holding company ''[[Compagnie Marocaine|La Compagnie Marocaine]]'' would develop the [[port of Casablanca]], and that a French-and-Spanish-trained police force would be assembled to patrol the port.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Adam |first=André |title=Histoire de Casablanca, des origines à 1914 |publisher=Éditions Ophrys |year=1968 |pages=107}}</ref>

To build the port's breakwater, [[narrow-gauge railway|narrow-gauge]] track was laid in June 1907 for a small [[Decauville]] locomotive to connect the port to a quarry in [[Roches Noires, Morocco|Roches Noires]], passing through the sacred Sidi Belyout graveyard. In resistance to this and the measures of the 1906 Treaty of Algeciras, tribesmen of the [[Chaouia (Morocco)|Chaouia]] attacked the locomotive, killing 9 [[Compagnie Marocaine]] laborers—3 French, 3 Italians, and 3 Spanish.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Adam |first=André |title=Histoire de Casablanca, des origines à 1914 |publisher=Éditions Ophrys |year=1968 |pages=112}}</ref>

In response, the French [[Bombardment of Casablanca (1907)|bombarded the city]] in August 1907 with multiple gunboats and landed troops inside the town, causing severe damage and killing between 600 and 3,000 Moroccans.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hachim |first=Mouna |author-link=Mouna Hachim |date=April 2020 |title=Casablanca, mon amour: Il y a 100 ans, le bombardement... Par Mouna Hachim, écrivain-chercheur |url=http://www.leconomiste.com/article/casablanca-mon-amour-il-y-100-ans-le-bombardement-br-par-mouna-hachim-ecrivain-chercheur |access-date=7 November 2022 |website=L'Economiste |archive-date=7 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221107151146/https://www.leconomiste.com/article/casablanca-mon-amour-il-y-100-ans-le-bombardement-br-par-mouna-hachim-ecrivain-chercheur |url-status=live }}</ref> Estimates for the total casualties are as high as 15,000 dead and wounded. In the immediate aftermath of the bombardment and the deployment of French troops, the European homes and the ''[[Mellah]]'', or Jewish quarter, were sacked, and the latter was also set ablaze.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Adam |first=André |title=Histoire de Casablanca: des origines à 1914 |publisher=Ophrys |year=1968 |location=Aix-en-Provence |pages=133}}</ref>

As [[Oujda]] had already been occupied, the bombardment and military invasion of the city opened a western front to the [[French conquest of Morocco|French military conquest of Morocco]]. <gallery mode="packed">
File:Derailed locomotive in Casablanca 1907.jpg|A man inspects the derailed [[Decauville]] locomotive at the scene of the attack that served as the pretext for the French bombardment of Casablanca in 1907.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cohen |first=Jean-Louis |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/49225856 |title=Casablanca: Colonial Myths and Architectural Ventures |date=2002 |author2=Monique Eleb |isbn=1-58093-087-5 |location=New York |publisher=Monacelli Press |oclc=49225856 |access-date=2021-04-03 |archive-date=2020-07-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200706132451/http://worldcat.org/oclc/49225856 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":2" />
File:الدار البيضاء 1907 01.jpg|A postcard showing the French cruiser ''[[French cruiser Gloire (1900)|Gloire]]'' recoiling from firing artillery at the city during the [[Bombardment of Casablanca (1907)|bombardment of Casablanca]] August 1907.
File:قائد الدار البيضاء محتجز على متن سفينة فرنسية.jpg|The [[Qaid]] of Casablanca, [[Abu Bakr Ibn Abi Zaid as-Slawi|Si Boubker Ben Bouzid Slaoui]], captive on the French cruiser ''[[French cruiser Galilée|Galilée]]''.
File:الدار البيضاء 1907 مقبرة جماعية.jpg|Moroccan cadavers in a [[mass grave]] in 1907. 
</gallery>