Ruling a place full of hotheads, a firm hand is required. Perhaps even an age of lead. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
Todays Royal portrait stamp dates from 1988. As is the tradition among Royal stamps, the portrait used is from a decade earlier. No point seeing the King age, it might imply weakness, and that wouldn’t do in a country of hotheads. This fakery worked for King Hassan II, he died of natural causes still on the throne after a long rule.
Todays stamp is issue A236, a 1.2 Dirham issued by the Kingdom of Morocco in 1988. There were many versions of this stamp issued over many years as higher denominations were required due to inflation. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.
King Hassan II took over from his father upon the latter’s natural death in 1961. See https://the-philatelist.com/2019/05/08/morocco-1956-the-alaouite-sultan-muhammed-v-outlasts-the-french-to-become-independant-and-king/ . The Alaoite Dynasty has ruled Morocco for centuries and claims the Prophet Mohamed as an ancestor. At first there were affectations of a modern state with a multiparty parliament. This did not go well as a traditional Royal regime is not compatible with a typical 60s style pan Arabist mob. Leaders were rounded up and disappeared and riots were dealt with harshly. Parliamentary power was stripped and the King instituted the “state of exception” where he could rule by decree. The time is remembered as the age of lead.
At first the King was militarily aggressive. He restated the old Spanish Rif War. There was a sand war with Algeria. He took Infi back from Spain see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/10/25/spanish-morocco-it-is-useful-to-have-a-second-stringer-occupy-much-of-a-large-dangerous-place/ , and the old Spanish Sahara from Mauritania see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/07/27/mauritania-1938-the-french-are-not-staying-so-someone-should-try-to-make-this-a-country/ and https://the-philatelist.com/2018/08/02/saharaui-semi-nation-on-the-other-side-of-the-wall-of-course-with-stamps/ . I know too much homework to read all that, but think of all the fun I had writing them. By the early 70s, King Hassan II got less militaristic as he no longer trusted his army as much. In 1971, he was held under house arrest by military cadets while Libyan backed Moroccan generals got on the radio claiming the King was dead and a republic declared. Not so fast, loyal parts of the army saved him.
In 1972 there was another coup attempt. The Royal 727 was returning to Morocco from France when 4 F5 fighter planes from the air force rose to meet it. There was much wild firing, the 727 took several 20 millimeter cannon hits but kept flying. The King ran to the cockpit and pretended to be the pilot getting on the radio and saying “Stop firing you fools, the tyrant is dead”. The fools indeed stopped firing at the 727 but strafed the dignitaries awaiting the King in Rabat. It was his birthday. The Defense Minister behind the attack later committed suicide in custody, by multiple gunshots. It was the age of lead. Aviation fans may recall that the F5 was a simple American fighter plane designed to be handed out to the third world. It was nicknamed the Freedom Fighter, but this incident is reflective of the kind of losers who too often got them.
When Hassan II died in 1999 his son took over. There was then a new round of pretend reforms, even a Royal truth commission on the crimes of the father. Meanwhile hotheaded Moroccans flood Europe. Apparently they would prefer to be ruled by the EU than a King related to the Prophet Mohamed.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to celebrate the end of the age of lead and dread the age of the hothead. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.