The "Revolution of the King and the People" — the term Moroccans use for the events of August 1953 — refers to France's forced exile of Sultan Mohammed V to Madagascar, a miscalculation that immediately transformed him into a nationalist martyr and accelerated the collapse of the Protectorate. Morocco recovered independence by 1956. This 2003 issue marks fifty years from that pivot, struck early in Mohammed VI's reign as a deliberate assertion of dynastic continuity between his great-grandfather's defiance and his own legitimacy.
The "Revolution of the King and the People" — the term Moroccans use for the events of August 1953 — refers to France's forced exile of Sultan Mohammed V to Madagascar, a miscalculation that immediately transformed him into a nationalist martyr and accelerated the collapse of the Protectorate. Morocco recovered independence by 1956. This 2003 issue marks fifty years from that pivot, struck early in Mohammed VI's reign as a deliberate assertion of dynastic continuity between his great-grandfather's defiance and his own legitimacy.