History of tensions surrounding the first telegraph cable between Europe and Morocco

Ya Biladi

28-04-2025

In the late 1880s, the Eastern Telegraph Company, a British telecommunications company specializing in laying and operating undersea telegraph cables that connected Britain to its colonies and other parts of the world, undertook the mission of connecting Gibraltar, under British control since 1704, and Tangier. The goal was to facilitate the rapid transfer of information between Europe and Morocco.
Although the subsea cable was the first telegraph connection between Europe and Morocco, it was also the third connection between Europe and Africa. Despite its significance, the idea of such an innovative project was met with hesitation and opposition from Morocco.
The need for a telegraph connection first emerged in the 1870s, when Makhzen officials in Morocco «discovered how swiftly the telegraph could send information during the negotiations between Morocco and Spain over the return of Tetuan», wrote Moroccan historian Khalid Ben Sghir in his book Britain and Morocco During the Embassy of John Drummond Hay, 1845-1886.
Moroccan hesitation
This led to the first request to the Sultan of Morocco at the time, Mawlay Hassan bin Mohammed, known as Hassan I. In 1873, the United Kingdom's Envoy Extraordinary at the Court of Morocco, John Hay Drummond Hay, was the first to ask the Sultan for permission to construct «an oversea telegraph between Tangier and Gibraltar».
However, this request was met with a similar one from Spain, demanding permission to construct an overland line between Tangier and Ceuta. This sparked the Sultan's fears, as he cited «the repercussions of constructing a telegraph line across the territory of the Anjra tribe», which had recently fought a war with the Spanish.
The Makhzen's refusal led foreign representatives in Tangier to unanimously agree not to ask the Sultan to construct an overland telegraph line if he agreed to an oversea telegraph between Tangier and Gibraltar, leaving it up to the Sultan to decide the regions through which the wires would pass.
This was followed by a very convincing British request. Submitted by Drummond Hay, the proposal was very attractive, informing the Sultan that the telegraph was already being used by the Ottomans, the Egyptians, the Tunisians, the Indians, and the Chinese.
Drummond Hay even wondered in his request why «Morocco might want to remain the exception», listing the benefits it could gain from such infrastructure. These included «communicating extremely rapidly with European capitals, with countries of the Arab East, and especially, in difficult moments, with the British Government».
However, some of the advantages listed by the British diplomat were concerning for the Sultan, namely the fact that «Moroccan merchants and all foreign merchants will… be able to obtain up-to-date news about increases and decreases in the prices of commodities being imported and exported…».
«This was what the Sultan feared», remarked Ben Sghir, «because the telegraph would become an additional weapon in the hands of foreign merchants and the representatives of foreign powers».
A telegraph cable but with conditions
The Sultan refused Drummond Hay's request, prompting him to adopt a more direct approach. In 1875, on the orders of the British government, the British diplomat was granted an audience with the Sultan, during which he brought a telegraphic device to demonstrate to Mawlay Hassan. «The Sultan was delighted with it and gave his agreement in principle to the construction of a telegraph between Tangier and Gibraltar», reads Ben Sghir's book.
However, this agreement came with conditions, which the Sultan set forth in four points: It should be constructed over water, not over land, it should be constructed to Tangier and not extended anywhere else, the Makhzen should determine where it should go, and the diplomatic corps should be unanimous in constructing the telegraph line according to these conditions.
The Sultan's conditions were rejected by the British companies involved in the project, delaying negotiations on the Tangier-Gibraltar cable until 1884. By the end of that year, the Eastern Telegraph Company accepted the Moroccan conditions, opening the door for the resumption of negotiations with the Makhzen. However, this time it was the Sultan who refused to give the go-ahead to the project, insisting that the representatives of other foreign powers provide guarantees confirming that they agreed to the conditions laid out in 1875.
In a letter, the Sultan reiterated his insistence on respecting his prior conditions for the British cable. «The representatives should agree that it should be between Tangier and Gibraltar and no further», wrote Mawlay Hassan. «They have not agreed to this, even though, even if they all agree to this, such agreement will not prevent them from making similar requests».
The request the Sultan referred to in his letter was a Spanish telegraph cable linking Tangier to Tarifa. The Makhzen refused to allow any telegraph lines to be constructed across its territory until all the members of the diplomatic corps in Tangier, without exception, had accepted the 1875 conditions, wrote Ben Sghir.
A malicious move
However, this was never respected, at least not by Drummond Hay's successor. The new British representative in Tangier Kirby Green informed the British Foreign Office in November 1886 that the silence of the Moroccan Makhzen only meant that they were okay with the start of the project, which was not the case.
The Eastern Telegraph Company was then instructed to begin laying the cable, with Green maliciously sending a memorandum to the Makhzen in which he claimed that all the necessary procedures for licensing the telegraph line had been completed by his predecessor, Drummond Hay.
In a short time, the Eastern Telegraph Company completed the project, and the telegraph cable between Tangier and Gibraltar became operational on January 20, 1887, unbeknownst to the Sultan of Morocco.
Things escalated when Mawlay al-Hassan learned about the British move, ordering his naib (representative) Muhammad ibn al-'Arabi at-Torres to stop the installation. When this failed, the Sultan sent additional orders to try and persuade Green to abandon the project so that other countries would not try to do the same. But Green confronted the Sultan with the fait accompli, despite the many letters and Moroccan protests that considered the move «illegal».
Visiting Sultan Hassan I in April 1887, Green was told to remove the British telegraph cable once again, which «had been installed over Moroccan territory without permission from the Makhzen and in a way which he did not approve». These demands were ignored by Green.
The situation took a more serious turn in 1889 when the Sultan sent a letter to the Qiad of Tangier, Mehdi al-Jirari, urging him to be vigilant about the actions of the British diplomat.
«Inform His Excellency that we have been apprised that a British steamship has arrived in the port of Tangier carrying telegraph cable with the intention of linking it with the cable in Tangier and then connecting it by sea with the other ports of this serene realm», the Sultan wrote.
«Be vigilant in this matter and give it top priority, and check what is happening, so that you may not fall prey to the malice experienced by previous walis of Tangier, by having the telegraph imported and installed in the twinkling of an eye in direct violation of the wishes of the Makhzen».
Sultan Hassan I
Although the telegraph cable mentioned by the Sultan in his letter was just for maintenance, his fears and anger at the British move hid deeper worries. Indeed, the British, to ensure repairs of their telegraph cables, sent warships to Tangier. «By dint of threats, Green managed to extract agreement from al-Tarris for the repairs that were needed. The repairs were finished at the beginning of April without opposition from the Makhzen, which was forced to allow some Moroccans to take part in the work», Ben Sghir wrote.
While Green saw the Sultan's refusal to allow the installation of the telegraph cable and his hesitation as a desire for exclusion, Ben Sghir explains that the reality was completely different. «It was not a matter of rejecting progress and following a course of introversion, as much as a refusal to give foreign states the means to intervene in and put pressure on Morocco, thereby infringing its sovereignty», the historian explains.
The Sultan's fears proved to be somewhat justified, even after his passing. In fact, the same telegraph cable he feared would be installed served British interests after his death. «In 1894, the death of the Sultan could be hushed up for a day and a half – time enough for London to guarantee its interests», noted Javier Márquez Quevedo in his Telecommunications and Colonial Rivalry: European Telegraph Cables to the Canary Islands and Northwest Africa 1883-1914, to which France bitterly complained.