ABSTRACT
In appointing General Lyautey to be the first Resident General in Morocco, Raymond Poincare chose more than a man, he chose a definite and well-known policy. Lyautey's views on colonial matters were already on record. He had served with Gallieni in Tonkin and Madagascar and was known to be a disciple of his methods. In 1899 Gallieni had published his Trois co/onnes au Tonkin which had defined his views in such phrases as "C'est l'action combinee de Ia politique et de Ia force qui doit avoir pour resultat Ia pacification du pays et !'organisation primitive a lui donner tout d'abord. L'action politique et action de force sont les deux principaux agents de Ia premiere periode d'une occupation ou d'une conquete. Si leur combinaison reussit, une deuzieme periode s'ouvre aussitot: Ia periode d'organisation, qui a recours a une troisieme facteur, l'action economique. Au fur et a mesure que Ia pacification s'affirme, le pays se cultive, les marches se rouvrent, le commerce reprend. Le role du soldat passe au second plan, celui de l'administrateur commence. " 1 Lyautey himself had published his article "Du role colonial de l'Armee" in 1900 and his letters from overseas, though as yet unpublished, had circulated widely in Paris. He had shown while commanding at Ain Sefra and in Oran the methods of pacification that he might be expected to use in Morocco. His settlement of the Beni Snassen at the end of 1907 had proved a model operation: he had converted, almost without cost, a tribe which for sixty years had been a thorn in the side of Algeria into a loyal ally. He consciously drew inspiration from the achievements of the Greeks and Romans: on the very day of his appointment, he quoted Montesquieu to Poincare: "Alexandre resista a to us ceux qui auraient voulu qu'il trait§.t les Grecs en maitres et les Perses en esclaves. II ne laissa pas seulement aux peuples qu'il avait vaincus leurs moeurs, il leur laissa encore leurs lois civiles et souvent meme les rois et les gouverneurs qu'il avait trouves. II fut Alexandre le Grand, parce qu'il voulut tout conquerir pour tout conserver." The General
13 was firmly conscious that his appointment inplied support for these methods. He wrote: "Ce pays-ci ne doit pas se traiter par Ia force seule. La methode rationnelle, Ia seule, Ia bonne, celle d'ailleurs pour laquelle on m'y a envoye, moi et non un autre, c'est le jeu continu et combine de Ia politique et de Ia force."2
