Moroccans

a nation and the basic population of Morocco, numbering 15.3 million persons in 1971 (census). The majority of Moroccans speak a Moroccan dialect of Arabic, although some also speak Berber dialects. Believers are Sunni Muslims of the Malikite rite. As an ethnic group the Moroccans emerged through the mixing of the indigenous Berbers with the Arabs who swept into northwest Africa beginning in the seventh century; the amalgamation occurred in the course of the formation of the Moroccan state. The consolidation of the Moroccans into a nation was furthered by the national liberation movement against French and Spanish colonial rule from 1912 to 1956 and the struggle for independence and territorial integrity.