We’re finally launching our exploration of Moroccan history, the most important country that Americans have hardly heard of. This episode will be a crash course on Moroccan history up until the early modern period. We follow rise of the 'Alawi dynasty that still holds power today, exploring how they came to power, kicked out the conquistadors, and established a massive army of slave-soldiers who helped turn a medieval kingdom into a modern state.

In coming weeks, we’ll explore how French and Spanish colonialists imposed themselves on Moroccan politics and what effect these imperial incursions had on the colony and the metropole. These episodes will correspond with our upcoming republication of the works of Ramón J. Sender, a Spanish antifascist whose 1930 novel The Magnet chronicles imperial blunders in the 1921 Rif War.

Hosted by Liam, and Russian Sam.