With France occupied by the Nazis during World War II, colonial French Morocco initially sided with the Axis Powers. When the Allies invaded Morocco on November 8, 1942, Moroccan defenders yielded to the British and American invaders. Shortly after Morocco surrendered, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a message to Morocco's King, H.E. Mohammed V, commending him on the “admirable spirit of cooperation that is animating you and your people in their relationships with the forces of my country. Our victory over the Germans will, I know, inaugurate a period of peace and prosperity, during which the Moroccan and French people of North Africa will flourish and thrive in a manner that befits its glorious past.”
