(also Tanger; in Arabic, Tanja), a city and seaport in northern Morocco; situated on the Strait of Gibraltar. Capital of Tangier Province. Population, 187,900 (1971).
Tangier is the trade, transportation, and transit center of northern Morocco. Major exports are citrus fruits, vegetables, and preserved fish and fruit. The city has enterprises of the food-processing, textile, and cement industries. In 1965 a duty-free zone was established in the port to bolster the city’s economy. Tangier is connected by railroad with the city of Fès, and an international airport is located nearby.
Tangier was founded at the end of the second millennium B.C. by Phoenician colonists. In the first century B.C. it came under Roman rule. The city was conquered by the Vandals in the fifth century A.D., by Byzantium in the sixth century, and by the Arabs in the early eighth century. Tangier was one of the major economic and cultural centers of northern Morocco. It was conquered by the Portuguese in 1471 and was nominally ruled by Spain from 1580 to 1643. In 1661 it passed to England as part of the dowry of the Portuguese infanta Catherine of Braganza, bride of the English king Charles II. In 1684 it was reunited with Morocco and became one of the capitals of the Moroccan state.
In 1912 an imperialist partition of Morocco put Tangier and approximately 380 sq km of surrounding area under the jurisdiction of a special regime. In 1923, France, Great Britain, and Spain signed a convention declaring Tangier an international, neutral demilitarized zone; the city nominally remained under the sovereignty of the Moroccan sultan but actually was under the jurisdiction of the Committee of Control and other international administrative agencies.
From 1940 to 1945, Tangier was occupied by Spain. It was reunited with Morocco in 1957, after the declaration of independence of Morocco in 1956. This political reunion was confirmed in October 1956 by a conference of countries party to an agreement on Tangier’s status, including France, Spain, Italy, the USA, and representatives of Morocco.