Casablanca (M. Curtiz, 1942) is set in December 1941 in the city of Casablanca (Morocco), which was then under the control of the French Vichy regime (collaborators with the Axis powers).
According to the Treaty of Fez (March 30, 1912) France and Sultan Abd al-Hafid established the French Protectorate over Morocco, making France the primary colonial authority in the country. The Treaty of Madrid (November 27, 1912): This was a sub-agreement between France and Spain, where France sub-leased and ceded the administration of the northern strip (the Rif region) and a tiny southern strip to Spain, officially creating the Spanish Protectorate of Morocco.
The Sultan remained the symbolic head of state, but all real political, economic, and military power was shifted into the hands of French and Spanish colonial administrators.
Vichy France was the collaborationist French government that ruled an unoccupied southern zone and its colonies from 1940 to 1944 under Marshal Philippe Pétain. The regime actively cooperated with Nazi Germany, implementing anti-Semitic policies and participating in the deportation of over 75,000 Jews before collapsing following the Allied liberation of France.