"Del maestro sangrador al médico... europeo": Medicina, ciencia y diferencia colonial en el protectorado Español de Marruecos (1912-1956)

Abstract

The article explores the role played by science and Western medicine in the colonization process undertaken by the Spanish State between 1912 and 1956 in northern Morocco. It takes into account the colonizers' strategy of using medicine to impose the 'superiority' of the scientific method. They believed the 'rhetoric of scientific truth' would hold greater sway as an effective tool of colonization than reliance on and imposition of dogma from other, more contentious fields, like law or, particularly, religion. Sources for this study encompass different handwritten documents released by the Spanish and Moroccan administrations (Majzen), which can be found at the Archivo General de la Administración (Alcalá de Henares, Spain) and at the Biblioteca General y Archivos de Tetuán (Morocco), as well as writings by Spanish physicians in the form of monographs and journal and press articles, from both the metropolis and the colony.