Hong Kong and Casablanca appear in this article as two cities that both have achieved their specific character as a result of complex processes of change that result from different forms of governance.
How different these cities may be from each other, in some ways they are also similar. Both are port cities, cities of trade and extremely dynamic. They were among the earliest ‘global cities’ and both attracted immigrants from Western Europe as well as large populations of immigrants from the hinterland. Even if Hong Kong and Casablanca have a long history of settlement -going back to the Sung Dynasty and the Zenata Berbers in the eleventh century- their growth really started from the middle of the nineteenth century on, under the influence of British and French colonialism. Hong Kong was under British administration from 1841 to 1997, Morocco under French protectorate between 1907 and 1956. Both Hong Kong and Casablanca experienced an incredible growth –economically, in terms of population and of built substance- from the very moment of their colonization. Both are under independent rule today, the first as a part of China and the latter of Morocco but both take in a particular place and territory within these countries.