He was assisted in the training of his troops by Andrew Belton, a British officer and veteran of the Second Boer War.

"[5] Muhammad al-Kattani, the influential Sufi poet and activist of Fes, was captured, tortured, and beaten to death in front of his wives and children in 1909.

[7] In 1910, Lalla Batoul, a Fesi aristocrat and the wife of a former governor of Fes and supporter of Abdelaziz, was tortured.

[8][9] She was chained to the wall in a crucifixion position, completely naked with her breasts seized in a vice, and whipped and interrogated about the whereabouts of her husband's fortune under the direct supervision of Abdelhafid.

These events led Abdelhafid to sign the Treaty of Fez on 30 March 1912,[10] which made Morocco a French protectorate.

[11] A few months later, Resident-General Hubert Lyautey persuaded Abdel Hafid to abdicate against the payment of a massive pension,[12] part of which was used to build the opulent Abdelhafid Palace in Tangier, completed in 1914.