The Maghrib/Maghreb refers to Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Tripolitania, &, occasionally, Libya. The region is characterized by fertile plains & the Atlas mountains near the Mediterranean & Atlantic, & sweeping desert in its hinterland. The term maghrib comes from an Arabic word meaning "west" or "place of sunset. " Arabs conquered the region 643-711, & ruled it thru semiautonomous kingdoms & tribes. From 9-14th centuries the Maghrib produced impressive Islamic realms with robust trade economies tied to Saharan caravan routes. In the 16th, the Ottomans conquered the coasts of present-day Tunisia & Algeria, while interior deserts & Morocco remained autonomous. France colonized the Maghrib 1830-1912, & from that period, French was commonly spoken in addition to Berber & Arabic. Morocco & Tunisia achieved independence in 1956, while Algeria fought the bitter Algerian War of Independence from 1954-62 to achieve its freedom. Libya, once a colony of Italy, was next governed by France & Britain, becoming independent in 1951. The intellectual breadth of Abdallah Laroui & the significant transformations his thought has gone through reflect the anguish & concern of a great number of Leftist & nationalist intellectuals in N Africa. Laroui's generation was deeply affected, tho not humiliated. by French colonialism. It was a generation that aimed at building the intellectual foundations of a young, independent, nationalist state. It was a generation that was still intellectually indebted to European thought, especially to Marxism, liberalism, Hegelianism. It was a generation that could not escape the problematic of the other.