Protégé system
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The protégé system (Arabic: نظام المحميين) in Morocco in the late 19th century allowed people working for foreign consuls and vice-consuls certain privileges and legal protections not available to the rest of the population, such as exemption from taxes imposed by the Makhzen and protections from a sometimes arbitrary judicial system.[1]: 94–95 [2][3] At first the status of protégé was available only to Moroccans—Muslims and Jews—but it was extended to Europeans by the 1860s.[2] The protégé system was a parallel to the capitulatory system in the Ottoman Empire.[2][4]
The Madrid Conference of 1880 was held at the behest of Sultan Hassan I in response to France and Spain's abuse[clarification needed] of the protégé system.[4]