This historical paper uses the methods of textual analysis and both archival and published sources to examine cultural and political responses to the 1960 earthquake in Agadir, Morocco, using the earthquake as a lens through which to view the transformation of relations at the dawn of the post-colonial era. Four years after Moroccan independence in 1956, Moroccan society and culture were in a period of transition from the social and political patterns of the colonial to the new realities of political sovereignty and continued economic dependence. The French were meanwhile struggling with their own experiences of decolonization, having ceded control of Morocco and Tunisia in order to continue a devastating and ultimately futile war to keep control of Algeria. As the French grappled with the weakening of their cultural and political power in Africa, the United States was expanding its influence as it sought allies, markets, and cultural prestige to counter the perceived threat of Communist influences. The seismic catastrophe that devastated the Moroccan coastal city of Agadir on February 29th, 1960 provided an opportunity for Moroccans, French, and Americans to re-conceptualize their relationships and to advance various and diverse agendas. The involvement of the French in relief and reconstruction efforts revived French colonial-era discourses of paternal benevolence, discourses that had been recently undermined by the brutality of French opposition to the independence movements in their colonies. For imperial apologists, the earthquake restored faith in a humanitarian France, helping peoples in need of tutelage and assistance, thus allowing the history of the French relationship with Africa once again to be viewed with pride rather than shame. Moreover, humanitarian relief offered the hope that France's economic strength and moral virtue could preserve France's influence in the world, even in the absence of a political empire. For Americans, the earthquake reinforced notions that the old colonial order was yielding to a new globalization of international relations in which the United States would take on a dominant role as a benevolent superpower. For the Moroccan monarchy and the nationalist leadership, the horror of 1960 had the potential to challenge the triumphant narrative of independence, and the Moroccan leadership moved quickly to recast the disaster as a nation-building event. The paper argues that all of these responses were shaped by older, colonial-era discourses that clouded perceptions of the situation at hand and distorted the formation of policy responses and effective propaganda.