The area outside the walls of the old medina that is now United Nations Square, used to be the location of the "Souq Kbir" (), also referred to as , before French colonization. In 1908, after the French bombardment and invasion of Casablanca, the French commander Charles Martial Joseph Dessigny ordered the construction of a clock tower in the area, which then took the name, "Place de l'Horloge", "Square of the Clock". The square was then named "Place de France", "Square of France," and the surrounding area was developed by a team of French architects and urban planners chosen by the French "Résident général" Hubert Lyautey and led by Henri Prost.