The area outside the walls of the old medina that is now United Nations Square, used to be the location of the Souq Kbir (سوق كبير) 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 took the name, "Square of the Clock" (Place de l'Horloge). The square was then named "Square of France" (Place de France) and developed by a team of architects urban planners chosen by the French Resident General Hubert Lyautey.