Rif War

"War of Melilla" redirects here. For other wars fought in the Rif and around Ceuta and Melilla, seeList of Spanish colonial wars in Morocco.

Rif War
Part of theinterwar period
(clockwise from top left) SpanishRenault FT-17stuck in a shellhole Alfonso XIIIreviewing troops destined in the Rif Charge of thelegionarios Spanish generals overlooking combat from Mount Gurugú Soldiers of the San Fernando Regiment climbing a defense wall Class B submarines of theSpanish Armada
Date 1921–1926 Location Rif region,Morocco Result Spanish-French victory Dissolution of theRepublic of the Rif
Belligerents
Spain France(1924–1926)	Republic of the Rif
Commanders and leaders
Manuel Silvestre† Francisco Franco Dámaso Berenguer José Millán-Astray(WIA) Miguel Primo de Rivera Alfredo Kindelán José Sanjurjo Juan Yagüe Leopoldo Saro Emilio Mola Philippe Pétain Hubert Lyautey M. Ahmed er Raisuni(POW)	Abd el-Krim A.S. M. Abdel-Karim Bu Lahya M.B.M. les Aït Ghannou Ahmed Heriro Jebli† H. Mouh-Ameziane Mohamed Cheddi(POW) Caid Bohout C.M. Na'ma Tanout
Strength
60,000–100,000 soldiers 160,000soldiers in northern Morocco 1925 Totalaircraft:+200	Spanish and French estimates:75,000–125,000 men(According toCharles Monteil:never more than 20,000 with firearms at the same time) including less than 7,000 "elites" Other sources: Autumn 1925: 35,000–50,000 March 1926: less than 20,000
Casualties and losses
43,500–50,000 casualties 10,000–18,000 casualties	30,000 casualties(including 10,000 dead)

TheRif War(Riffian:Amenghi 'n Arif,Spanish:Guerra del Rif) was an armed conflict fought from 1921 to 1926 betweenSpain(joined byFrancein 1924) and theBerber(Amazigh) tribes of the mountainousRifregion of northernMorocco.

Led byAbd el-Krim,the Riffians at first inflicted several defeats on the Spanish forces by usingguerrilla tacticsand with the help of captured European weapons. After France's military intervention against Abd el-Krim's forces and the major landing of Spanish troops atAl Hoceima,considered the firstamphibiouslanding in history to involve the use oftanksandaircraft,Abd el-Krim surrendered to the French and was taken into exile.

In July 1909, Spanish workers constructing a rail-bridge providing access to iron mines nearMelillawere attacked by Riffian tribesmen.This incident led to the summoning of reinforcements from Spain itself. A series of skirmishes over the following weeks cost the Spanish over a thousand casualties. By September, the Spanish Army had 40,000 troops in northern Morocco and had occupied the mountainous tribal regions to the south and southeast of Melilla.The military operations inJebala,in the Moroccan west, began in 1911 with theLarachelanding. Spain worked to pacify a large part of the most violent areas until 1914, a slow process of consolidation of frontiers that lasted until 1919. The following year, after the signing of theTreaty of Fez,the northern Moroccan area was adjudicated to Spain as a protectorate. The Riffian populations strongly resisted the Spanish, unleashing a conflict that would last for several years.

In 1921, in an attempt to consolidate control of the region, the Spanish troops suffered the catastrophicDisaster of Annualin addition to a rebellion led by Riffian leader Abd el-Krim. As a result, the Spanish retreated to a few fortified positions while Abd el-Krim ultimately created an entire independent state: theRepublic of the Rif.The development of the conflict and its end coincided with thedictatorship of Primo de Rivera,who took on command of the campaign from 1924 to 1927. In addition, and after the Battle of Uarga in 1925, the French intervened in the conflict and established a joint collaboration with Spain that culminated in theAlhucemas landing,which proved a turning point. The Spanish alsoused chemical weapons during the conflict.By 1926, the area had been pacified; Abd-el-Krim surrendered to the French that year, and Spain gained effective control of the protectorate's territory at last.

The Rif War still causes much disagreement among historians. Some see in it a harbinger of thedecolonization process in North Africa.Others consider it one of the last colonial wars, as it was the decision of the Spanish to conquer the Rif – nominally part of their Moroccan protectorate butde factoindependent – that catalyzed the entry of France in 1924.The Rif War left a deep memory both in Spain and in Morocco. The Riffian insurgency of the 1920s can be interpreted as a precursor to theAlgerian War of Independence,which took place three decades later.

Origins

Spain, 13 kilometers across theStraits of Gibraltarfrom Africa, claimed influence over the Morocco region at theBerlin Conference(1884–1885). By the early 20th century, Morocco was divided into protectorates ruled by France and Spain. The Rif region had been assigned to Spain, but given that the Sultans of Morocco had been unable to exert control over the region, Spanish sovereignty over the Rif was strictlyde jure,existing only in the text of theGeneral Act of the Berlin Conference on West Africa,to which the Riffians, who hadde factocontrol of the land were not a party. For centuries, the Berber tribes of the Rif had fought off any attempt of outsiders to impose control on them.While the Rif mountains were visible to Europeans from ships in the Mediterranean Sea, Europeans had rarely, if ever, ventured into the area.Walter Burton Harris,the Morocco correspondent forThe Times,who covered the war, wrote that as late as 1912 only "one or two Europeans had been able to visit the cedar forests that lie south of Fez. A few had traveled in the southern Atlas and pushed on into theSus...and that was almost all ".As Harris wrote, the Berbers "were often as inhospitable to the Arab as they were to the foreigner", and generally killed any outsiders who ventured into their territory.

Vincent Sheean,who covered the war forThe New York Times,wrote that the Rif was a truly beautiful countryside of "[c]rimson mountains flung against a sky of hieratic blue, gorges magnificent and terrifying, peaceful green valleys between protecting precipices", a place that reminded him of his native Colorado.The Rif was also rich in high-grade iron, which could be easily extracted viaopen-pit mining.The promise of the Spanish state collecting revenues in the form of taxes and royalties from iron mining here was an incentive for it to bring the Rif under its control.

The Crown granted the concession to mine iron in the Rif to the millionaire DonHoracio Echevarrieta.By 1920 he had brought out 800,000 tons of valuable high grade iron through relatively inexpensive open-pit mining.Though profitable, iron mining caused much environmental damage and required the displacement of the native people. As they received no share of the profits, the Rifians soon began to oppose the mining in their territory.

WhenAlfonso XIIIascended to the throne in 1886, Spain was considered a world power, with colonies in the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Pacific.But in theSpanish–American War,Spain lost Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines in 1898,and soldtheMarianaandCaroline Islandsto Germany the following year; reducing the once greatSpanish Empireto only a few footholds on the Moroccan coast andSpanish Guinea.To compensate for the losses in the Americas and Asia, there emerged a powerfulAfricanistfaction in Spain led by Alfonso, who wanted a new empire in Africa.Finally, many within the politically powerfulCatholic Church,preached the need for a new crusade to continue theReconquistaby conquering Morocco, adding their voices to theAfricanistchoir.For all these reasons, Spain began pushing into the Rif in 1909.

Forces involved

Rifian forces

The Berber tribesmen had a long tradition of fierce fighting skills, combined with high standards of fieldcraft and marksmanship. They were capably led byAbd el-Krim,who showed both military and political expertise. However, the Rifian regular army was never a very large force.The elite of the Rifian forces formed regular units which according to Abd el-Krim, quoted by the Spanish generalManuel Goded,numbered 6,000 to 7,000. Other sources put it much lower, at around 2,000 to 3,000.

The remaining Rifians were tribal militia selected by theirCaids;they were not liable to serve away from their homes and farms for more than 15 consecutive days. General Goded estimated that at their peak, in June 1924, the Rifian forces numbered about 80,000 men,althoughAbd el-Krimwas never able to arm more than 20,000 men at a time. However, this force was largely adequate in the early stages of the war.In the final days of the war, Rifian forces numbered about 12,000 men.In addition, Rifian forces were not well armed, with weapons badly maintained and in poor condition.

Spanish troops inPasajes,prior to their departure to the war

Spanish forces

Initially, the Spanish forces in Morocco were largely composed of conscripts and reservists from Spain itself. These "Peninsular" troops were poorly supplied and prepared, few had marksmanship skills and proper battle training,and widespread corruption was reported amongst the officer corps, reducing supplies and morale.Of the Spanish troops in Morocco in 1921, well over half were completely illiterate conscripts from the poorest elements of Spanish society who had been sent to Morocco with minimal training.Despite assurances from GeneralManuel Fernández Silvestrethat his equipment was sufficient to defeat the Rifians, in fact about three-quarters of the rifles at the Melilla arsenal were in shoddy condition due to poor maintenance, and a report from late 1920, which Spanish commanders never bothered to read, warned that many of the rifles held there were either unusable or more of a danger to the soldier firing them than to the enemy.

The average Spanish soldier in Morocco in 1921 was paid the equivalent of thirty-four US cents per day, and lived on a simple diet of coffee, bread, beans, rice and the odd piece of meat.Many soldiers bartered their rifles and ammunition at the local markets in exchange for fresh vegetables.The barracks that the soldiers lived in were unsanitary, and medical care at the few hospitals was very poor.Up in the mountains, Spanish soldiers lived in small outposts known asblocaos,which the American historian Stanley Payne observed: "Many of these lacked any sort of toilet, and the soldier who ventured out of the filthy bunker risked exposure to the fire of lurking tribesmen".

General Fernández SilvestreinMelilla,1921

Continuing a practice first begun in Cuba, corruption flourished amongst the venal Spanish officer corps, with goods meant for the troops being sold on the black market and the funds intended to build roads and railroads in Morocco ending up in the pockets of senior officers.A high number of Spanish officers could not read maps, which explains why Spanish units so frequently got lost in the Rif mountains.In general, studying war was not considered to be a good use of an officer's time, and most officers devoted their time in Melilla in words of the American journalist James Perry to "gambling and whoring, sometimes molesting the native Moorish women".Morale in the Army was extremely poor and most Spanish soldiers just wanted to go home and leave Morocco forever.Because of the prostitutes from Spain, who attached themselves in great number to the Spanish bases in Morocco, venereal diseases were rampant in the Spanish Army.Fernández Silvestre was well aware of the poor morale of his soldiers, but he did not regard this as a problem, believing that his enemy was so inferior that the problems afflicting his troops were not an issue.

Even with their numerical superiority, the "Peninsular" troops proved no match for the highly skilled and motivated Rifian forces. Accordingly, much reliance came to be placed on the mainly professional units comprising Spain'sArmy of Africa.Since 1911, these had included regiments of MoroccanRegulares,who proved to be excellent soldiers.

The initiative was unpopular in parts of Spain as well. In 1909, during early conflicts with the Rif tribesmen, an attempt by the Spanish government to call up reservists led to a working-class uprising in Barcelona known asTragic Week.The Catalan trade unions, many led by anarchists, argued that the working class of Barcelona had no quarrel with the people of the Rif.

Primo de Rivera(front row left) with KingAlfonso XIIIand other high-ranking Spanish officers

After the Tragic Week of 1909, the Spanish government starting in 1911 tried to raise as manyRegularunits as possible to avoid further working class resistance to colonial wars as much of the Spanish working class had no desire to see their sons sent to Morocco, beginning a policy of what the Spanish historian Jose Alvarez called "Moroccanizing" the conquest of the Rif.Following the difficulties and setbacks that it had experienced in 1909–11, the Spanish army began to adopt much in organization and tactics from the French North African forces garrisoning most of Morocco and neighboring Algeria. Particular attention was paid to theFrench Foreign Legionand a Spanish equivalent, theTercio de Extranjeros('Foreigners' brigade'), known in English as the Spanish Legion, was formed in 1920. The regiment's second commander was then-Col.Francisco Franco,having risen rapidly through the ranks.In the Rif war, it was theRegularesand the Spanish Foreign Legion founded in 1919 that provided the elite forces that won Spain the war.Less than 25% of this "Foreign Legion" were, in fact, non-Spanish. Harshly disciplined and driven, they quickly acquired a reputation for ruthlessness. As their number grew, the Spanish Legion and the Regulares increasingly led offensive operations after the disasters that had been suffered by the conscript forces.

Course of war

Localisation of the Republic of the Rif.

Early stages

See also:Second Melillan campaign

As an outcome of theTreaty of Fez(1912) Spain gained possession of the lands aroundMelillaandCeuta.In 1920, the Spanish commissioner, GeneralDámaso Berenguer,decided to conquer the eastern territory from the Jibala tribes, but had little success. The second-in-command was GeneralManuel Fernández Silvestre,who commanded the eastern sector. Fernández Silvestre had spread out his troops out in 144 forts andblocaosfrom Sidi Dris on the Mediterranean across the Rift mountains to Annual and Tizi Azza and on to Melilla.A typicalblocaoheld about dozen men, while the larger forts had about 800 men.Fernández Silvestre, known for his boldness and impetuosity, had pushed his men too deep into the Rif mountains hoping to reach Alhucemas Bay without undertaking the necessary work to build a logistical support network capable of supplying his men out in theblocaosup in the Rif mountains.Krim had sent Fernández Silvestre a letter warning him not to cross theAmekran riveror else he would die.Fernández Silvestre commented to the Spanish press about the letter that: "This man Abd el-Krim is crazy. I'm not going to take seriously the threats of a little Berbercaid[judge] whom I had at my mercy a short time ago. His insolence merits a new punishment ".Abd el-Krim allowed Fernández Silvestre to advance deep into the Rif, knowing the Spanish logistics were in the words of the Spanish historian Jose Alvarez "tenuous" at best.

On 1 July 1921, the Spanish army in north-eastern Morocco under Fernández Silvestre collapsed when defeated by the forces ofAbd el-Krim,in what became known in Spain as thedisaster of Annual,some 8,000 soldiers and officers reported killed or disappeared out of some 20,000. The final Spanish death toll, both at Annual and during the subsequent rout that took Rifian forces to the outskirts of Melilla, was reported to theCortes Generalesas totaling 13,192.The Spanish were pushed back and during the following five years, occasional battles were fought between the two. The Rifian forces advanced to the east and captured over 130Spanishmilitary posts.

Berberscarrying captured rifles. ASpanish Mauserand a FrenchBerthier Carbine

By late August 1921,Spainlost all the territories it had gained since 1909. Spanish troops were pushed back to Melilla, which was their biggest base in the easternRif.Spain still had 14,000 soldiers in Melilla.However,Abd el-Krimordered his forces not to attack the town. He subsequently told the writer J. Roger-Matthieu that since citizens of other European nations were residing in Melilla, it was feared they would intervene in the war should their citizens come to harm.Other reasons included the dispersal of Rifian fighters from several loosely allied tribes following the victory at Annual; and the arrival in Melilla of substantial reinforcements from the Legion and other Spanish units recalled from operations in western Morocco.By the end of August Spanish forces at Melilla numbered 36,000 under GeneralJose Sanjurjoand the slow process of recovering the lost territory could begin.

Thus the Spanish could keep their biggest base in the easternRif.Later Abd el-Krim would admit: "I bitterly regret this order. It was my biggest mistake.All the following tenor of events happened because of this mistake."

By January 1922 the Spanish had retaken their major fort at Monte Arruit (where they found the bodies of 2,600 of the garrison) and had reoccupied the coastal plain as far as Tiztoutine and Batel. The Rifian forces had consolidated their hold of the inland mountains and stalemate was reached.

The Spanish military suffered losses even at sea; in March the transport shipJuan de Joaneswas sunk inAlhucemasBay by Riffian coastal batteries,and in August 1923 thebattleshipEspañaran aground offCape Tres Forcasand was eventually scrappedin situ.

In a bid to break the stalemate, the Spanish military turned to the use ofchemical weapons against the Riffians.

Ruins of a Spanish camp nearChefchaouen

The Rif War had starkly polarized Spanish society between theafricanistaswho wanted to conquer an empire in Africa vs. theabandonistaswho wanted to abandon Morocco as not worth the blood and treasure.After the "Disaster of the Annual", Spain's war in the Rif went from bad to worse, and as the Spanish were barely hanging on to Morocco, support for theabandonistasgrew as many people could see no point to the war.In August 1923, Spanish soldiers embarking for Morocco mutinied at the railway stations, other soldiers in Malaga simply refused to board the ships that were to take them to Morocco, while in Barcelona huge crowds of left-wingers had staged anti-war protests at which Spanish flags were burned while the flag of the Rif Republic was waved about.

With theafricanistascomprising only a minority, it was clear that it was only a matter of time before theabandonistasforced the Spanish to give up on the Rif, which was part of the reason for GeneralMiguel Primo de Rivera, 2nd Marqués de Estella,seizing powerin a military coup d'étaton September 13, 1923.General Primo de Rivera was in the words of the American journalist James Perry a "moderate dictator" who was convinced that the divisions between theafricanistsvs. theabandonistashad pushed Spain to the brink of civil war, and who had seized power to find a way out of the crisis.General Primo de Rivera soon concluded that the war was unwinnable, and considered pulling back his troops to the coast with the aim of at least temporarily abandoning the Rif.In late July 1924, Primo de Rivera visited a Spanish Foreign Legion post atBen Taiebin the Rif, and was served a banquet of eggs in different forms. In Spanish culture, eggs are a symbol of the testicles, and the dishes were intended to send a clear message. Primo de Rivera responded calmly that the army would be required to abandon only the minimum of territory and that junior officers should not dictate the measures necessary to resolve the Moroccan problem.However he subsequently modified the plans for withdrawal, pulling the Spanish forces back fromChefchaouenand theOued Laouregion to a prepared fortified boundary named the "Primo Line".

French intervention

Contemporary map showing border and French military posts

In May 1924, the French Army had established a line of out-posts north of theOureghlaRiver in disputed tribal territory. On 12 April 1925, an estimated 8,000Rifians attacked this line and in two weeks over 40 of 66 French posts had been stormed or abandoned. French casualties exceeded 1,000 killed, 3,700 wounded and 1,000 missing – representing losses of over 20 percent of their forces deployed in the Rif.The French accordingly intervened on the side of Spain, appointingMarshal Pétainas commander-in-chief of an expeditionary force of up to 160,000well-trained and -equipped troops from Metropolitan, Algerian,Senegaleseand Foreign Legion units, as well as Moroccan regulars (tirailleurs) and auxiliaries (goumiers). With total Spanish forces at this point numbering about 90,000 the Rifian forces were now seriously outnumbered by their Franco-Spanish opponents.Final French deaths from battle and disease, in what had now become a major war, were to total 8,628.

On September 17, 1925,a squadron of American mercenary flyersin the service of Francebombarded Chefchaouen.

Outcome

Desembarco de Alhucemas,1929, an artistic interpretation of theAlhucemas landing,by Spanish painterJosé Moreno Carbonero

For the final attack commencing on 8 May 1925, the French and Spanish had ranged 123,000 men, supported by 150 aircraft, against 12,000 Rifians.Superior manpower and technology soon resolved the course of the war in favour of France and Spain. The French troops pushed through from the south while the Spanish fleet and army secured Alhucemas Bay by alanding operationin September (the first amphibious landing in history where tanks and seaborne air support were used) and began attacking from the north. After one year of bitter resistance,Abd el-Krim,the leader of both the tribes, surrendered to French authorities, and in 1926Spanish Moroccowas finally retaken.

However, the unpopularity of the war in Spain and the earlier defeats of the Spanish military contributed to the instability of the Spanish government and themilitary coup of 1923.

Atrocities

Massacre of Monte Arruit

See also:Massacre of Monte Arruit

On August 9, 1921, theMassacre of Monte Arruitoccurred, in which 2,000 soldiers of the Spanish Army were killed after surrendering the Monte Arruit garrison nearAl Aarouifollowing a 12-day siege.The atrocities subsequently committed by the Spanish Army of Africa were triggered by a 'compulsive spirit of revenge' of this and other massacres, and the desire to exact retribution on the rebel tribes.

Spanish atrocities and use of chemical weapons

See also:Spanish use of chemical weapons in the Rif War

Spanish legionnaires holding up decapitated Moroccan heads, 1922

Beginning in 1924, the Spanishused chemical weapons during the conflict,which marked the first widespread employment of gas warfare in the post-WWI era.The Spanish army indiscriminately usedphosgene,diphosgene,chloropicrinandmustard gasalso against civilian populations, markets and rivers.While Spain signed theGeneva Protocolin 1925, which prohibited the use of chemical and biological weapons, such use was not illegal in internal conflicts.

Some have cited the Spanish chemical weapons as the main reason for a widespreadcanceroccurrence in the Rif region, which is still the highest in Morocco;for example, according to the Head of the Association of Toxic Gas Victims (ATGV) research has shown "there are strong indicators that the cancer is caused by the gases that were used against the resistance in the north."Writer Juan Pando, however, pointed out that areas of France and Belgium, which were gassed far more heavily during World War I, do not have abnormal cancer rates.

Miguel Alonso, Alan Kramer and Javier Rodrigo wrote in the bookFascist Warfare, 1922–1945: Aggression, Occupation, Annihilation:"Although the Rif War was no 'fascist' war, several methods used to 'pacify' the population were applied in the post-colonialreconquistaof godlessRepublican Spain…Apart from deciding not to use chemical weapons,Franco's campaign to 'cleanse Spain' resembled that in Morocco: intelligence-gathering through torture, summary executions,forced labour,rape,and the sadistic killing of military prisoners. "

Spanish mutilations of captured Moroccans were also reported, including severing heads as retribution to the mutilations inflicted on the Spanish troops initially.

In popular culture

• The Rif War directly inspiredSigmund Romberg's 1926 operettaThe Desert Song,which was later adapted several times into motion pictures.
• The 1929 romance novelLa riffaine,by Jewish-Algerian writerElissa Rhaïs,was set during the Rif War.
• The 1927 novelAmy Jollyand the 1930 filmMoroccoadapted from it are set against the background of the Rif War.
• The action of the 1931 novelLa BanderabyPierre Mac Orlanis set during the Rif War. The novel was also turned intoa 1935 movie.
• The 1951 filmTen Tall Menis set in the context of the Rif War.
• The 1977Dick RichardsfilmMarch or Dieshows Foreign Legionnaires fighting Arab rebels led by "el-Krim" in the Rif in 1925.
• The 1999 filmLegionnaire,starringJean-Claude Van Damme,is set in the war in 1925, withKamel Krifaplaying Abd el-Krim.
• The 2017 television miniseriesMorocco: Love in Times of Warfollows Spanish nurses during the Rif War.

See also

• Zaian War,the 1914–21 conflict between the French and Berber tribesmen in Morocco.
• Kert campaign

References

Notes

Further reading

• Balfour, Sebastian.Deadly Embrace: Morocco and the Road to the Spanish Civil War(Oxford 2002)onlineArchived2016-03-27 at theWayback Machine
• Chandler, James A. "Spain and Her Moroccan Protectorate 1898–1927,"Journal of Contemporary History(1975) 10#2 pp. 301–322in JSTOR
• La Porte, Pablo. "'Rien à ajouter': The League of Nations and the Rif War (1921—1926),"European History Quarterly(2011) 41#1 pp 66–87,online
• Pennell, C. R. "Ideology and Practical Politics: A Case Study of the Rif War in Morocco, 1921–1926,"International Journal of Middle East Studies(1982) 14#1, pp 19–33.in JSTOR
• Pennell, C. R. "How and why to remember the Rif War (1921–2021)."Journal of North African Studies22.5 (2017): 798–820.abstract
• Pennell, C. R. "Women and Resistance to Colonialism in Morocco: The Rif 1916–1926,"Journal of African History(1987) 28#1 pp. 107–118in JSTOR
• Pennell, C. R.Country with a Government and a Flag: The Rif War in Morocco, 1921–1926(1986)
• Porch, Douglas. "Spain's African Nightmare,"MHQ: Quarterly Journal of Military History(2006) 18#2 pp 28–37.
• Sacanell, Enrique. "El general Sanjurjo". Editorial La Esfera de Los Libros, Madrid (2004)ISBN978-84-9734-205-6
• Slavin, David H. "The French Left and the Rif War, 1924–25: Racism and the Limits of Internationalism."Journal of Contemporary History26.1 (1991): 5–32.online

External links

• Steven Thomas,1920–1927 Rif War / Second Moroccan War
• The Rif War 1893(sic) on OnWar.com.
• Chemical Weapons: Tenth Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the CWC 7–11 November 2005, The Hague, The Netherlands
• Rif war
• David Montgomery Hart,The Aith Waryaghar of the Moroccan Rif: an ethnography and history.Published for the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research [by] University of Arizona Press, c1976. xxiii, 556 p.: ill.; 28 cm.ISBN0-8165-0452-0:Series Viking Fund publications in anthropology; no. 55, Notes. Bibliography: pp. 533–546. Tucson, Arizona, (1976)