100 years after the Battle of Annual, the bloody Spanish defeat in Africa which turned the monarchy upside down and the emergence of Franco

In 1898, Spain lost the remains of its overseas colony which had turned it into an Empire where the sun never set. The Philippines, Cuba and Puerto Rico fall to the United States after the Spanish-American War. France and Germany fought over North Africa, which had strategic value as the key to the Mediterranean. The English already owned the Rock of Gibraltar and they preferred to have Spain as a neighbor more than the other European powers. Interestingly, it was like that The north of Morocco, with an area of ​​23 thousand square kilometers, became a Spanish protectorate thanks to the British.

The geography of this Maghrebian territory, bordering the Mediterranean and the regions of Yebala and Kebdana, called the Rif, it was as complex as the infighting between the 66 tribes that scattered across its mountains. It was enough for the Spaniards to come forward for these “peoples without civilization, semi-savages and warriors” (in the words of a chronicler) to unite against European oppression. Then local leaders emerged as Abd el-Krim, to lead the revolt against colonialist forces.

The conditions in the Rif – where the Spanish cities Melilla and Ceuta- are located – were unfavorable for the Spaniards, without roads or natural communications, with a hostile climate of harsh winters and harsh summers. To this must be added the warmongering of the tribes, which for centuries have been involved in family and territorial conflicts, forging complicated alliances and hatred reconsidered in the light of the colonialist invader. Nothing better than a common enemy to forget the old quarrels.

The cycle of military campaigns in Morocco began in 1909. Shortly after A young Galician ensign joined him who, because of his courage and his gift of command, would be known under the name of “el caudillo”: Mr. Abd el-Krim Bahamonde.

Spain, in accordance with its precarious economy, did not have an army sufficient to carry out a campaign of these characteristics. Madrid tried to save resources and in the end the well-known slogan “cheap is expensive” was respected. Therefore, with this policy, the soldiers spent the winter in the cold and the summers plagued by heat and vermin, always malnourished and poorly cared for. The disease decimated the army. As in many wars, epidemics have caused more casualties than the Riff’s precise bullets.

In 1921, the commanders of Ceuta and Melilla decided to converge their forces in charge of Generals Dámaso Berenguer and Manuel Fernández Silvestre in the Annual zone, where they took the mount Abarrán. Both generals belonged to the Spanish nobility and they were born in Cuba where their parents were civil servants of the empire. Berenguer was the Count of Xauen and Fernández Silvestre a friend of King Alfonso XIII. The latter is appointed general-in-chief and draws up a plan to subdue the rebel tribes of the Rif mountains.

The catch was not a good choice, the Riffians won it back in four hours and mounted a counter-offensive that it ended with the besieged Spanish troops in Igueriben, without water, without food, under the African summer sun. Entrenched, thirsty and under constant bombardment, night and day, the only way out was to break the siege with the force of a bayonet. And they did it on July 21, 1921. However, the withdrawal was chaotic, the Riffians did not stop harassing the Spanish troops, without leadership or conviction. It is said that General Silvestre committed suicide, others that he died under enemy fire. The truth is that due to the disbandment his body was never found.

When colonial troops gained access to the Annual they found about ten thousand bodies destroyed, without eyes, without tongues, without testicles, eviscerated, slaughtered and even crucified. The prisoners were tortured to death in this “pit of mud and blood”, as Abd el-Krim put it.

The impact in Spain was so great, the impression of this defeat so profound, that criticism and complaints ensued. All agreed on the decline of the kingdom of Alfonso XIII.

The soldiers understood that this defeat was due to the lack of means provided by the government. Cornered by the most radical and recalcitrant group of officers, Alfonso XII accepted an automatic coup d’état to secure the monarchy. Primo de Rivera became a dictator and A group of colonialist soldiers, among whom Francisco Franco will stand out, reorganized the Spanish forces with an iron will of “Vendetta”.

The future caudillo showed throughout this retaliatory war a reckless courage, an indifference to danger and a tendency to command that He took him to the Generalate when he was barely 33 years old. “Without Africa, I can hardly explain myself …”, years later, would declare the one who would be the generalissimo of the national camp, during the civil war which divided Spain. And it all started under the Rif sun.

* Omar López Mato is a writer, historian and author of the Historia Hoy website

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