Moroccan postage stamp

The period before the war was the highpoint of European imperialism. After losing its colonies in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Phillipines in 1898, Spain sought to assert itself as an imperial power in North Africa, and especially in Morocco. At the Algeciras Conference of 1906, the other European powers granted Spain a zone of influence in northern Morocco.  

It became clear immediately that establishing control would be a difficult task. In 1909, a Spanish column suffered a major defeat at the Barranco del Lobo, just outside Melilla.  The subsequent callup of reservists triggered a popular uprising in Barcelona known as the Tragic Week. Unlike wealthy Spaniards, members of the lower clases were unable to buy their way out of supposedly compulsory military service. The tiny group of leftwing deputies in parliament denounced the war, or at least the unjust recruitment system, but to no effect. 

To avoid Spaniards being killed, in 1912 the government created the Regulares, units made up of Moroccan soldiers. Spain was only imitating what other European countrie shad done, making natives pay the Price of conquest. The Foreign Legion, a copy of the French Foreign Legion, was created in 1920.  Even so, the poorly trained, armed and motivated Spanish army made only modest progress against the battle-hardened tribe sof northern Morocco who know the terrain intimately and rejected the presence of foreign infidels. Meanwhile,  encouraged by King Alfonso XIII, the army established a system of inflated rewards and promotions that produced some meteoric military careers. The names of José Sanjurjo, José Millán-Astray, Francisco Franco, Manuel Goded and Emilio Mola, the most famous of the generation of ambitious, imperialist and authoritarian officers called the “africanistas”, would become very well known in Spain. 

At the battle of Anual in July 1921, Spanish forces suffered a massive defeat at the hands of an army commanded by Mohammed Abd-el-Krim. He is shown leading the attack in this Moroccan stamp issued to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the victory. Ten thousand men were killed. It was only after the landing at Alhucemas in September1925, in which they had French assistance, that Spanish forces would begin to turn the tide.  Two years later, and after having used toxic gas as a weapon, they had won. 

The war in Morocco cost Spain more than 50,000 lives, most due to disease rather than combat. The numner of Moroccans who die dis not known. The conflict left bitter memories on both sides of the Mediterranean and a sector of the Spanish military that believed it knew best and had the right to govern.