Rif War (1920)

Rif War
Part of Interwar period
Spanish troops landing at Al Hoceima Bay on 8 September 1925
Date 1920–1926 Location Rif region, Morocco Result Spanish-French victory Dissolution of the Republic of the Rif
Belligerents
Spain  France (1925–1926) Jebala tribes	Republic of the Rif
Commanders and leaders
Manuel Silvestre  † Dámaso Berenguer José Millán Astray  (WIA) Miguel Primo de Rivera José Sanjurjo Philippe Pétain Hubert Lyautey Mulai Ahmed er Raisuni  (POW)	Muhammad Ibn 'Abd al-Karim al-Khattabi
Strength
: 140,000 soldiers : 325,000 soldiers Total: 465,000 soldiers +200 aircraft	Spanish estimate: 80,000 irregulars(Never more than 20,000 with firearms) including less than 7,000 "elites" Other sources: autumn 1925: 35,000–50,000 March 1926: less than 20,000
Casualties and losses
: 23,000 casualties (of which 18,000 killed in battle or died of disease) : 10,000 dead (2,500 killed in battle) 8,500 wounded Total: 81,500	30,000 casualties (of which 10,000 dead)

The Rif War, also called the Second Moroccan War, was fought in the early 1920s between the colonial power Spain (later joined by France) and the Berbers of the Rif mountainous region. Led by Abd al-Karim, the Riffians at first inflicted several defeats on the Spanish forces by using guerrilla tactics and captured European weapons. After France's entry into the conflict and the massive landing of Spanish troops at Al Hoceima, Abd el-Karim surrendered to the French and was taken into exile. Despite victory, controversy in Spain over the conduct of the war led to a military coup by Gen. Miguel Primo de Rivera in 1923 and foreshadowed the Spanish Civil War of 1936–39.

During the early 20th century, Morocco had fallen into the French and Spanish spheres of influence, becoming divided into protectorates ruled by the two European nations. The Rif region had been assigned to Spain, but given that even the Sultans of Morocco had been unable to exert control over the region, Spanish sovereignty over the Rif was strictly theoretical. For centuries, the Berber tribes of the Rif had fought off any attempt to impose outside control on them. Though nominally Muslim, the tribes of the Rif had continued many pagan practices such as worshipping water spirits and forest spirits that were contrary to Islam. Attempts by the Moroccan sultans to impose orthodox Islam on the Rif had been successfully resisted by the tribesmen.

For centuries Europeans had seen the Rif mountains and the outlines of people on the mountains from ships in the Mediterranean Sea, but almost no European had ever ventured into the mountains.Walter Burton Harris, the Morocco correspondent for The 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 the Sus...and that was almost all". The reason for, as Harris wrote, was 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.

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Wikipedia