Primo de Rivera and Spain's Moroccan Problem, 1923-27

General Miguel Primo de Rivera inherited a number of problems when he toppled the constitutional regime on 13 September 1923. One of the more urgent of these was Morocco. Despite Santiago Alba's efforts to give the Protectorate a civil orientation and to bring the Riffi Rebel, Abd-el-Krim, to the conference table, the constitutional politicians were no closer to solving what had become a major drain on Spain's manpower and resources in 1923 than they had been in 1921. Abd-elKrim was intractable, and even Alba's offer of a partial withdrawal to the coast and the guarantee of Riff autonomy did little to soften his attitude.' Abd-el-Krim had, after all, routed the Spanish Army at Annual in July 1921 and had become, both to himself and a few European and Maghrebi intellectuals and radicals, a symbol of indigenous nationalism. To have accepted Alba's terms would have meant surrender or at least partial surrender to the very people he had almost defeated two years before. This he would not accept. But, of course, why should he? In the autumn of 1923 he was in an ideal position. He led a tightly knit movement that rested on the twin pillars of a centralized political organization and a strong, mobile army. In addition, he fought for a cause: the independence of his people from European and Christian domination. More importantly, he fought on his own terms, and in a territory with which both he and his harkas were intimately acquainted. He could count, moreover, on Spanish war-weariness and French neutrality.2 There was little reason for him, at least in the short run, even to consider a modus vivendi with the Spanish. Abd-el-Krim, however, was not the only one who looked askance at Alba's efforts. The africanistas those young officers in the Spanish Army who had actually fought in the Protectorate were appalled by

Ancient history · Art · Autonomy · Constitution · Humanities · Independence (probability theory · Indigenous · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Protectorate · Sonne · Surrender · Victory · Engineering · Hispanic-African Historical Relations · History · Law

• Radicalization of French and Spanish Colonial Methods during War with Rif Republic (1921—1926)

  Open Access•Natalia A Zherlitsina•Nauchnyi Dialog•2022

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