Africa During the Scramble: The Miracle at Annual

[Gary Oswald]

Discuss this article here

 

[Coiler]

I actually knew more about the Rif War than I did about a lot of the other Scramble article subjects, so this was particularly interesting.

 

[Charles EP M.]

Another thing I knew nothing about before these articles and read with jaw dropped

 

[Thande]

Of course what's different about Gary's African articles is that they are always told with an African focus, whereas historically it would be more common to then discuss how the disaster at the Annual led to the 1923 military coup in Spain by Primo de Rivera, and ultimately, the later collapse of the monarchy (tied to the unpopular dictatorship) and then the Spanish Civil War. This may be the most profound backfire of a colonial venture of modern times; while colonial activities had obviously influenced politics back home (the khaki elections, Algeria and France, etc.) I think this illustrates just how much of a shock it was.

 

[Redolegna]

French forces in this war were led by Pétain, naturally.

 

[Gary Oswald]

I actually knew more about the Rif War than I did about a lot of the other Scramble article subjects, so this was particularly interesting.

I'd be interested to know if you had any critiques. I relied heavily on only two sources 'Country with a Government and a Flag: Rif War in Morocco' by C.R. Pennell and 'Abdel Krim: Emir of the Rif' by Rupert Furneaux and as such there's always the possibility I missed things.

Of course what's different about Gary's African articles is that they are always told with an African focus, whereas historically it would be more common to then discuss how the disaster at the Annual led to the 1923 military coup in Spain by Primo de Rivera, and ultimately, the later collapse of the monarchy (tied to the unpopular dictatorship) and then the Spanish Civil War. This may be the most profound backfire of a colonial venture of modern times; while colonial activities had obviously influenced politics back home (the khaki elections, Algeria and France, etc.) I think this illustrates just how much of a shock it was.

I did mention some of that, I think this article that goes deeper into European politics than any other in this series but yeah it's very much skimmed over, in favour of stuff like the lack of labour and resulting inflation among the Rif which rarely gets bought up. A lot of pop histories tend to focus on the problems the winning side had and then they just win without actually ever establishing why Carthage, Germany, the CSA etc are suddenly in trouble and I didn't want to do that here. The Rif Republic had things going on behind the scenes that led to its ultimate defeat as well as the Spanish just not walking away.

Naming the article 'the Miracle at Annual' rather than 'the Disaster of Annual' was a deliberate tweak at eurocentrism, mind.

 

[Hendryk]

The first warning that this would not go well, happened on the 1st of June 1921, when an outpost to the east of Annual was attacked and destroyed by a local Riffian militia, with around 180 Spanish soldiers killed.

Riffian ruffians, as it were.

The Rif War is one of these conflicts that most of us only learn about from a colonial perspective, so it's interesting to see it from the other side. One wonders if Abd El-Krim might have been able to raise more cash by exporting the one crop that grows well in the region, namely cannabis.

 

[Kimkatya]

French forces in this war were led by Pétain, naturally.

philippe petain, disaster for the human race, so on and so forth

 

[Hendryk]

philippe petain, disaster for the human race, so on and so forth

Pétain and Franco are only two of the more notorious strongmen who figured out after machine-gunning unruly colonial subjects that, really, the machine guns could also be trained on the unwashed masses back home.

 

[Alex Richards]

Of course the presence of International Tangier right on the border of a freshly independent Rif Republic would have it's own complications- historically the Spanish authorities strangled trade with the city within the Republic, whereas I could see the Rif seeing this as their key window to outside support- especially because the Rif claiming the Sultan's position in Tangier in return for backing the UK position on demilitirisation feels like it would be a plausible starting point.

I mean assuming that Tangier is international rather than being handed over to the newly independent Rif outright as a theoretically neutral party between the colonial powers.