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countervailing sympathy of army leaders for Germany ended in pre-
serving Spain's neutrality.
France had overlapping interests in Morocco that might have created
tensions with Spain, but from 1912 onward (with some encouragement
from Britain) the two Mediterranean states were able to work out a
division of North African claims that left the Spanish protectorate intact
and linked to a larger stretch of desert land—known originally as Ifni
and Río de Oro and later, more grandly, as Spanish Sahara—that eased
some of the pain of colonial deprivation. Though these lands, as well as
the recently acquired Spanish Guinea, cost more than they were worth,
they would be jealously preserved long after other European powers
had given up their realms. Spanish Morocco was regarded as the jewel
in the crown, and its preservation was the particular obsession of Alfon-
so's generals. They had been heavily engaged against the local tribes-
men of the Rif region since the beginning of the century, and fighting
there intensified after the European war ended. The French, in their
neighboring territory, experienced a string of successes and reverses in
dealing with their own “natives,” yet nothing in the French zone com-
pared to the catastrophe of 1921 during the so-called Anual campaign
when thousands of Spanish troops, mostly raw conscripts (the number
is estimated as anywhere from 8,000 to 20,000), were killed in a des-
perate retreat that turned into a bloody rout.
The parties of the Left soon demanded an inquiry into the origins of
the North African catastrophe and clearly intended to use it to weaken
the power of the army and the monarchy. They would not have far to
look, for the king had recklessly incited General Manuel Fernández
Silvestre to launch the operation that brought so many men to their
death and nearly cost Spain control of the protectorate. When no other
evasion or delaying tactic seemed likely to keep the Cortes from pursu-
ing its inquiry, a coup saved the generals and their king from embar-
rassment. After 50 years of civilian and parliamentary government, a
new pronunciamiento returned Spain to military dictatorship. The cap-
tain general of Barcelona, Miguel Primo de Rivera, declared that he was
acting to save his country from terrorism, financial incompetence, com-
munist threats, impiety, regional extremism, the Moroccan problem,
and reckless political opportunism in the Anual investigation. Although
he was initially supported only by his own troops, no other command-
ers would offer resistance, and the king made it clear that he would not
support his ministers in the crisis. By the end of September 1923 the
government had resigned, Alfonso had welcomed Primo de Rivera to
Madrid and appointed him head of a military directorate with broad
powers, and the dismantlement of the Cortes and the very structure of
 
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