Republic of the Rif

Background

The French and Spanish empires both colonized Morocco, and in 1912 the Treaty Between France and Spain Regarding Morocco established Spanish and French protectorates there.

France's general approach to governing the protectorate of Morocco was a policy of indirect rule, where they co-opted existing governance systems to control the protectorate.^[6] Specifically, the Moroccan elite and the sultans of Morocco were both left in control while being strongly influenced by the French government.^[6]

French and Spanish colonialism in Morocco was discriminatory against the native Rifians and Sahrawis and was highly detrimental to the Moroccan economy. Moroccans were treated as second-class citizens and discriminated against in all aspects of colonial life.^[7]

Infrastructure was discriminatory in colonial Morocco. The French colonial government built 36.5 kilometers of sewers in the new neighborhoods created to accommodate new French settlers, while only 4.3 kilometers of sewers were built in indigenous Moroccan communities.^[7] Additionally, land in Morocco was far more expensive for Moroccans than for French settlers. For example, while the average Moroccan had a plot of land 50 times smaller than their French settler counterparts, Moroccans were forced to pay 24% more per hectare.^[7] Moroccans were additionally prohibited from buying land from French settlers.^[7]

Colonial Morocco's economy was designed to benefit French businesses at the detriment of Moroccan laborers. Morocco was forced to import all of its goods from France despite higher costs.^[7] Additionally, improvements to agriculture and irrigation systems in Morocco exclusively benefited colonial agriculturalists while leaving Moroccan farms at a technological disadvantage.^[7] It is estimated that French colonial policies resulted in 95% of Morocco's trade deficit by 1950.^[7]

Following the allowance of its interests and recognition of its influence in northern Morocco through the 1904 Entente Cordiale, 1906 Algeciras Conference and 1907 Pact of Cartagena, Restoration-era Spain occupied Ras Kebdana, a town near the Moulouya River, in March 1908^[8][9] and launched the Melillan and Kert campaigns against the Riffian tribes between 1909 and 1912.^[10][11] In June 1911, Spanish troops occupied Larache and Ksar el-Kebir.^[12]

The Moroccan independence president Abd el-Krim (1882–1963) organized an armed revolution, the Rif War, against the Spanish and French colonial control of Morocco. The Spanish had faced unrest off and on from the 1890s, but in 1921 Spanish colonial troops were massacred at the Battle of Annual. Abd el-Krim founded an independent Republic, the Rif Republic.^[13]

Declaration of independence

After the Battle of Annual in the summer of 1921, Abd-el-Krim felt more confident in effectively organizing and developing the Riffian movement, which had emerged throughout the Rif War. The territory of the Rif was liberated by the Riffian tribes. The lack of a coherent Riffian regular army and the absence of a central coordinating body among the Riffian tribes, as well as the management of their own economy and administration, led Abd-el-Krim to democratically hold a general congress. There, they could study and evaluate the situation following the victory and establish new tools for a more solid national liberation movement. The approach was accepted with great enthusiasm by the Riffians, and that was how the representatives of the tribes were invited to participate.^{[citation needed]}

The meeting took place on September 18, 1921. Abd el-Krim began with a major speech, in which he spoke about the relationship between the Rif, Spain, and Morocco. He denounced all forms of colonialism, both Spanish colonialism and French colonialism, and spoke against accepting any treaty with the Spanish protectorate in Morocco.

We have never recognized this protectorate and we never will. We wish to be our own rulers and to maintain and preserve our legal and indisputable rights; we will defend our independence by all means at our disposal and raise our protest before the Spanish nation and before its intelligent people, who we believe do not dispute the legality of our demands.

In the same event, several important points were agreed upon, including the independence of the Rif. Abd-el-Krim was named emir, a National Council of Notables was established, and September 18 was set as Independence Day. The payment of compensation by Spain to the Riffians affected by the Rif War and by the military occupation over the last twelve years was also adopted, along with foreign policy.^{[citation needed]}

Fall

France and Spain did not recognize the Republic and collaborated to destroy it. They sent in 200,000 soldiers, forcing Abd el-Krim to surrender in 1926. He was exiled in the Pacific until 1947. Morocco became quiet, and in 1936 became the base from which Francisco Franco launched the fascist coup of July 1936.^[15]

In 1921, local Rifians, under the leadership of Abd el-Krim, crushed a Spanish offensive led by General Manuel Fernández Silvestre at the Battle of Annual, and soon after declared the creation of an independent republic on 18 September 1921.^[16] The republic was formally constituted in 1923, with Abd el-Krim as head of state, and Ben Hajj Hatmi as prime minister.^[17]

Abd el-Krim handed the Spanish numerous defeats, driving them back to coastal outposts. With the war ongoing, he sent diplomatic representatives to London and Paris, in an ultimately futile attempt to establish legitimate diplomatic relations with other European powers.^{[citation needed]}

In late 1925, the French and Spanish created a joint task force of 500,000 men, supported by tanks and aircraft.^[18] After 1923, the Spanish employed the use of chemical weapons imported from Germany.^[19] The Republic was dissolved by Spanish and French occupation forces on 27 May 1926, but many Rif guerrillas continued to fight until 1927.^[20]

In April 1925, Abd el-Krim proclaimed the independent Republic in the Rif region of Spanish Morocco.^[21] He advanced south into French Morocco, defeating French forces and threatening the capital, Fes.^[22] The resident-general, Hubert Lyautey, was replaced as military commander by Philippe Pétain on 3 September 1925.^[23] On 11 October 1925, Théodore Steeg replaced Lyautey as resident-general with the mandate of restoring peace and making the transition from military to civilian government.^[24] Lyautey received very little recognition for his achievement in securing Morocco as a colony.^[25] Steeg would have been willing to give autonomy to the people of the Rif, but was overruled by the army.^[26]

Abd el-Krim surrendered to Philippe Pétain on 26 May 1926 and was deported to Réunion in the Indian Ocean, where he was held until 1947.^[27] Théodore Steeg said Abd el-Krim was a great leader and national and folk hero, but Abd el-Krim wanted "neither [to be] exalted nor humiliated, but in time forgotten."^[28]

Diplomacy

First, the establishment of friendly relations with all states. In this regard, we cite a letter written by the Riffian leaders to the Spanish, saying:

It surprises us that you ignore the interests of Spain itself by not making peace with the Rif through the recognition of its independence, and thus promoting good neighborly relations, instead of humiliating our people and ignoring all the humane and legal doctrines of universal law, as contained in the Treaty of Versailles signed after the Great War [the First World War].

The second point was the request for admission into the League of Nations (precursor to the United Nations). On this matter, we cite the famous letter addressed to the League of Nations by Arnall and Bujibar, who traveled to London in June 1922. This document, sent from London to the General Council on September 6, 1922, stated the following:

We, duly accredited representatives of the true Government of the Republic of the Rif, inform you that we have constituted a duly elected representative power, composed of deputies from forty-one tribes of the Rif and Ghomara. Among the most important points agreed upon, we have a duly elected representative assembly that governs our country in full conformity with the objectives of the League of Nations; second, we are willing to guarantee the rights of all nations in all areas related to commerce, and we will under no circumstances establish duties more burdensome than those set in other regions of Morocco; another point, we are willing to provide proof and guarantees demonstrating that we are capable of governing the country in the interest of peace and international trade.

The Riffian government, established according to modern ideas and the principles of western civilization, considers itself independent both politically and economically, with the privilege of enjoying our freedom as we have enjoyed it for centuries, and living just as other peoples live.

Finance

During the Rif War, President Abd el-Krim sought to modernize the administration of the newly declared Republic. Central to this was the establishment of a national financial system to assert sovereignty and move away from the Spanish peseta and Moroccan franc.^[32] To complete the organization of the state, M'hamed El Khattabi [fr], the President's brother, hired the English captain and financier Charles Alfred Percy Gardiner in 1923 to create the Bank of the Rif State, with authority to issue banknotes. The Englishman made many withdrawals of money for his own benefit, including supposed mines that did not exist and all kinds of agencies and services under monopoly control. This whole scheme fell apart shortly afterward, because Gardiner turned out to be an opportunistic swindler, without the material and financial means to carry out the provisions of the signed contract. Even so, as a singular initiative, and although the aforementioned state bank was never actually created, Gardiner sent to the Rif an unspecified quantity of one- and five-riffan banknotes that never circulated.^[33]