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How did British concerns about Gibraltar influence the creation of the Spanish protectorate in Morocco?

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Spanish soldiers operate artillery cannons in a desert landscape near Melilla, with smoke billowing as a cannon fires during a 1930s battle. — Rif War Spanish artillery firing outside Melilla during the Rif War.

British concerns regarding the security of their strategic base at Gibraltar were a primary driver in the creation of the Spanish protectorate in Morocco.1

Following the establishment of the French protectorate in Morocco in March 1912, the British government insisted that a buffer zone be created between French North Africa and the British-controlled territory of Gibraltar. To satisfy this requirement, the French granted Spain a protectorate "sublease" of approximately 7,700 square miles (20,000 square km) along Morocco's Mediterranean coast in November 1912.1

This arrangement served two purposes: it provided the necessary buffer to protect British interests at the entrance to the Mediterranean, and it allowed Spain to reestablish a colonial presence in the region following its losses in the Spanish-American War of 1898. The resulting Spanish Zone was contiguous with Spain's long-held enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, further solidifying the regional power balance favored by Britain.1