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What happened to the Spanish territory in the Rif after the Battle of Annual?

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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.

Following the Battle of Annual in July 1921, Spain suffered a catastrophic military collapse. Within weeks, Spanish forces lost all the territory they had occupied in the region since 1909, retreating in disorder toward Melilla. This rout resulted in the deaths of 8,000 to 10,000 Spanish troops and the abandonment of significant weaponry.123

In the power vacuum that followed, Abd el-Krim and his followers moved to consolidate control, eventually establishing the Republic of the Rif in 1923. By early 1925, Abd el-Krim controlled approximately three-fourths of the Spanish protectorate, where he implemented a centralized bureaucracy, a Muslim legal code, and new infrastructure.23

While Spain initially attempted to regain lost ground, the war became increasingly unpopular and costly, leading to a stalemate. In 1924, the Spanish government under Miguel Primo de Rivera ordered a strategic withdrawal from isolated western positions to a fortified line near Tetuán, further ceding territory to Rifian forces before a joint Spanish-French offensive eventually ended the conflict in 1926.23