First Melillan campaign

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Melilla War
Part of the Spanish-Moroccan conflicts and Scramble for Africa
War in Morocco, Death of the Spanish General Margallo, from Le Petit Journal, 13 November 1893.
Date 9 November (de facto 3 October) 1893 – 25 April 1894 Location Rif, northern Morocco, near Melilla Result Spanish victory Treaty of Fez Territorial changes The Melilla hinterlands are ceded to Spain
Belligerents
Spain	Morocco Riffian tribes
Commanders and leaders
Martínez-Campos	Hassan I Baja al-Arbi Mimoun Mokhtar
Strength
25,000 regulars and militia	40,000 irregulars[1]
Casualties and losses
44 killed, 206 wounded[2]	More than 500 killed in November of 1893[3]

The First Melillan Campaign, also called the Melilla War or the Margallo War (after

The

After a period of escalating violence the war began in earnest on October 3 when 6,000 Riffian warriors armed with Remington rifles descended from the mountains and attacked the city's garrison of 400 regular infantry. The Spaniards fought a bloody daylong battle without relief, losing 21 dead and 100 wounded, while the citizens of Melilla fled to the citadel. Although a civilian corps was organized to aid in the defence, the weight of the attackers, whose ranks were swelled by tribesmen from the hills, compelled the last of the defenders to retire to the fortress.^{[citation needed]}

Lacking any form of heavy weaponry, the Riffians tried to take the citadel by storm, charging up the road ways and scaling the walls. Foreign observers described it as an act of gallant fury, but doomed to failure. The Spaniards held the ramparts with the bayonet and their gunfire swept the attackers from the walls. For the first time, Spanish soldiers wielded their formidable 7 mm Mauser Model 1893's, made famous a few years later at the Battle of San Juan Hill. 160 Riffians died. Spanish artillery was brought forward and used to good effect to bombard the Riffian assembling in neighbouring villages, but when an unlucky cannonade demolished a mosque outside of the city, the Riffian effort took on the character of a jihad. Riffians across the province, whatever their earlier sympathies, rushed to arms against Spain. By October 5 the native force numbered perhaps 12,000, some reports putting its strength as high as 20,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry.^{[citation needed]}

News of the attack brought war fever to Spain. The government dispatched the

From the outset Sultan Hassan recognized Spanish grievances and reaffirmed Spain's right to pursue construction of field works for its own protection. However, his reluctance to cooperate in pacifying his own subjects infuriated the Spanish government and people, who found themselves committed to military operations far exceeding their modest financial resources, on account, they believed, of Moroccan negligence.

On October 4 the ironclad Numancia shelled several villages along the coast. An artillery detachment from Málaga arrived in Melilla that same day. For several weeks the situation stagnated. Juan García y Magallo, Governor of Melilla and commander of the Spanish forces, issued an ineffective ultimatum while the Sultan dispatched a contingent of regular troops under Baja-el-Arbi to restore the situation, without success. Skirmishes were fought at forts Camellos and San Lorenzo. When the Riffians tore down the forts they'd captured, Margallo deployed small parties of infantry and workmen to throw up new earthworks at forts Cabrerizas and Rostro Gordo, under cover of the Spanish batteries.

On October 22 the gunboat

To dislodge the Riffians from the works near Cabrerizas and Rostro Gordo Margallo rode out on October 28 at the head of a column of 2,000 men. The Riffians in the trenches numbered about 3,000 men; both sides fought with courage but the Rif warriors held the line while their main body flocked 6,000 reinforcements to the battle. With this numerical superiority the Rif fighters extended their line in an attempt to envelop Margallo's Spaniards. The general, thinking he saw the enemy centre weaken, led a charge against the Riffian trenches and was thrown back with heavy losses.

Margallo sounded a retreat. He was shot dead moments later and his detachment collapsed. The Spanish Army admitted to at least 70 men killed and 122 wounded that day; actual losses were probably much higher. Only General Ortega's rearguard actions kept the retreat from becoming a rout.

News of the disaster, coupled with Ortega's

Among the survivors of Margallo's last sortie was a young Lieutenant named Miguel Primo de Rivera. Army investigations later revealed that Margallo had made a small fortune embezzling guns and materiel from the army and selling them for profit to the locals. Ironically, the Rif warriors may have shot him using the firearms that he had sold to them.

Early November found the besieged locked in a desperate struggle for survival. Large Rif forces held the beaches, frustrating the Spanish Navy's efforts to disembark horses, troops, and supplies. The Rif expanded their trenches around the city and set up fortified camps, blocking off all communication between the citadel and the outlying forts and destroying the roads between them. Only the desperate fighting of nighttime sorties kept the outposts supplied with water, rations, and munitions.

Still the defenders held out and heavy fire from the fortress checked Rif advances and kept the town clear of invaders. Spanish retaliation often took gruesome turns: convicts and penal labourers were assembled into search and destroy units led by army officers and crept out into the night to ambush Rif patrols. These units both terrified the Rif and captured the imagination of the foreign press with their conspicuous courage and brutality.

At the various forts activity continued without pause: the defenders had no lack of building materials, engineers, and manual labourers and managed to continue constructing their redoubts even while under siege. The Spanish lost 12 officers and 100 men during the month, while Rif losses were fixed at 500 dead, mostly from bombardment.

With the arrival of the

• Tetuán War
• Second Melillan campaign
• Kert campaign