Britain, Spain and the War of Africa, 1859–1860

Abstract

In 1859, the Spanish army invaded Morocco, ostensibly in retaliation for an attack on a local garrison. Spain’s wider ambition was to build a substantial imperial presence in Africa and re-establish the country’s role as a European great power. However, the so-called War of Africa trespassed on vital British interests. Within six months of its launch, Britain, concerned that its command of the Western Mediterranean might be undermined by a permanent Spanish occupation of the northern Moroccan coast, brought the war to a humiliating end. Its ruthless use of diplomatic, commercial and military power during and after the war showed that Spain had lost its foreign policy and military sovereignty. The War of Africa provides unequivocal evidence of the exercise of informal imperial power: despite strong opposition from other European powers, Britain unilaterally dictated Spain’s foreign policy in order to pre-empt threats to its vital economic and strategic interests. In Spain, the war stimulated the development of a popular national consciousness in Spain, launched a revival of the country’s colonial ambitions and encouraged a growing resentment of foreign, and specifically British, interference in the nation’s sovereignty. All three developments were to reverberate through the politics of Spain for the next century.