322 LUIS EUGENIO TOGORES SÁNCHEZ
ABSTRACT
The defeat of the Spanish troops at Annual was a major disaster.
Annual was not a unique, singular, purely Spanish-only event. European
nations that had colonial possessions and that fought to keep them or to
increase them repeatedly experienced their own Annuals. England, France,
Italy sustained defeats overseas very similar to those suffered by Spain in
Morocco. Alfonso XIII´s monarchy, in the 1920s, saw how the military operations
in its Moroccan protectorate were paralyzed by General Silvestre´s
defeat in the area of Melilla. But as a consequence of this reverse, a slow,
very slow process began to regain the initiative in Morocco and put an end
once and for all to this colonial war. The Pizarra conference discussed for
the first time how to solve the Moroccan problem, and although what was
agreed there did not have great transcendence in practice, it marked the first
decisions that would lead to the landing at Al Hoceima and the definitive
pacification of the Protectorate in 1927.
KEY WORDS: Annual, Pizarra, Berenguer, Abd el-Krim, Maura, Beniurriaguel.
* * * * *
Los otros Annual
A lo largo de la Era del Imperialismo varias naciones europeas, potencias
militares e industriales, sufrieron aparatosas derrotas que
humillaron a sus ejércitos pero en ningún caso pusieron en peligro
la pervivencia de sus imperios coloniales. Derrotas que, más tarde o más
temprano, supusieron un revulsivo para que dieran un nuevo paso adelante
en el acrecentamiento y consolidación de sus posesiones de ultramar.
En la India, durante la revuelta de los cipayos de 1857, tras las derrotas
en Delhi y Cawnpore, las tropas de la reina Victoria sometieron al país.
La India paso de depender de la Compañía de las Indias Orientales a directamente
de la Corona. Se consolidaba la simiente del imperio británico en la
India, la Joya de la Corona. En esta primera gran guerra colonial se empiezan
a unir dos factores que se iban a producir hasta el comienzo de la desco
Revista de Historia Militar, I extraordinario de 2021, pp. 322-348. ISSN: 0482-5748