Reconstruction Era
France Outre-Mer and the Spanish-Moroccan War
"After the collapse of the Third Republic, the French survivors retreated to Algeria, Tunisia, and West Africa. President Prince Phillipe had first, established the provisional government in Marseilles. He refused to leave mainland France until the last ship left southern France. The president made sure that the Mediterranean coast of France was properly garrisoned and supplied. As the last ship was prepared to bring President Prince Phillipe to Algiers, he created the position of High Commissioner of the Metropole and Commander of the French Army of the Interior. It would be the last time President Prince Phillipe would look upon the French mainland."
"On Christmas Day, 1884, President Prince Phillipe's ship sailed into the harbour of Algiers. His family was with him, and when they disembarked from the ship, a great crowd of French exiles, pied-noirs, and Algerians had gathered across the city. Many in the crowd were waving the Tricolore. But there were those that also waved the white flag of the monarchy. When Prince Phillipe and his family arrived at the Summer Palace, both the Tricolore and the white flag with golden fluer-de-lys flew over the palace. The provisional government had been busy when they arrived in Algiers to enhance Prince Phillipe's popularity among the exiles and the colonials. Granted his own decision to take the last ship from France also helped cement his legend as "a man of the people" and the "people's prince." As his carriage pulled up to the Summer Palace, the crowds could be heard chanting "Roi, Roi, Roi!" As Prince Phillipe met with his ministers who stood at the front of the Palace, his Minister of the Interior and later Chief Minister, General Georges Ernest Boulanger, stepped forward and asked the crowd if they would accept President Prince Phillipe as the King of France and Algiers. The crowd cheered yes. Prince Phillipe would be crowned King Phillipe VII on New Years Day in Notre Dame d'Afrique and his son Phillipe, Duke of Orleans was given the title of Dauphin. The National Assembly was re-established with two houses; the lower house or Chamber of Deputies, and the upper house; the Chamber of Peers. The Chamber of Deputies was popularly elected positions, while the Chamber of Peers were appointed by the king, usually nobility, native chiefs, Catholic Church bishops and retired military and political men. The Chief Minister is appointed by the king, but most of the time, the king chooses a member of the Chamber of Deputies who has the confidence of the lower house. The national flag of France became the well-beloved Tricolore, while the white flag of the monarchists became the King's personal banner."
"King Phillipe VII's reign was marked by economic restoration, with building new infrastructure, expansion of the cities of Algiers, Oran, Constantine, Tunis, Bone, and Tlemcen, as well as the re-settlement of Four Communes of Senegal. The great cities of France-Outremer would be connected by a well-built but small rail system. To connect with the colonies in West Africa, the French Navy, the troupes de marine, and the Foreign Legion battled corsair emirs in the Canary Islands and the Azores. The arable land in Algeria would be divided into a seigneurial system. The seigneur would rent their lands to tenants known as habitants. The habitants would clear the land, build homes and other buildings and farm the land. Every estate would be required to have a shared mill, a church and school and a postal office built by the habitants. The sons of the seigneurs and habitants would be required to serve within the French military for a time. French citizenship was divided into two forms; one was based on if one was born to French citizens, spoke French and was baptised Roman Catholic, while the other was awarded based off service to the French crown and people in the form of military or public service."
"King Phillipe VII would die in Algiers in 1894 a celebrated man. Mourners from across France and the Mediterranean would come to attend his funeral in Algiers, including Muslim sultans, Tuareg chieftains, the Kings of Italy and Greece, the Tsar of Bulgaria and Princess Maria of Asturias. The Pope himself presided over the funeral. King Phillipe VII's would lay in state before he was entombed in Notre Dame. His son was crowned King Phillipe VIII and would be tested early in his reign. As the monarch to herald in the 20th century for France, it was believed he would build on top of his father's achievements and restore France's position as a great power. That test came in the form of Sultan Abd al-Hafid of Morocco. The Sultan saw the weakness of the European powers, especially Spain and sought to rebuild the Caliphate of Cordoba. His father had already seized the Spanish cities in Africa, and had considered an invasion before his death."
"In the spring of 1901, Moroccan forces crossed the Strait of Gibraltar, seized the Rock and began to push into Andalusia. Much of his fleet were made up of the island corsairs. Sultan Abd al-Hafid was a shrewd and calculated man. He invaded Spain and had hoped a rapid advance would bring the newly crowned Queen Maria I to the negotiation table. But to keep her relations in Algiers from coming to her aid, Sultan Abd al-Hafid used his position as the preeminent religious figure of Islam in North Africa to rouse the Tuareg tribes and Muslim dissenters against King Phillipe VIII and King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy. If the great Catholic powers were busy with battles in their own realms, they won't be able to reinforce the Spanish. Within a few weeks of the war beginning, Cordoba fell to the Morrocans, and Sultan Abd-al-Hafid would walk in the old Mosque of Cordoba. Andalusia would fall, and the Moroccans made two pushes for the Spanish capital in Toledo, and the port city of Valencia."
"King Phillipe VIII had not been idle in the years leading up to the war, however. The Deuxieme Bureau, the French intelligence service, had discovered the Moroccan plans for Spain and had made plans accordingly. Rebel cells were hunted down and arrested, dissenter newspapers were censored and Moroccan spies were silently removed. When war did erupt, the Tuareg brigands would find no great uprising in France Outre-Mer. Instead, they would find the guns of the French military. The Tuaregs were shattered in the opening weeks of the war, with many pulling back to either the Sahara Desert or to Morocco to join with what forces the Sultan had left to guard his flank from the French. The Italians had a harder time when native Libyans rose up against Rome. While King Phillipe VIII redeployed the main French forces to the Moroccan border, he also put together an expeditionary force from across the French empire. At the core of the French expeditionary force was the Foreign Legion, the elite force of the French Army. A member of the Foreign Legion was Jean of Orleans and son of the Duke of Chartes. His father was the uncle of King Phillipe VIII and was his heir as the King and Queen still hadn't had a child. Jean of Orleans was able to marry for love as it wasn't expected that he would ever succeed as king. So he married an Arab woman named Amira, the daughter of a wealthy Muslim merchant. She would convert to Roman Catholicism after marrying Jean. She was considered to be incredibly beautiful and quickly became the people's favourite royal. She earned much of the people's good will due to her charities as well as helping those in need. It was quite common for Jean and Amira to stop their carriage and serve soup to the homeless, or give money to orphanages. Amira would even read to orphans on Fridays, usually from the Quran and the Bible. When war began with Morocco, the young 26-year-old Jean joined the Foreign Legion and went to Spain. Amira and their son, Henri would wave to him at the docks as his ship sailed away."
"The French expeditionary force would land at Valenica, and would be deployed to the front lines. The Moroccan army had only been a few miles from Valencia. However, the Spanish had dug in at the Segura river. The defences that the Spanish had erected were able to stop the Moroccans. The Battles of Segura were the longest and largest of the war. Many future Spanish officers had earned acclaim in those battles such as Jose Sanjurjo, and Miguel Primo de Rivera. While the Spanish could hold the Moroccans at the Segura, they didn't have the strength to push them back. However, word had reached Fez that the French were joining the war and sending reinforcements. So the Moroccans began a final offensive to force a crossing at the Segura. The offensive did break through at some points along the line, forcing the Spanish back, but the line was eventually strengthened as the French forces arrived. These battles were incredibly fierce. French curved Mamluk sabres and Spanish straight swords would cross with Moroccan scimitars. Jean of Orleans would be injured in the fighting and would lose an eye. He would wear a patch in the colours of France for the rest of his life. The last Battle of Segura would end when word had been sent to the general of the Moroccan force that they had to abandon their advance. Events beyond Segura had changed the war. The French forces in North Africa had broken Sultan Abd al-Hafid's forces at the border, while the French Navy had broken the Moroccan navy. Word had also come that the Italians were sending their navy to reinforce the French and a blockade would keep the Moroccans from either escaping or reinforcing Spain. So the Moroccans had begun a fighting retreat to the southern coast and hopefully cross the Straits before the blockade was in place. This would not happen, as the Franco-Italian fleets would destroy the Moroccan corsairs and landing ships, as well as land marines across the south. From Toledo, the Spanish Army began to chase the second Moroccan army from the city. Sultan Abd al-Hafid would be forced to abandon Cordoba without a fight, and made his headquarters at Gibraltar. The last great battle of the war would take place at the Rock. Sultan Abd al-Hafid was unable to return to Morocco and was forced to withstand a siege. However, his forces had already been decimated, the flower of the Moroccan military had either been killed in battle or were now penned up in Gibraltar. His capital of Fez would also be placed under siege by French guns. Soon enough, Abd al-Hadif's brother Yusef would orchestrate a coup and was crowned Sultan Yusef of Morocco. Yusef would demand that his brother surrender, but Abd al-Hadif would declare his brother and his followers traitors. He proclaimed that he and his men in Gibraltar would either fight to the death or break out and return to Morocco. His men, however, didn't have the same nerve as their now-deposed sultan. Many were tired of war and just wanted to return home. Queen Maria, and the other allied commanders sent word to Gibraltar that they would allow all to return to Morocco unmolested if they surrendered. In the night, Abd al-Hafid was captured by his own men as they mutinied. They brought the ex-sultan to Queen Maria along with their surrender. There is a striking painting at the University of Toledo of Sultan Abd al-Hadif kneeling before Queen Maria in the uniform of a Spanish Captain-General. It reminds many of the painting of the last Muslim Sultan of Granada before King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1492. The Spanish-Moroccan War of 1901-1904 was over. Its legacy, however was profound. It solidified an alliance between Toledo, Algiers, and eventually Rome. Sultan Yusef would send Queen Maria an annual payment to keep Abd al-Hadif as a prisoner. Morocco would also be forced to hand over the former Spanish enclaves of Ceuta, and Mellila, while Tangiers was given to France. Morocco would also be forced to cease funding the Moorish corsairs in the Canary Islands and the Azores as well as the Tuaregs in the Sahara. It would take years after, but the Franco-Spanish navies would eventually take back the Canaries and the Azores, ending the threat of the corsairs. Yusef agreed to these terms as he knew it was either that or vassalage to Algiers, Rome and Toledo. The French expeditionary force would return to Algiers as heroes, including Jean of Orleans who was awarded the Legion of Honour by King Phillipe VIII himself. Jean would be granted the title of Vicomte of El Oudienne, and made Chevalier of the Order of the Magreb. King Phillipe VIII himself, would be continue to rule France Outre-Mer until 1926. By that time, his heir, the Duke of Chartes had died, leaving Jean of Orleans to take the throne as Jean III. His descendants continue to rule France to this day."
