The Republic of the Rif (Tarifit: Tagduda n Arrif, Arabic: جمهورية الريف Jumhūriyya ar-Rīf), officially The Rifian People's Democratic Republic, also known simply as the Rif, was a confederate republic in the Rif, a region in northern Morocco, that existed between 1921 and 1926. It was created in September 1921, when the local people of the area revolted, declaring their independence from Spanish colonization, as well as from Sultan Yusef. The French would intervene on the side of Spain in the later stages of the conflict. The Rif was the last sovereign republic in Morocco to date. A protracted struggle for independence killed many Riffians and Spanish–French soldiers, and witnessed the use of chemical weapons by the Spanish army—their first widespread deployment since the end of the Great War. The eventual Spanish–French victory was owed to the technological and manpower advantages enjoyed by the colonizers, in spite of their lack of morale and coherence. Following the war's end, the Rif Republic was ultimately dissolved in 1926.