up to 22,000 soldiers at Annual and in the subsequent fighting. The German historian Werner Brockdorff states that only 1,200 of the 20,000 Spanish troops escaped alive, but that estimate of losses is contradicted by the Spanish official inquiry. Rifian casualties were reportedly only 800. The final official figures for the Spanish death toll, both at Annual and during the subsequent rout which took Rifian forces to the outskirts of Melilla, were reported to the Cortes Generales as 13,192 killed, including Moroccan colonial forces. Materiel lost by the Spanish, in the summer of 1921 and especially in the Battle of Annual, included 11,000 rifles, 3,000 carbines, 1,000 muskets, 60 machine guns, 2,000 horses, 1,500 mules, 100 cannons, and a large quantity of ammunition. Abd el Krim remarked later: "In just one night, Spain supplied us with all the equipment which we needed to carry on a big war." Other sources give the booty seized by the Rifians as 20,000 Mauser rifles, 400 Hotchkiss machine guns, and 120 to 150 Schneider artillery pieces. Aftermath The political crisis brought about by this disaster led Indalecio Prieto to say in the Congress of Deputies: "We are at the most acute period of Spanish decadence. The campaign in Africa is a total, absolute failure of the Spanish Army, without extenuation." The Minister of War ordered the creation of an investigative commission, led by General Juan Picasso González, which developed the report known as Expediente Picasso. The report detailed numerous military mistakes, but the obstructive action of various ministers and judges made it not go so far as to lay political responsibility for the defeat. In all, the defeat is often thought of in Spain as the worst of the Spanish army in modern times. The disaster damaged morale among the remainder of the Spanish forces in Morocco, with officers starting to distrust their native auxiliaries about whom rumors of armed uprisings started to circulate. Among the Spanish people, there was despair and anger with the government over the defeat. Many Spaniards started to demand that Spain completely pull out of its remaining African colonies. The reasons for the crushing defeat may lie with Silvestre's tactical decisions and the fact that the bulk of the Spanish army was formed by poorly trained conscripts. Popular opinion widely placed the blame for the disaster upon King Alfonso XIII, who, according to several sources, had encouraged Silvestre's irresponsible