 But in the Spanish–American War, Spain lost Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, and in 1899 it sold the Mariana and Caroline Islands to Germany, retaining only some footholds on the Moroccan coast and Spanish Guinea.To compensate for the lost empire in the Americas and Asia, there emerged a powerful "Africanist" faction in Spain led by Alfonso, who wanted a new empire in Africa.Finally, the Roman Catholic Church was politically powerful in Spain, and much of the Spanish clergy preached the need for new crusade to continue the "Reconquista" by conquering Morocco, thus adding their voices to the "Africanist" choir.