The Spanish Legion (Spanish: Legión Española, La Legión), informally known as the Tercio or the Tercios, is a unit of the Spanish Army and Spain's Rapid Reaction Force. It was raised in the 1920s to serve as part of Spain's Army of Africa. The unit, which was established in January 1920 as the Spanish equivalent of the French Foreign Legion, was initially known as the Tercio de Extranjeros ("Tercio of foreigners"), the name under which it began fighting in the Rif War of 1920–1926. Although foreign recruitment spans the Spanish-speaking nations, the majority of recruits are Spaniards. Over the years, the force's name has changed from Tercio de Extranjeros to Tercio de Marruecos (when the field of operations targeted Morocco), and by the end of the Rif War it became the "Spanish Legion", wi