Agadir Crisis

Agadir Crisis
Part of the causes of World War I
SMS Panther in the Bay of Agadir
Date July–November 1911 Location Agadir, Morocco Result Morocco–Congo Treaty Territorial changes France cedes territories of French Equatorial Africa to Kamerun (Neukamerun) Germany cedes a small territory of Kamerun to French Chad
Belligerents
France  United Kingdom  Spain	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Sir Edward Grey David Lloyd George	Alfred von Kiderlen-Waechter

Events leading to World War I
Unification of Germany 1866–1871 Franco-Prussian War 1870–1871 Second Concert of Europe 1871 Great Eastern Crisis 1875–1878 Campaign in Bosnia 1878 Dual Alliance 1879 Boer Wars 1880–1902 Austro–Serbian Alliance 1881–1903 Triple Alliance 1882 Berlin Conference 1884 Bulgarian Crisis 1885–1888 Reinsurance Treaty 1887–1890 Franco-Russian Alliance 1894 Anglo-German naval arms race 1898–1912 Fashoda incident 1898 Anglo-Japanese Alliance 1902 Russo-Japanese War 1904–1905 Entente Cordiale 1904 First Moroccan Crisis 1905–1906 Pig War 1906–1908 Anglo-Russian Convention 1907 Young Turk Revolution 1908 Bosnian Crisis 1908–1909 Racconigi Bargain 1909 Second Moroccan Crisis 1911 Italo-Turkish War 1911–1912 Balkan Wars 1912–1913 Assassination of Franz Ferdinand 1914 July Crisis 1914
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The Agadir Crisis, Agadir Incident, or Second Moroccan Crisis was a brief crisis sparked by the deployment of a substantial force of

France's pre-eminence in Morocco had been upheld by the 1906 Algeciras Conference, following the First Moroccan Crisis of 1905–06. France and Germany agreed on 9 February 1909 that while France would have exclusive political control, the two nations would uphold each other's economic interests in Morocco.^[4] In 1911 they forced the sultan to sign a new treaty wherein he promised not to sign any other treaties without French approval,^[5] arguably violating the earlier made agreements.

Germany's move was aimed at testing the relationship between Britain and France, and possibly intimidating Britain into an alliance with Germany.^[6] Germany was also enforcing compensation claims for acceptance of effective French control of Morocco.

Events

Moroccan Rebellion

In 1911, a rebellion broke out in

On 1 July, the German gunboat SMS Panther arrived at the port of Agadir, under the pretext of protecting German trade interests. The larger Bremen-class cruiser SMS Berlin came days later, replacing the gunboat.^[12] A German civilian, Hermann Wilberg, 110 kilometres (70 mi) to the north, was sent south to Agadir to provide a pretext for the arrival of the Panther, but he only reached Agadir three days after the ship had arrived.^[13] There was an immediate reaction from the French and the British.

German financial crisis

In the midst of this crisis, Germany was hit by financial turmoil. The stock market plunged by 30 percent in a single day,^[14] the public started cashing in currency notes for gold, and there was a run on the banks. The Reichsbank lost a fifth of its gold reserves in one month. It was rumored that the French finance minister had orchestrated this crisis.^[14] Faced with the possibility of being driven off the gold standard, the Kaiser backed down and let the French take over most of Morocco.^[15]

Negotiations

On 7 July, the German ambassador in Paris informed the French government that Germany had no territorial aspirations in Morocco, and would negotiate for a French protectorate on the basis of "compensation" for Germany in the French Congo region and the safeguarding of her economic interests in Morocco. The German terms, as presented on 15 July, while containing an offer to cede the northern part of Kamerun and Togoland, demanded from France the whole of the French Congo from the Sangha River to the sea, to which was later added the transfer of France's right to the preemption of the Belgian Congo.

On 21 July, David Lloyd George delivered a speech at the Mansion House, London in which he declared that national honour was more precious than peace: "If Britain is treated badly where her interests are vitally affected, as if she is of no account in the cabinet of nations, then I say emphatically that peace at that price would be a humiliation intolerable for a great country like ours to endure."^[16] The speech was interpreted by Germany as a warning that she could not impose an unreasonable settlement on France.^[17]

On 4 November, secret Franco-German negotiations between

French premier Caillaux's negotiations with the Germans were leaked, causing him to fall from office on 21 January 1912, after a term of only seven months.[19] In Germany, the Franco-German accord was also criticised – especially by the nationalist press – for giving Germany too little.^[19]

British involvement

The initial reaction in

The prospect of a German naval port on the Atlantic, however, allowed Grey to secure Cabinet's approval on 21 July to inform the German ambassador that Britain would respond forcefully to defend its interests. Britain sent battleships to Morocco, in case war broke out. As in the First Moroccan Crisis, British support of France showed the strength of the Entente Cordiale.^[20]

Divisions, however, became clear between the supports of the entente (Grey,

One consequence of the crisis was that the French viewed German policy as motivated by bluff: Raymond Poincaré, the premier succeeding Caillaux in early 1912, observed that 'whenever we have adopted a conciliatory approach to Germany... she has abused it; on the other hand, on each occasion when we have shown firmness, she has yielded', drawing the conclusion that Berlin would only understand a forceful response.^[23]

American historian Raymond James Sontag argued in 1933 that it was a comedy of errors that became a tragic prelude to the First World War:

The crisis seems comic – its obscure origin, the questions at stake, the conduct of the actors – indeed was comic. But the results were tragic. Tensions between France and Germany and between Germany and England have been increased; the armaments race received new impetus; the conviction that an early war was inevitable spread through the governing class of Europe.^[24]

With

The crisis led Britain and France to conclude a secret naval agreement by which the Royal Navy promised to protect the northern coast of France from German Navy attack, while France concentrated her fleet in the western Mediterranean and agreed to defend British interests there. France was thus able to guard her communications with her North African colonies, and Britain to concentrate more force in home waters to oppose the German High Seas Fleet.^[27] Britain also formed a Railway Executive Committee in order to rapidly mobilize in the event of a continental war.^[28]

German world historian Oswald Spengler was inspired by the episode to write his The Decline of the West. "The Agadir crisis of 1911, which suddenly raised the specter of a general European war and strikingly revealed the danger of Germany's encirclement by the Entente, crystallized Spengler's nascent vision of the future international political transformation of the West."^[29]

During the First World War, in 1916, Neukamerun returned to France. The territory today forms part of Chad, Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon.^[30] Established in 1912, the French protectorate in Morocco lasted until 1956.^[31]

See also

• Causes of World War I
• First Moroccan Crisis
• International relations (1814–1919)
• Pact of Cartagena
• Anglo-German naval arms race
• French–German enmity

References