Agadir Crisis
The Agadir Crisis, Agadir Incident, or Second Moroccan Crisis was a brief crisis sparked by the deployment of a substantial force of French troops in the interior of Morocco in July 1911 and the deployment of the German gunboat SMS Panther to Agadir, a Moroccan Atlantic port.[1] Germany did not object to France's expansion but wanted territorial compensation for itself. Berlin threatened warfare, sent a gunboat, and stirred up German nationalists. Negotiations between Berlin and Paris resolved the crisis on 4 November 1911: France took over Morocco as a protectorate in exchange for territorial concessions to German Cameroon from the French Congo.[2]
In Britain, David Lloyd George, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, made a dramatic "Mansion House" speech on 21 July 1911 – with the consent of prime minister H. H. Asquith and Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey, bypassing the non-interventionist majority in the Cabinet – that denounced the German move as an intolerable humiliation.[2] There was talk of war and Germany backed down; relations between Berlin and London worsened and the British moved closer to France. Berlin felt humiliated and began to realize that it was operating with no allies against multiple adversaries.[3]
Background[edit]
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[edit]
Moroccan Rebellion[edit]
In 1911, a rebellion broke out in Morocco against Sultan Abd al-Hafid. The French—after forcing the Sultan to request their assistance—prepared to send troops to help put down the rebellion under the pretext of protecting European lives and property in Fèz.[7] Actual danger to European communities was remote: the rebellion broke out deep in the interior.[7] They dispatched a flying column at the end of April. On 5 June, the Spanish deployed troops to occupy Larache and Ksar el-Kebir, fearing a French annexation of the country.[8]
[edit]
Joseph Caillaux, then minister for Finance, assured German diplomats in May 1911 that 'France would be prepared, if the Germans recognized its vital interest in Morocco, to make concessions elsewhere'. On 20 June, France agreed to start negotiations. After ten days, they still had not responded.[9] It was then that Kiderlen-Waechter, the German Foreign Minister, asked Kaiser Wilhelm II for permission to send a gunboat,[10] having rejected the need to send two ships out of belief that French would be quickly willing to negotiate.[11]
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[edit]
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[edit]
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 Caillaux and the Germans led to a convention referred to as the Franco-German Accord,[18] under which Germany accepted France's position in Morocco in return for territory in the French Equatorial African colony of Middle Congo (now the Republic of the Congo), as outlined in the Morocco-Congo Treaty. This 275,000 km2 (106,000 sq mi) territory, known as Neukamerun, became part of the German colony of Kamerun. The area is partly marshland (where sleeping sickness was widespread) but gave Germany an outlet on the Congo River. Germany ceded to the French colony of Tchad a small area of territory to the southeast of Fort Lamy (now part of Chad).
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[edit]
The initial reaction in London was cautious: the Liberal government in Cabinet felt that France was largely responsible for triggering the crisis and ought therefore be urged to give ground.[20] The British government attempted to restrain France from adopting hasty measures and to dissuade her from sending troops. In April, the Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey wrote: "what the French contemplate doing is not wise, but we cannot under our agreement interfere".[21] When Cabinet authorised Grey to inform the French that Britain might accept a German presence in Morocco on 19 July, the French government replied angrily that any such acceptance would breach the 1904 Anglo-French Agreement.[20]
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, Lloyd George, and Asquith especially) and the non-interventionists (who made up a majority on the Cabinet). Lloyd George delivered the Mansion House speech on 21 July 1911, bypassing the Liberal non-interventionists in Cabinet. Viscount Morley, secretary of state for India, denounced the speech as an 'unwarranted and unfortunate provocation to Germany'; Lord Loreburn, the Lord Chancellor, entreated Grey to take a non-interventionist stance and disavow the speech. Later in the year, there was a backbench revolt against Grey,[22] which was unsuccessful.