The Moroccan Crises of 1906 and 1911 involved France, Germany, and Morocco. The First Crisis broke out due to Germany announcing their support for Moroccan independence, As Germany was unhappy with the amount of influence that France had in Morocco. A conference was held to discuss Morocco’s potential independence in Spain shortly after Germany’s announcement. However, Germany didn’t get her way, as France had more support from the other powers. France was reassured of her position in Morocco and Germany gained nothing. Following the first Moroccan Crisis, the second crisis broke out in 1911 due to France sending troops to Morocco in an effort to protect foreigners from violent uprisings and revolts that were happening in Fez. This action disregarded the agreement that the French had with the Germans. In reaction to this, Germany sent a gunboat to the french congo and took over part of the territory as compensation for the breach in agreement. France and Britain were displeased with Germany’s response, and Britain was readied for action. However, the crisis ended up blowing over by France giving Germany some of its territory in the Congo.
The Guidepost that will be addressed in this point focuses on the perspectives among historical actors participating in a given event. In this case, the perspectives that will be discussed are Germany’s, Britain’s and France’s.
Before Germany announced its support for Moroccan independence, there was a lot of disagreement between members of the German government as to whether or not it was a good idea to challenge France’s influence in Morocco. Some members thought that it shouldn’t be challenged as it might break up the alliance between France and Britain. However, others thought that it was a good time to settle Franco-German disagreements as Germany was the military superior at the time, and the crisis would lead to a successful beginning of a victorious war against the French for Germany. When Germany decided on supporting Morocco’s independence, Germany also hoped that it would weaken the Entente Cordiale and weaken France’s influence overseas.
France wasn’t happy with Germany’s attempt to weaken its influence in Morocco, and the French foreign minister, Théophile Delcassé, tried to hinder a conference from being held as France didn’t want to risk losing its influence overseas. However, France eventually gave in as they didn’t want to risk an outbreak of a European War.
Britain supported its ally, France, throughout both crises. It was in Britain’s interest to help France out because if a war broke out, Britain would need help from France, and France being powerful overseas as well as in Europe would help out Britain in a war. As both Britain and France became increasingly skeptical of Germany, they started planning a war against Germany in secret.
Citations:
“The First Moroccan Crisis.” History, A&E Television Networks, 5 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-first-moroccan-crisis.
“Second Moroccan Crisis.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 16 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/second-moroccan-crisis.
Condon “International Crises and the coming of War, 1905 -1914” Condon Chapter 2, p. 19-20.
Interesting. Germany’s perspective, France’s perspective, British perspective – and Marocco being the playball. It seems as if Morocco didn’t really matter, it was more about who´s the stronger, bigger actor, who has more influence over who.
I thought the divided German perspectives you mentioned were really interesting. However, I feel you could have evaluated them. For example, those holding the perspective that it was a good idea to provoke War; why not do this in a more direct way?
Its interesting how you took all of their perspective and explained what they had in mind. I think that you could have given your own analysis on this topic, putting your own input in it. You summarised it very wel, put more analysis, but overall very good.