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{{Short description|1911 diplomatic crisis}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = Agadir Crisis
| image             = SMS Panther.gif
| image_size        = 300
| caption           = {{SMS|Panther|1901|6}} in the Bay of [[Agadir]]
| date              = July–November 1911
| place             = [[Agadir]], [[Morocco]]
| result            = [[Morocco–Congo Treaty]]
| territory         = * France cedes territories of [[French Equatorial Africa]] to [[Kamerun]] ([[Neukamerun]])
* Germany cedes a small territory of Kamerun to [[French Chad]]
| combatant1        = {{plainlist|
* {{flagcountry|French Third Republic}}
* {{flagcountry|United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland}}
* {{flagcountry|Restoration (Spain)}}}}
| combatant2        = {{flagcountry|German Empire}}
| commander1        = {{plainlist|
* {{flagicon|United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland}} [[Sir Edward Grey]]
* {{flagicon|United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland}} [[David Lloyd George]]}}
| commander2        = {{flagicon|German Empire}} [[Alfred von Kiderlen-Waechter]]
| partof            = the [[causes of World War I]]
}}
{{Scramble for Africa}}
{{Events leading to World War I}}
The '''Agadir Crisis''', '''Agadir Incident''', or '''Second Moroccan Crisis''', was a brief crisis sparked by the deployment of a substantial force of [[French army|French troops]] in the interior of [[Morocco]] in July 1911 and the deployment of the German [[Gunboat#Steam era|gunboat]] {{SMS|Panther|1901|6}} to [[Agadir]], a Moroccan [[Atlantic]] port.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Agadir Incident {{!}} European history|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Agadir-Incident|access-date=2021-04-12|website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref> [[German Empire|Germany]] did not object to France's expansion but demanded "territorial compensation" for itself. [[Berlin]] threatened warfare, sent a gunboat and stirred up [[German nationalism|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]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Clark|first=Christopher|title=The Sleepwalkers|publisher=HarperCollins|year=2013|isbn=978-0-06-219922-5|pages=208–210|oclc=1002090920}}</ref>

In [[United Kingdom|Britain]], [[David Lloyd George]], then [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]], made a dramatic "[[Mansion House, London|Mansion House]]" speech on 21 July 1911—with the consent of prime minister [[H. H. Asquith]] and [[Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom)|Foreign Secretary]] [[Sir Edward Grey]], bypassing the non-interventionist majority in the [[Cabinet of the United Kingdom|Cabinet]]—that denounced the German move as an intolerable humiliation.<ref name=":0"/> 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 dimly realise that it was operating with few allies and antagonising multiple potential adversaries.{{sfn|Clark|2013|pp=204–213}}

==Background==
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.{{Sfn|Clark|2013|p=196}} In 1911 they forced the sultan to sign a new treaty wherein he promised not to sign any other treaties without French approval,<ref>GP XXIX, number 140, Affaires du Maroc VI, 332 ff</ref> arguably violating the earlier made agreements.

Germany's move was aimed at testing the relationship between Britain and [[French Third Republic|France]], and possibly intimidating Britain into an alliance with Germany.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kissinger |first=Henry |author-link=Henry Kissinger |title=Diplomacy |date=4 April 1995 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=0-671-51099-1 |pages=912}}</ref> Germany was also enforcing compensation claims for acceptance of effective French control of Morocco.

==Events==

===Moroccan Rebellion===
In 1911, a rebellion broke out in [[Morocco]] against Sultan [[Abd al-Hafid of Morocco|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 [[Fez, Morocco|Fèz]].{{Sfn|Clark|2013|p=195}} Actual danger to European communities was remote: the rebellion broke out deep in the interior.{{Sfn|Clark|2013|p=195}} They dispatched a [[flying column]] at the end of April. On 5 June, the Spanish deployed troops [[Larache landing|to occupy Larache]] and [[Ksar el-Kebir]], fearing a French annexation of the country.{{Sfn|Clark|2013|p=204}}

===German naval intervention===
[[Joseph Caillaux]], then French minister for Finance, assured German diplomats in May 1911 that "France would be prepared, if the Germans recognised 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.<ref>Fay (1930) 278–284.</ref> It was then that [[Alfred von Kiderlen-Waechter|Kiderlen-Waechter]], the German Foreign Minister, asked [[Kaiser Wilhelm II]] for permission to send a gunboat,<ref>Affaires du Maroc VI, 372 ff</ref> having rejected the need to send two ships out of belief that the French would be quickly willing to negotiate.{{Sfn|Clark|2013|p=207}}

On 1 July, the German gunboat {{SMS|Panther|1901|6}} arrived at the port of [[Agadir]], under the pretext of protecting German trade interests. The larger {{sclass|Bremen|cruiser}} {{SMS|Berlin}} came days later, replacing the gunboat.<ref>{{cite book|last=MacMillan|first=Margaret|title=The War that Ended Peace: The Road to 1914|publisher=Random House|year=2013|page=439}}</ref> A German civilian, [[Hermann Wilberg]], {{convert|110|km|-1}} 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.<ref>{{cite book|last=MacMillan|first=Margaret|title=The War that Ended Peace: The Road to 1914|publisher=Random House|year=2013|page=440}}</ref> 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,<ref name="LAhamed"/> 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 rumoured that the French finance minister had orchestrated this crisis.<ref name="LAhamed">{{Cite book |last=Ahamed |first=Liaquat |title=Lords of Finance |publisher=Windmill Books |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-09-949308-2 |location=London |pages=43}}</ref> Faced with the possibility of being driven off the [[gold standard]], the Kaiser backed down and let the French take over most of Morocco.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=UŢĂ|first=Cristian|date=2014-09-30|title=Liaqust Ahamed Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World|journal=Annals of "Spiru Haret". Economic Series|volume=14|issue=3|pages=73|doi=10.26458/1438|issn=2393-1795|doi-access=free}}</ref>

===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."{{Sfn|Clark|2013|pp=209–210}} The speech was interpreted by Germany as a warning that she could not impose an unreasonable settlement on France.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wilson|first=Keith|date=1972|title=The Agadir Crisis, the Mansion House Speech, and the Double-Edgedness of Agreements|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2637768|journal=The Historical Journal|volume=15|issue=3|pages=513–532|doi=10.1017/S0018246X00002806|jstor=2637768|s2cid=159528772 |issn=0018-246X|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

On 4 November, secret Franco-German negotiations between [[Joseph Caillaux|Caillaux]] and the Germans led to a convention referred to as the [[Franco-German Accord (November 4, 1911)|Franco-German Accord]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zimmermann |first=Maurice |date=1912 |title=L'accord franco-allemand du 4 novembre 1911 au sujet du Maroc et du Congo |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/geo_0003-4010_1912_num_21_116_7205 |journal=Annales de géographie |language=fr-FR |volume=21 |issue=116}}</ref> 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 {{cvt|275000|km2}} territory, known as [[Neukamerun]], became part of the [[German colonial empire|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 colonial empire|French colony]] of [[French Chad|Tchad]] a small area of territory to the southeast of [[N'Djamena|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.{{sfn|Clark|2013|p=208}} In Germany, the Franco-German accord was also criticised—especially by the nationalist press—for giving Germany too little.{{sfn|Clark|2013|p=208}}

===British involvement===
The initial reaction in [[London]] was cautious: the Liberal government in Cabinet felt that [[French Third Republic|France]] was largely responsible for triggering the crisis and ought therefore be urged to give ground.{{Sfn|Clark|2013|p=209}} The British government attempted to restrain France from adopting hasty measures and to dissuade her from sending troops. In April, the [[Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs|Foreign Secretary]] [[Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon|Sir Edward Grey]] wrote: "what the French contemplate doing is not wise, but we cannot under our agreement interfere".<ref>Quoted in M.L. Dockrill, ''British Policy During the Agadir Crisis of 1911'' from F.H. Hinsley, ''British Foreign Policy Under Sir Edward Grey'' (Cambridge, 1977), p. 271.</ref> When Cabinet authorised Grey to inform the French that Britain might accept a [[German Empire|German]] presence in [[Morocco]] on 19 July, the French government replied angrily that any such acceptance would breach the [[Entente Cordiale|1904 Anglo-French Agreement]].{{Sfn|Clark|2013|p=209}}

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]].{{Sfn|Clark|2013|p=209}}

Divisions, however, became clear between the supporters of the entente (Grey, [[Lloyd George]] and [[H. H. Asquith|Asquith]] especially) and the non-interventionists (who made up a majority of the Cabinet). Lloyd George delivered the Mansion House speech on 21 July 1911, bypassing the Liberal non-interventionists in Cabinet. [[John Morley|Viscount Morley]], [[Secretary of State for India|secretary of state]] for [[British Raj|India]], denounced the speech as an 'unwarranted and unfortunate provocation to Germany'; [[Robert Reid, 1st Earl Loreburn|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,{{Sfn|Clark|2013|pp=210–212}} which was unsuccessful.

==Aftermath==
[[File:Colonial Africa 1913 map.svg|thumb|300px|[[Scramble for Africa]]. Areas of Africa controlled by [[History of colonialism|European colonial powers]] in 1913: [[Belgian colonial empire|Belgium]] (yellow), [[British Empire#Cape to Cairo|United Kingdom]] (salmon), [[French colonial empire|France]] (blue), [[German colonial empire|Germany]] (turquoise), [[Italian Empire|Italy]] (green), [[Portuguese Empire|Portugal]] (purple) and [[Spanish Empire|Spain]] (pink) empires. The only independent states were [[Liberia]] and [[Abyssinia|Ethiopia]] (grey).]]

One consequence of the crisis was that the [[French Third Republic|French]] viewed [[German Empire|German]] policy as motivated by bluff: [[Raymond Poincaré]], the premier succeeding [[Joseph Caillaux|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.{{sfn|Clark|2013|pp=208–209}} Kissinger labels the risk-taking in this crisis used to appease the nationalism-inclined journalists and agitated public while disregarding the true interests at stake elsewhere as "[[strategic frivolity]]".{{sfn | Kissinger | 2015 | pp=80–81}}
 
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]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sontag |first=Raymond James |author-link=Raymond James Sontag |title=European diplomatic history, 1871–1932 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |year=1995 |isbn=0-07-059678-6 |location=New York |pages=160 |oclc=45825411 |orig-year=1933}}</ref>

With [[Abd al-Hafid of Morocco|Abd al-Hafid]]'s capitulation and signing of the [[Treaty of Fez|Treaty of Fes]] (30 March 1912), France established a full [[French protectorate in Morocco|protectorate]] over [[Morocco]], ending what remained of that country's formal independence. [[British Empire|British]] backing of France during the crisis reinforced the Entente between the two countries (and with [[Russian Empire|Russia]] as well), increasing Anglo-German estrangement, deepening the divisions which would culminate in the [[First World War]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barraclough |first=Geoffrey |author-link=Geoffrey Barraclough |title=From Agadir to Armageddon : anatomy of a crisis |publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicolson |year=1982 |location=London |oclc=560333488}}</ref>

This incident led Britain's [[Home Secretary]] [[Winston Churchill]] to conclude the [[Royal Navy]] must convert its power source from [[coal]] to [[Petroleum|oil]], to preserve its supremacy. Until then, the [[Coal mining in the United Kingdom|locally abundant coal]] was favoured over imported oil (mostly from [[Qajar Iran|Persia]]), but the speed and efficiency offered by oil convinced him that "Mastery itself was the prize of the venture." Subsequently, Churchill was asked by Prime Minister [[H. H. Asquith]] to become [[Board of Admiralty|First Lord of the Admiralty]], which he accepted.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yergin |first=Daniel |author-link=Daniel Yergin |url=https://archive.org/details/prizeepicques00yerg |title=The Prize : The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power |date=1 January 1993 |publisher=Free Press |isbn=0-671-79932-0 |pages=928 |url-access=registration}} pp. 11–12, 153–154</ref>

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 [[Imperial German Navy|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 [[French North Africa|North African colonies]], and Britain to concentrate more force in home waters to oppose the German High Seas Fleet.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hamilton|first=Keith A.|date=1987|title=The 'Wild Talk' of Joseph Caillaux: A Sequel to the Agadir Crisis|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40107237|journal=The International History Review|volume=9|issue=2|pages=195–226|doi=10.1080/07075332.1987.9640440|jstor=40107237|issn=0707-5332|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Britain also formed a [[Railway Executive Committee]] in order to rapidly mobilise in the event of a continental war.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hastings|first=Max|title=Catastrophe 1914: Europe goes to war|date=2013|isbn=978-0-307-59705-2|edition=First American|location=New York|oclc=828893101}}</ref>

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 spectre of a general European war and strikingly revealed the danger of Germany's encirclement by the Entente, crystallised Spengler's nascent vision of the future international political transformation of the West."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Farrenkopf |first=John |title=Prophet of Decline : Spengler on world history and politics |date=2001 |publisher=Louisiana State University Press |isbn=0-8071-2653-5 |pages=12 |oclc=462269293}}</ref>

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]].<ref>Neba 4–5.</ref> Established in 1912, the [[French protectorate in Morocco]] lasted until 1956.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Morocco {{!}} History, Map, Flag, Capital, & Facts|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Morocco|access-date=2021-04-12|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref>

== 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 ==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*  Anderson, Frank Maloy and Amos Shartle Hershey, eds. ''Handbook for the Diplomatic History of Europe, Asia, and Africa 1870–1914'' (1918) [https://web.archive.org/web/20071028152339/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/boshtml/bos137.htm online], brief summary
* Barlow, Ima Christina. ''The Agadir Crisis'' (University of North Carolina Press, 1940).
* [[Barraclough, Geoffrey]]. ''From Agadir to Armageddon: anatomy of a crisis'' (1982). [https://archive.org/details/fromagadirtoarma0000barr online]
* {{cite book|title=Colonialism: An International Social, Cultural, and Political Encyclopedia|year = 2003|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qFTHBoRvQbsC&pg=PA8|publisher=ABC-CLIO|page=8|isbn = 9781576073353}}
* Brandenburg, Erich. (1927) ''From Bismarck to the World War: A History of German Foreign Policy 1870–1914'' (1927) [https://web.archive.org/web/20170315175229/http://www.dli.ernet.in/handle/2015/12322 online].
* Carroll, E. Malcolm. ''French Public Opinion and Foreign Affairs 1870–1914'' (1931). [https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015069649799 online] pp 231–251.
* Carroll, E. Malcolm. ''Germany and the great powers, 1866–1914: A study in public opinion and foreign policy'' (1938) [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002369133;view=1up;seq=6 online] {{ISBN?}}, pp 643–699
* Clark, Christopher. ''Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914'' (2012), pp 204–214. [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780061146657 online]
* Fay, Sidney Bradshaw. ''The Origins of the World War'' (Vol. 1. Macmillan, 1930) pp 277–293. [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.176432 online]
* Gooch, G.P. ''History of modern Europe, 1878–1919'' (2nd ed. 1956) pp 386–413. [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.125610 online], diplomatic history
* {{cite book |last=Kissinger |first=Henry |title=World Order |publisher=Penguin Publishing Group |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-14-312771-0 |author-link=Henry Kissinger |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ILfaCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA80 |access-date=2024-05-29}}
* Marder, Arthur. ''From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow: Volume I: The Road to War 1904–1914'' (Oxford UP, 1961) pp 239–246, the role of British Royal Navy
* Nicolson, Harold. ''King George V'' (1953) pp 177–193. [https://archive.org/details/kinggeorgefifthh00nico online]
* Somervell, D.C. ''The Reign of King George V,'' (1936) pp 229–238.[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.176466 online free]
* Spender, J.A. ''Fifty years of Europe: a study in pre-war documents'' (1933) pp 329–340.
* Wilson, Keith. "The Agadir Crisis, the Mansion House Speech, and the Double-Edgedness of Agreements." ''Historical Journal'' 15#3 (1972): 513–532.

{{Great power diplomacy}}
{{Franco-Spanish conquest of Morocco}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:French Third Republic]]
[[Category:Foreign relations of the German Empire]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1911]]
[[Category:German colonisation in Africa]]
[[Category:Colonial history of Cameroon]]
[[Category:European colonisation of Africa]]
[[Category:History of Agadir|Crisis, Agadir]]
[[Category:1911 in France]]
[[Category:1911 in Germany]]
[[Category:1911 in Morocco]]
[[Category:1912 in Morocco]]
[[Category:1912 in France]]
[[Category:1912 in Germany]]
[[Category:1911 in international relations]]
[[Category:1912 in international relations]]
[[Category:David Lloyd George]]
[[Category:Diplomatic crises of the 20th century]]
[[Category:France–Germany relations]]
[[Category:France–United Kingdom relations]]
[[Category:France–Spain relations]]
[[Category:Cameroon–France relations]]
[[Category:Cameroon–Germany relations]]
[[Category:Germany–Spain relations]]
[[Category:Germany–United Kingdom relations]]
[[Category:France–Morocco relations]]
[[Category:Germany–Morocco relations]]
[[Category:Spain–United Kingdom relations]]
[[Category:Cameroon–Chad relations]]