Agadir Crisis

The Agadir Crisis, Agadir Incident, or Second Moroccan Crisis was a brief crisis sparked by the deployment of a substantial force of <a href="/facts/French_army/NCnjovlu">French troops</a> in the interior of <a href="/facts/Morocco/6ly8170M">Morocco</a> in July 1911 and the deployment of the German <a href="/facts/Gunboat/J8q4Iglu">gunboat</a> <a href="/facts/SMS_Panther_(1901)/6MSBhNvs">SMS Panther</a> to <a href="/facts/Agadir/4AzrFPtM">Agadir</a>, a Moroccan <a href="/facts/Atlantic_Ocean/EI4uChIb">Atlantic</a> port. <a href="/facts/German_Empire/lwQutJyN">Germany</a> did not object to France's expansion but demanded “territorial compensation” for itself. <a href="/facts/Berlin/pMTIRNXK">Berlin</a> threatened warfare, sent a gunboat and stirred up <a href="/facts/German_nationalism/qSNpIxWj">German nationalists</a>. Negotiations between Berlin and Paris resolved the crisis on 4 November 1911: France took over Morocco as a <a href="/facts/Protectorate/TEBGopb9">protectorate</a> in exchange for territorial concessions to <a href="/facts/Kamerun/XXta3PHe">German Cameroon</a> from the <a href="/facts/French_Congo/nMjzmt21">French Congo</a>.
In <a href="/facts/United_Kingdom/kuPAILt2">Britain</a>, <a href="/facts/David_Lloyd_George/8J8gwEhu">David Lloyd George</a>, then <a href="/facts/Chancellor_of_the_Exchequer/KlgE2uFn">Chancellor of the Exchequer</a>, made a dramatic "<a href="/facts/Mansion_House,_London/bm5QaTMX">Mansion House</a>" speech on 21 July 1911 – with the consent of prime minister <a href="/facts/H._H._Asquith/PBNVY1Pt">H. H. Asquith</a> and <a href="/facts/Foreign_Secretary_(United_Kingdom)/K4Sr7QwU">Foreign Secretary</a> <a href="/facts/Sir_Edward_Grey/JPSrm7mS">Sir Edward Grey</a>, bypassing the non-interventionist majority in the <a href="/facts/Cabinet_of_the_United_Kingdom/TeaChH7c">Cabinet</a> – that denounced the German move as an intolerable humiliation. 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 realize that it was operating with few allies and antagonizing multiple potential adversaries.

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Agadir Crisis