Algeciras Conference

Last updated

Algeciras Conference
To ratify European intervention in Morocco following the First Moroccan Crisis
AlgecirasConference1906.jpg
El-Hadj el-Mokri, Moroccan Ambassador to Spain, signs the treaty at the Algeciras Conference 7 April, 1906.
Signed7 April 1906
Location Algeciras, Spain
Sealed18 June 1906
Signatories
Languages French, English and Spanish

The Algeciras Conference [lower-alpha 1] of 1906 took place in Algeciras, Spain, and lasted from 16 January to 7 April. The purpose of the conference was to find a solution to the First Moroccan Crisis of 1905 between France and Germany, which arose as Germany responded to France's effort to establish a protectorate over the independent state of Morocco. [1] Germany was not trying to stop French expansion. Its goal was to enhance its own international prestige, and it failed badly. [2] The result was a much closer relationship between France and Britain that strengthened the Entente Cordiale since both London and Paris were increasingly suspicious and distrustful of Berlin. [3] An even more momentous consequence was the heightened sense of frustration and readiness for war in Germany that spread beyond the political elite to much of the press and most of the political parties except for the Liberals and Social Democrats on the left.

Contents

The Pan-German element grew in strength, denounced the government's retreat as treason and stepped up chauvinistic support for war. [4]

Background

Scramble for Africa. Areas of Africa controlled by European colonial powers in 1913 (Belgian (yellow), British (salmon), French (blue), German (turquoise), Italian (green), Portuguese (purple), and Spanish (pink) Empires) Colonial Africa 1913 map.svg
Scramble for Africa. Areas of Africa controlled by European colonial powers in 1913 (Belgian (yellow), British (salmon), French (blue), German (turquoise), Italian (green), Portuguese (purple), and Spanish (pink) Empires)

Britain and France's Entente Cordiale of 1904 had defined diplomatic cooperation between them and recognized British authority over Egypt and French control in Morocco (with some Spanish concessions). Germany saw that development putting an end to the rivalry between Britain and France, which would further isolate Germany in European affairs.

On 31 March 1905, Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II visited Tangier and delivered a speech calling for an international conference to ensure Morocco's independence, with war the alternative. The historian Heather Jones argues that Germany's use of warlike rhetoric was a deliberate diplomatic ploy:

Another German strategy was to stage dramatic gestures, and dangerously play up the threat of war, in the belief that this would impress upon other European powers the importance of consultation with Germany on imperial issues: the fact that France had not considered it necessary to make a bilateral agreement with Germany over Morocco rankled, especially given Germany was deeply insecure about its newly acquired Great Power status. Hence Germany opted for an increase in belligerent rhetoric and, theatrically, Kaiser Wilhelm II dramatically interrupted a Mediterranean cruise to visit Tangier, where he declared Germany's support for the Sultan's independence and integrity of his kingdom, turning Morocco overnight into an international 'crisis.' [5]

German diplomats believed they could convince US President Theodore Roosevelt to challenge French intervention in Morocco. Roosevelt, who was mediating the Russo-Japanese War and aware of the US Senate's stance to avoid involvement in European affairs, was disinclined to become involved in the Moroccan crisis. However, with the situation in June 1905 worsening to the point of war between Germany and France and possibly Britain, Roosevelt in July persuaded the French to attend a January peace conference in Algeciras.

Germany had hoped that the conference would weaken the Entente Cordiale. Wilhelm II had thought he could form an alliance with France if most of its demands were met. [1] He also thought that better relations with Russia were possible because the Revolution of 1905 and the Russo-Japanese War had put it in a weak ally-hungry position. However, Germany was somewhat excluded in the initial decisions, [1] and British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey showed Britain's support of France in the conference via meetings with French Ambassador Jules Cambon, which made the Entente Cordiale actually grow stronger. Russia likewise wholeheartedly supported France's position in order to secure French financial markets in the hope of acquiring a large loan to recuperate losses incurred by the Russo-Japanese War. [6]

Following its failed attempt to isolate Britain, Germany furthered the growing Anglo-German Naval Race by the passage of the Third Naval Law in 1906. The overall contribution towards the outbreak of the First World War can then seem to be the separation of Germany and its allies (Triple Alliance) of Britain, France and Russia, which the following year became the Triple Entente.

The next major event to thicken the tension between them would be the Bosnian Crisis. [7]

Moroccan delegation

The opening remarks of the Algeciras Conference as depicted in the cover illustration of Le Petit Parisien. Seance d'ouverture de la Conference d'Algesiras.jpg
The opening remarks of the Algeciras Conference as depicted in the cover illustration of Le Petit Parisien .

Sultan Abdelaziz of Morocco was represented by Muhammad al-Muqri and Muhammad Torres. [8] Al-Muqri expressed frustration at the translation situation and commented: "We're sitting here like statues; we can't understand a thing of what is said." [9] The Moroccan delegation had no choice but to use Abdelqader Benghabrit, an Algerian translator who was present at the conference in the service of France. [8]

Another difficulty the Moroccans faced was the difficulty of contacting the sultan, who should have been informed of every detail of what transpired at the conference. The researcher Bazegh Abdessamad wrote:

"No decision could be made—whether affirmative or negative—without his instruction and ordinance. The representatives of the US and European nations could easily contact their capitals to consult their respective governments, while Fes had no telephone or telegraph, nor was it served by any rail or paved road that would allow them to inform the sultan of developments at the conference." [10]

Outcome

The final Act of the conference was signed on 7 April 1906 and covered the organisation of Morocco's police and customs, regulations concerning the repression of the smuggling of armaments and concessions to the European bankers from a new State Bank of Morocco to issue banknotes backed by gold with a 40-year term. The new state bank was to act as Morocco's central bank, with a strict cap on the spending of the Sherifian Empire and administrators appointed by the national banks, which guaranteed the loans, from the German Empire, United Kingdom, France and Spain. Spanish coinage continued to circulate. [11] The right of Europeans to own land was established, and taxes were to be levied towards public works. [12]

The Sultan of Morocco retained control of a police force in the six port cities, which was to be composed entirely of Moroccan Muslims and budgeted at an average salary of a mere 1000 pesetas a year but was to be instructed by French and Spanish officers. They would oversee the paymaster (the amin), regulate discipline and have the ability to be recalled and replaced by their governments. The Inspector-General in charge would be Swiss and reside in Tangiers.

At the last moment, the Moroccan delegates found that they were unable to sign the final Act, but a decree of Sultan Abdelaziz of Morocco on 18 June finally ratified it.

Attendees

Cartoon by Hector Moloch [fr], January 1906: the Duke of Almodovar del Rio, Revoil, Visconti-Venosta, von Radowitz, and Nicolson (misspelt) at the Algeciras Conference Algesiras (Moloch).jpg
Cartoon by Hector Moloch  [ fr ], January 1906: the Duke of Almodóvar del Río, Révoil, Visconti-Venosta, von Radowitz, and Nicolson (misspelt) at the Algeciras Conference

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ French: Conférence d'Algésiras; Spanish: Conferencia de Algeciras; Arabic: مؤتمر الجزيرة الخضراء

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Entente Cordiale</span> 1904 agreements between the UK and France

The Entente Cordiale comprised a series of agreements signed on 8 April 1904 between the United Kingdom and the French Republic which saw a significant improvement in Anglo-French relations. On the surface, the agreement dealt with issues strictly related to fishing and colonial boundaries. Egypt was recognized as part of Britain's sphere of influence, and Morocco as part of France's. The Entente was not a formal alliance and did not involve close collaboration, nor was it intended to be directed against Germany. However, it paved the way for a stronger relationship between France and Britain in the face of German aggression. It should not be mistaken for the official Anglo-French military alliance, which was only established after the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Moroccan Crisis</span> 1905-06 disagreement between France, Germany, and Britain over control of Morocco

The First Moroccan Crisis or the Tangier Crisis was an international crisis between March 31, 1905, and April 7, 1906, over the status of Morocco. Germany wanted to challenge France's growing control over Morocco, aggravating France and Great Britain. The crisis was resolved by the Algeciras Conference of 1906, a conference of mostly European countries that affirmed French control; this worsened German relations with both France and Britain and helped enhance the new Anglo-French Entente.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agadir Crisis</span> 1911 diplomatic 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. 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">French protectorate in Morocco</span> 1912–1956 protectorate in northwest Africa

The French protectorate in Morocco, also known as French Morocco, was the period of French colonial rule in Morocco that lasted from 1912 to 1956. The protectorate was officially established 30 March 1912, when Sultan Abd al-Hafid signed the Treaty of Fez, though the French military occupation of Morocco had begun with the invasion of Oujda and the bombardment of Casablanca in 1907.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spanish protectorate in Morocco</span> 1912–1956 protectorate in northwest Africa

The Spanish protectorate in Morocco was established on 27 November 1912 by a treaty between France and Spain that converted the Spanish sphere of influence in Morocco into a formal protectorate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abdelaziz of Morocco</span> Sultan of Morocco from 1894 to 1908

MoulayAbd al-Aziz bin Hassan, born on 24 February 1881 in Marrakesh and died on 10 June 1943 in Tangier, was a sultan of Morocco from 9 June 1894 to 21 August 1908, as a ruler of the 'Alawi dynasty. He was proclaimed sultan at the age of sixteen after the death of his father Hassan I. Moulay Abdelaziz tried to strengthen the central government by implementing a new tax on agriculture and livestock, a measure which was strongly opposed by sections of the society. This in turn led Abdelaziz to mortgage the customs revenues and to borrow heavily from the French, which was met with widespread revolt and a revolution that deposed him in 1908 in favor of his brother Abd al-Hafid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty of Fes</span> 1912 treaty establishing a French protectorate over Morocco

The Treaty of Fes, officially the Treaty Concluded Between France and Morocco on 30 March 1912, for the Organization of the French Protectorate in the Sharifian Empire, was a treaty signed by Sultan Abd al-Hafid of Morocco under duress and French diplomat Eugène Regnault on 30 March 1912. It established the French protectorate in Morocco, and remained in effect until the Franco-Moroccan Joint Declaration of 2 March 1956.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mohammed Karim Lamrani</span> Prime minister of Morocco (1971–1972, 1983–1986, 1992–1994)

Mohammed Karim Lamrani was a Moroccan politician who was the seventh Prime Minister of Morocco for three separate terms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">France–Morocco relations</span> Bilateral relations

France–Morocco relations are bilateral relations between Morocco and France. They are part of the France–Africa relations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">French conquest of Morocco</span> Conquest of Morocco by France

The French conquest of Morocco began with the French Republic occupying the city of Oujda on 29 March 1907. The French launched campaigns against the Sultanate of Morocco which culminated in the signing of the Treaty of Fes and establishment of the French Protectorate in Morocco on 30 March 1912. France later concluded, on the 27th November, the Treaty of Madrid with the Kingdom of Spain which established the Spanish protectorate in Morocco. The French still conducted a series of military operations to pacify rebellions in Morocco until 1934.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pact of Cartagena</span> Agreement between Spain, Britain and France

The Pact of Cartagena was an exchange of notes that took place at Cartagena on 16 May 1907 between France, Great Britain, and Spain. The parties declared their intention to preserve the status quo in the western Mediterranean and in the Atlantic, especially their insular and coastal possessions. The pact aligned Spain with the Anglo-French entente cordiale against Germany's ambitions in Morocco, where both Spain and France had mutually recognised spheres of influence.

The Zaydani Library or the Zaydani Collection is a collection of manuscripts originally belonging to Sultan Zaydan Bin Ahmed that were taken by Spanish privateers in Atlantic waters off the coast of Morocco in 1612. The collection is held to this day in the library of El Escorial.

<i>Es-Saada</i>

es-Saada was an arabophone weekly newspaper published in Morocco that served as the mouthpiece of the French government. The newspaper was financed by France, originally printed at the French Legation in Tangier, and used as a tool with which to spread French ideas among Moroccans. It reached all cities of Greater Morocco. Its content has been described as distinctively colonial and disruptive of public opinion in Morocco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hafidiya</span> Coup in pre-colonial Morocco, 1907–1908

The Hafidiya was a coup d'état in Morocco between 1907 and 1908 in which Abd al-Hafid seized power from his brother Abdelaziz. Abd al-Hafid started his movement in Marrakesh in the aftermath of the Algeciras Conference, the French occupation of Oujda and of Casablanca and the gaining the support of Amazigh leaders in the south. The Ulama of Fes supported Abdelhafid only with an unprecedented Conditioned Bay'ah, or pledge of allegiance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muhammad Torres</span>

Muhammad ibn al-'Arabi at-Torres was a diplomat, representative of the sultan in Tangier, and foreign minister of Morocco at the turn of the 20th century. He was present at the 1906 Algeciras Conference, which established French preëminence among European powers in Morocco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muhammad al-Kattani</span>

Muhammad Bin Abdul-Kabir Al-Kattani, also known by his kunyaAbu l-Fayḍ or simply as Muhammad Al-Kattani, was a Moroccan Sufi faqih, reformer, and poet from Fes. He is recognized as the father of the Moroccan constitution movement and the leader of the Conditioned Bay'ah of 1908. He was also vocally opposed to the metastasizing French colonial presence in Morocco, and launched at-Tā'ūn, the first national newspaper in Morocco. He was a member of the al-Kattani family and the Tariqa Kattania, a Sufi order. He composed over 300 works, printed 27 of them, and wrote Sufi philosophical love poetry. He was accused of treason and flogged to death under Sultan Abdelhafid.

The Conditioned Bay'ah or the Bay'ah of Fes was a bay'ah contract of the conditional support of the people of Fes for Abd al-Hafid as sultan of Morocco in the Hafidiya. Led by the Sufi leader Muhammad al-Kattani, the people of Fes imposed, for the first time in Morocco, a set of conditions on the sovereign in return for their support.

Omar Al-Tawer, is a Moroccan novelist, researcher, and academic. He won several intellectual prizes, including the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, the Edward Saeed Prize in Criticism of Orientalist Discourse, and the Allal Fassi Prize.

al-Amīn al-Hajj Mustafa an-Nakīr is a Moroccan chef specializing in barbecue. He worked as the chef of the former King of Morocco Hassan II, inheriting the position of palace chef from his forefathers. He specializes in and is famous for meshwi lamb and the traditional Marrakshi dish called tangia.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The Algeciras Conference of 1906". History Learning Site. May 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  2. ↑ Antony Best; Jussi Hanhimäki; Kirsten E. Schulze; Joseph A. Maiolo (2008). International History of the Twentieth Century and Beyond (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. p. 22. ISBN   978-0203889862. OCLC   233840812. At Algeciras, close Anglo-French collaboration forced Berlin to accept a diplomatic defeat.
  3. ↑ Jones, 2006)
  4. ↑ Immanuel Geiss, German Foreign Policy 1871–1914 (1976) 133–136.
  5. ↑ Heather Jones, "Algeciras Revisited: European Crisis and Conference Diplomacy, 16 January–7 April 1906." (EUI WorkingPaper MWP 2009/1, 2009), p 5 online
  6. ↑ Lieven, Dominic (2015). Towards the Flame: Empire, War and the End of Tsarist Russia. London: Allen Lane. pp. 185–190. ISBN   9780141399744.
  7. ↑ Margaret MacMillan, The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914(2012) pp 378–398.
  8. 1 2 ""شروط الخزيرات" .. حقيقة أشهر مؤتمر قرر في مصير المغرب". Hespress (in Arabic). 14 July 2013. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  9. ↑ ""شروط الخزيرات" .. حقيقة أشهر مؤتمر قرر في مصير المغرب". Hespress (in Arabic). 14 July 2013. Retrieved 21 May 2020. إننا جالسون هنا شبه تماثيل، لا نستطيع أن نفهم شيئا مما يقال
  10. ↑ ""شروط الخزيرات" .. حقيقة أشهر مؤتمر قرر في مصير المغرب". Hespress (in Arabic). 14 July 2013. Retrieved 21 May 2020. الباحث بازغ عبد الصمد يقول "..ومن المشاكل الكبرى أيضا التي كانت تقض مضجع الوفد المغربي في المؤتمر صعوبة الاتصال بالسلطان الذي كان لابد من إطلاعه على كل كبيرة وصغيرة مما يجري في المؤتمر، ولا يمكن اتخاذ أي قرار بنفي أو إثبات، قبول أو اعتراض، إلا طبق تعليماته وما يأذن به. فممثلو الدول الأوربية والأمريكية كانوا يستطيعون الاتصال بعواصم بلدانهم لاستشارة حكوماتهم بسهولة، أما فاس عاصمة المملكة فلم يكن بها تلفون ولا تلغراف ولا تفضي إليها سكك حديدية ولا طرق سيارة معبدة، تمكن من إطلاع السلطان في قصره على مداولات المؤتمر."
  11. ↑ ""شروط الخزيرات" .. حقيقة أشهر مؤتمر قرر في مصير المغرب". Hespress (in Arabic). 14 July 2013. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  12. ↑ "Algeciras Conference". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  13. ↑ Fassi-Fihri, Mohammed (2008). Mon grand-père, ambassadeur à Paris: 1909–1910 (in French). Marsam Editions. ISBN   978-9954211380.
  14. ↑ Thomas, Martin (2008). Empires of Intelligence: Security Services and Colonial Disorder After 1914. University of California Press. ISBN   978-0520251175.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.