ABSTRACT
By 1907 European peace was al ready beginning to look precarious. The division of Europe into two ho stile blocks was elearly discernible and thereafter a succession of crises would tighten the ties within each group, leading to a steady deterioration in international relations. The first of these was over Morocco, when Wilhelm II visited the Moroccan sultan in 1905. Through the visit Wilhelm II wanted to block French expansion, but in practice his sabre-rattling badly backfired. Not only did the Aigeciras conference in 1906 recognise Morocco as a sphere of French influence, the whole crisis bound Britain and France more elosely together. Still smarting from this humiliation, Wilhelm II sent a gunboat to Agadir on the Moroccan coast in july 1911. The outcome was a second elimb down for the Germans and the recognition of a French protectorate in Morocco. The fact that after the second Moroccan stand off the British fleet agreed to focus upon the Channel coastline whilst the French navy covered the Mediterranean was equally significant. It indicated how far the security of the two countries was interdependent by this point.
