The motives of the Kaiser and his advisors are not altogether clear, but there is evidence that suggests that it wasn’t the Kaiser himself that made the decision to land in morocco during his Mediterranean cruise. It is also suggested that Germany hoped to weaken Britain's alliance with France by forcing France to give ground, therefore making France look like an unreliable ally. They also wanted to state that no international question could be resolved without reference to Germany.
Events however didn’t go the way Germany had hoped and at the Algeciras conference in Spain this was clearly shown by the American, British, Russian, Spanish and Italian support towards France’s rights in Morocco, Germany’s only supporter was a loyal Austria-Hungary. This left Germany isolated and they had to accept confirmation of French predominance in the sultanate, which was now strengthened by its control over the Moroccan police.
In May 1911 there was more European focus on Morocco due to French occupation of Fez, which was a major city in the area. This move widely indicated that France had plans to make morocco a complete protectorate. This was a clear violation of the terms agreed to more than 6 years previously.
In 1905 Germany had been heavily criticized for its interference in French influence in morocco and this was a perfect opportunity to show the world that she was right in questioning French aims in Morocco. This violation also strained relations between Britain, France and Russia, which led to German prospects of compensation being good. This was a chance for Germany to gain permanent influence in Europe and according to historian Imanuel Geiss. However the German foreign minister acted once again foolishly and clumsily by sending a German gunboat to the Moroccan port of Agadir to supposedly protect German interests there. This of course immediately caused Britain to feel threatened by this sudden presence of German ships in the Mediterranean, which was British controlled. It also saw this presence as a threat to British ruled Gibraltar.
This meant that Britain once again supported France in order to stop German expansion and British aims were made clear by Lloyd George’s mansion house speech.
Britain were therefore very keen to make a settlement in order to get rid of German naval vessels in the Mediterranean and a compromise settlement was made in November which gave Germany rights to parts of the French Congo. However, the maintenance of French influence in Morocco, culminating in the establishment of a formal protectorate, clearly demonstrated that German aims in the crises had once again failed.
As mentioned before Germany was increasingly becoming one of the top major powers in Europe. She had an extremely strong economy and a large land army. In Germanys quest to expand into Africa it was essential that she had a powerful naval to acquire and then protect colonies. Britain had always been the dominant naval power in Europe and they feared that Germany could very soon match Britain naval size. Britain's navy had always been important in keeping the balance of power in Europe and they needed it for their massive amount of colonies in Asia, Africa, S.America and Oceania. Germany already outnumbered the British ground troops and if she gained naval power it would make Germany the most powerful country in Europe.
This naval race forced Britain into signing alliances with France and Russia, in order for Britain to be safe and able to match the German land force power. By 1913 there was a naval race and both countries were spending more and more money on ships and port extensions.
The Balkan area was a trouble spot in Europe. It was ruled by the despotic Turks. By the late nineteenth century, many of the subject races of the Turks had gained independence and formed their national states-Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania and Bulgaria; but these national states were small and many of their fellow nationals still lived in the Turkish Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Also the Balkan states were prepared to carry on a series of struggles against Turkey and Austria-Hungary in order to win back those territories that were still lived by their fellow nationals. For example, Serbia wanted Austria to give up Bosnia which had many Serbs living under their rule.
Culturally speaking, Russia always regarded herself as a member of the Slav race. As Russia was the powerful Slavic state, she took it as her duty to support her Slav brothers in their national struggles against Turkey and Austria. The union of all Slavs was always espoused as the policy of the Russian government in the Balkans. Austria's interest in the Balkans was based on political reason. Austria wanted to suppress the nationalist movements in the Balkans, particularly that in Serbia. By the early twentieth century, Austria wanted to extend her rule over Serbia. This brought her into conflicts with both Serbia and Russia.
The Russians didn’t respond to her humiliation in 1908 due to the war she had just lost to Japan. She felt that her army was no where near as powerful as Austria’s and Germany’s so she didn’t want to risk getting into a war with them.
Russia still felt humiliated however by the Balkan situation and was determined that this must not come again. Immediately after the crisis, the Russian government intensified her armaments programme and sent Izvolski as ambassador in Paris in order to get more support from the French.
In 1912/1913 when the Ottoman Empire collapsed many of the major powers interest were at state. For example Britain, France and Russia didn’t want German influence in the area, but Britain also hoped to keep Russia out of the area because she feared Russian expansion into the Dardanelles
In conclusion it is clear why the tensions between 1905 and 1913 didn’t lead to war. Firstly most of the countries involved in the crises didn’t actually think that they were militarily ready for war, especially the Russians and the Austrians.
Secondly one of the major powers in Europe, Italy, was not involved in any of the crises. Therefore Germany, who were the most willing to go to war, felt that she didn’t have enough support to enter a war against Britain, France and Russia at the same time with only Austria-Hungary as an ally.
This shows that none of the powers involved in the crises were prepared to go to war during these years of conflict, but it added to the tension which was to come in the year ahead.
Daniel
Bradley
