Page:Diplomacy and the War (Andrassy 1921).djvu/37

 question, and the other the everlasting problem of the Balkans.

In regard to Morocco, England and France had agreed that they would control the possessions of the Sultan of Turkey and the Sultan of Morocco. That is to say, they would control Egypt and Morocco without attempting to satisfy, or even to question, those nations amongst whom Germany was prominent, and who were interested economically (1904).

England and France guaranteed each other what Caillaux called "la liberté de conqûete." The problems described above brought us twice to the verge of a European war (1905 and 1911). On both occasions, however, an agreement was reached. None of the parties were quite satisfied with the solution; in France it rankled that she had to reckon with Germany, and that she had to sacrifice a Minister for Foreign Affairs on account of Germany and because she had to cede a portion of her African possessions. Germany, on the other hand, was disgusted because France had realized her aims completely in Morocco, because she had contravened previous arrangements, and because Germany was forced, in spite of all her efforts and her bellicose desires, to give way. Many sections in Germany regarded the compromise as humiliating, and public opinion expressed the belief that France had become predominant. At the Conference of Algeciras, most of the powers sympathized with France, which really gained more in position than Germany. The German terror, which had been a powerful factor during the lifetime of Bismarck, ceased in France.