Algeciras Conference
The Algeciras Conference was an international conference from January 16 to April 7, 1906 in the Hotel Reina Cristina in Algeciras (Spain), at which the solution to the first Moroccan crisis was decided.
background
The conference was called for by representatives of the German Empire after France began implementing economic and military reforms in Morocco under the Sudan Treaty , even though the state was considered independent under the Madrid Convention of 1880. After an initial refusal, France also took part in the conference.
The German Reich had hoped to inflict a diplomatic defeat on France in order to dissolve the Entente Cordiale . The other countries had also hoped for support. This is how Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow wrote to Kaiser Wilhelm II :
“If a conference comes about, we are already sure of American diplomatic support for the open door . There, as everywhere else, England will shy away from taking any forceful action against America. Austria will not want brouillieren with us for Morocco, and the same I think of Italy, especially from a three bund friendly cabinet Fortis . I therefore consider it impossible that a conference could have the result of initiating the insertion of Morocco into the exclusive sphere of power and interests of France. "
Result
However, these expectations were not fulfilled, so that in 1906 the German Reich only had the two-party partner Austria-Hungary on its side. Although the sovereignty of Morocco was formally recognized at the conference, France was able to obtain the concession that it could manage the police in Moroccan ports and the banking system together with Spain. Tetuan and Larache came under Spanish control, Rabat , Safi , El Jadida and Essaouira fell to France , while police from both countries were supposed to monitor Tangier and Casablanca . Thus France had achieved its main goal, while the German Reich lost more and more of its reputation due to its aggressive actions and increasingly drove into foreign policy isolation. The conference result was also a defeat for the emerging Moroccan independence movement.
The results of the conference were summarized in the so-called Algeciras Act , which was signed on April 7, 1906. In this, neutral Switzerland received the mandate to appoint the inspector general of the Moroccan police (cf. Morocco-Müller ) and to have certain legal cases assessed by its federal court .
Signatory powers
The signatory states were: the German Empire , the Third French Republic , the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , the Russian Empire , the United States , Austria-Hungary , the Kingdom of Italy , the Kingdom of Spain , the Kingdom of Portugal , the Kingdom of Belgium , the Kingdom of Sweden and the Kingdom of the Netherlands . Its consuls were the government of the Tangier International Zone .
literature
- Jakob Bretschger: The Morocco Conference Algeciras 1906. Dissertation University of Bern, 1912.
Individual evidence
- ^ House of History: The First Moroccan Crisis 1905/1906 , zeitklicks.de
- ^ Bilateral relations between Switzerland and Morocco
- ↑ Jakob Bretschger, The Morocco Conference Algecieras 1906 , Zurich 1913