Morocco, Libya and Imperial Rivalry Before 1914

By the early 1900s, almost all of Africa had been claimed, so rivalries over the few remaining areas became especially dangerous. In 1904 Britain and France settled their colonial disputes in the Entente Cordiale, with Britain accepting French ambitions in Morocco and France accepting Britain's position in Egypt. Germany tested this new friendship. In March 1905 Kaiser Wilhelm II landed at Tangier and declared support for Moroccan independence, but at the Algeciras Conference of 1906 most powers backed France, leaving Germany isolated.

In 1911 Germany sent the gunboat Panther to the Moroccan port of Agadir; the crisis ended with Germany accepting a French protectorate over Morocco in exchange for territory in the Congo region, and France established the protectorate in 1912. Meanwhile Italy invaded the Ottoman provinces of Libya in 1911. These crises drew Britain and France closer and increased tensions with Germany, showing how imperial competition fed into the alliance system before World War I.