Franco-Spanish Agreement

(1904)

   Signed on October 3, 1904, between the French and Spanish governments, the Franco-Spanish Agreement supplemented the Entente Cordiale established between Britain and France only six months earlier. It clarified the respective spheres of influence of the two countries in Morocco by publicly reaffirming the independence and integrity of Morocco yet secretly providing for the partition of the North African territory. Spain was to have the Mediterranean coast of Morocco and a portion of its hinterland. Spain pledged to erect no fortifications and to take no actions without the consent of France. Considering the 1904 agreement together with the Anglo-French Entente and Franco-Italian Convention of 1902, Germany felt threatened by provisions governing access to North Africa in which Berlin was no so much as consulted. Rightly guessing that such provisions were in part crafted to contain German ambition, Berlin resolved to test their durability, starting with the First Morocco Crisis in 1905.

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   FURTHER READING:

    Hayes, Carlton J. H. A Political and Social History of Modern Europe. New York: Macmillan, 1926;

    Langer, William H. The Diplomacy of Imperialism, 1890-1902. New York: Afred A. Knopf, 1968;

    Taylor, A.J.P. The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 1848-1918. Oxford: Clarendon, 1954.

   CARL CAVANAGH HODGE