1904 there was signed in London by the British foreign secretary,
the marquess of Lansdowne, and the French ambassador, M. Paul
Cambon, a series of agreements relating to several parts of the
globe. Here we are concerned only with the joint declaration
respecting Egypt and Morocco and a convention relating, in part,
to British and French frontiers in West Africa. The latter we
shall have occasion to refer to later. The former, notwithstanding
the declarations embodied in it that there was “no intention
of altering the political status” either of Egypt or of Morocco,
cannot be ignored in any account of the partition in Africa.
With regard to Egypt the French government declared “that
they will not obstruct the action of Great Britain in that country
by asking that a limit of time be fixed for the British occupation
or in any other manner.” France also assented—as did subsequently
the other powers interested—to a khedivial decree
simplifying the international control exercised by the Caisse de
la Dette over the finances of Egypt.
In order to appreciate aright that portion of the declaration relating to Morocco it is necessary to say a few words about the course of French policy in North-West Africa. In Tunisia the work of strengthening the protectorate established in 1881 had gone steadily forward; but it was in Algeria that the extension of French influence had been most marked. The movement of expansion southwards was inevitable. With the progress of exploration it became increasingly evident that the Sahara constituted no insurmountable barrier between the French possessions in North and West Central Africa. But France had not only the hope of placing Algeria in touch with the Sudan to spur her forward. To consolidate her position in North-West Africa she desired to make French influence supreme in Morocco. The relations between the two countries did not favour the realization of that ambition. The advance southwards of the French forces of occupation evoked loud protests from the Moorish government, particularly with regard to the occupation in 1900–1901 of the Tuat Oases. Under the Franco-Moorish treaty of 1845 the frontier between Algeria and Morocco was defined from the Mediterranean coast as far south as the pass of Teniet el Sassi, in about 34° N.; beyond that came a zone in which no frontier was defined, but in which the tribes and desert villages (ksurs) belonging to the respective spheres of influence were named; while south of the desert villages the treaty stated that in view of the character of the country “the delimitation of it would be superfluous.” Though the frontier was thus left undefined, the sultan maintained that in her advance southwards France had trespassed on territories that unmistakably belonged to Morocco. After some negotiation, however, a protocol was signed in Paris on France’s privileged position in Morocco. the 20th of July 1901, and commissioners appointed to devise measures for the co-operation of the French and Moorish authorities in the maintenance of peaceful conditions in the frontier region. It was reported that in April 1902 the commissioners signed an agreement whereby the Sharifan government undertook to consolidate its authority on the Moorish side of the frontier as far south as Figig. The agreement continued: “Le Gouvernement français, en raison de son voisinage, lui prêtera son appui, en cas de besoin. Le Gouvernement français établira son autorité et la paix dans les régions du Sahara, et le Gouvernement marocain, son voisin, lui aidera de tout son pouvoir.” Meanwhile in the northern districts of Morocco the conditions of unrest under the rule of the young sultan, Abd el Aziz IV., were attracting an increasing amount of attention in Europe and were calling forth demands for their suppression. It was in these circumstances that in the Anglo-French declaration of April 1904 the British government recognized “that it appertains to France, more particularly as a power whose dominions are conterminous for a great distance with those of Morocco, to preserve order in that country, and to provide assistance for the purpose of all administrative, economic, financial and military reforms which it may require.” Both parties to the declaration, “inspired by their feeling of sincere friendship for Spain, take into special consideration the interests which that country derives from her geographical position and from her territorial possessions on the Moorish coast of the Mediterranean. In regard to these interests the French government will come to an understanding with the Spanish government.” The understanding thus foreshadowed was reached later in the same year, Spain securing a sphere of interest on the Mediterranean coast. In pursuance of the policy marked out in the Anglo-French declaration, France was seeking to strengthen her influence in Morocco when in 1905 the attitude of Germany seriously affected her position. On the 8th of July France secured from the German government formal “recognition of the situation created for France in Morocco by the contiguity of a vast extent of territory of Algeria and the Sharifan empire, and by the special relations resulting therefrom between the two adjacent countries, as well as by the special interest for France, due to this fact, that order should reign in the Sharifan Empire.” Finally, in January–April 1906, a conference of the powers was held at Algeciras to devise, by invitation of the sultan, a scheme of reforms to be introduced into Morocco (q.v.) French capital was allotted a larger share than that of any other power in the Moorish state bank which it was decided to institute, and French and Spanish officers were entrusted with the organization of a police force for the maintenance of order in the principal coast towns. The new regime had not been fully inaugurated, however, when a series of outrages led, in 1907, to the military occupation by France of Udja, a town near the Algerian frontier, and of the port of Casablanca on the Atlantic coast of Morocco.
It only remains to be noted, in connexion with the story of French activity in North-West Africa, that with such energy was the penetration of the Sahara pursued that in April 1904 flying columns from Insalah and Timbuktu met by arrangement in mid-desert, and in the following year it was deemed advisable to indicate on the maps the boundary between the Algerian and French West African territories.
Brief reference must be made to the position of Tripoli. While Egypt was brought under British control and Tunisia became a French protectorate, Tripoli remained a province of the Turkish empire with undefined frontiers in the hinterland, a state of affairs which more than once threatened to lead to trouble with France during the expansion of the latter’s influence in the Sahara. As already stated, Italy early gave evidence that it was her ambition to succeed to the province, and, not only by the sultan of Turkey but in Italy also, the Anglo-French declaration of March 1899, respecting the limits of the British and French spheres of influence in north Central Africa, was viewed with some concern. By means of a series of public utterances on the Italy’s interest in Tripoli. part of French and Italian statesmen in the winter 1901–1902 it was made known that the two powers had come to an understanding with regard to their interests in North Africa, and in May 1902 Signor Prinetti, then Italian minister for foreign affairs, speaking in parliament in reply to an interpellation on the subject of Tripoli, declared that if “the status quo in the Mediterranean were ever disturbed, Italy would be sure of finding no one to bar the way to her legitimate aspirations.”
At the opening of the Berlin conference Spain had established no formal claim to any part of the coast to the south of Morocco; but while the conference was sitting, on the 9th of January 1885, the Spanish government intimated that in view of the importance of the Spanish settlements on the Rio de Oro, at Angra de Cintra, and at Western Bay (Cape Blanco), and of the documents Spanish colonies. signed with the independent tribes on that coast, the king of Spain had taken under his protection “the territories of the western coast of Africa comprised between the fore-mentioned Western Bay and Cape Bojador.” The interior limits of the Spanish sphere were defined by an agreement concluded in 1900 with France. By this document some 70,000 sq. m. of the western Sahara were recognized as Spanish.
The same agreement settled a long-standing dispute between Spain and France as to the ownership of the district around the Muni river to be south of Cameroon, Spain securing a block of territory with a coast-line from the Campo river on the north to the Muni river on the south. The northern frontier is formed by the German Cameroon colony, the eastern by 11° 20′ E., and the
