Agadir

Agadir A port in Morocco which became the focus of the second Moroccan crisis (July–November 1911). In response to the French occupation of the Moroccan city of Fez, which broke the agreement over Moroccan neutrality reached after the first Moroccan Crisis, a German gunboat, the Panther, was sent to Agadir, ostensibly to protect German commercial interests in Morocco. In practice, the ‘Panther's Leap’ was more a German appeal to be taken seriously as a colonial power in a period that marked the high noon of imperialism. Ultimately, the Germans agreed to recognize Morocco as a sphere of French influence, in return for French territorial concessions in the Congo (added to the German colony of Cameroon). It marked a further milestone in the build-up of the international tensions that precipitated World War I. More specifically, it convinced the British of German naval aggression and the resulting direct threat to the British Empire.