This Day in World War 1 History: MARCH 31, 1905 : THE FIRST MOROCCAN CRISIS

On this day in 1905, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany arrives in Tangiers to declare his support for the sultan of Morocco, provoking the anger of France and Britain in what will become known as the First Moroccan Crisis, a foreshadowing of the greater conflict between Europe’s great nations still to come, the First World War.

The kaiser did not have any substantive interest in Morocco; neither did the German government. The central purpose of his appearance was to disrupt the Anglo-French Entente, formed in April 1904. The Entente Cordiale, as it was known, was originally intended not as an alliance against Germany but as a settlement of long-standing imperialist rivalries between Britain and France in North Africa. By its terms, Britain could pursue its interests in Egypt, while France was free to expand westward from Algeria into Morocco, the last territory that remained independent in the region. France subsequently signed an agreement with Spain dividing Morocco into spheres of influence, with France receiving the greater part.

Angered by its exclusion from the decisions made about North Africa, Germany believed that the Anglo-French Entente went a long way towards the creation of a new diplomatic balance in Europe itself. An international convention had guaranteed the independence of Morocco in 1880; Germany now saw that the friendship between two of Europe’s most powerful nations threatened to override this, and thus also posed a challenge to Germany’s own influence in Europe and the world.

With much pomp and circumstance, Wilhelm—whose ship had faced gale-force winds on its passage to North Africa—arrived in Tangiers on March 31, 1905. In what would be known as the open door speech, he announced that he looked upon the sultan of Morocco as the ruler of a free and independent empire subject to no foreign control and that he himself would always negotiate with the sultan. He also stated that he expected Germany to have advantages in trade and commerce with Morocco equal to that of other countries. Wilhelm’s sensational appearance marked an aggressive departure from the German foreign policy under the legendary Otto von Bismarck, who as chancellor had united the German empire in 1871 and had advocated conciliatory gestures towards France and other European rivals as a key part of German foreign policy.

Although Germany had intended aggressive action in Morocco to place a wedge between France and Britain, it in fact had the opposite effect, strengthening the bond between the two countries due to their mutual suspicion of Germany. What began as mere friendship turned, after the First Moroccan Crisis, into a type of informal military alliance, including conversations between the British and French governments and military staffs and later, a mutual defense agreement with a third country, Russia.

In the wake of the kaiser’s appearance, an international conference convened in Algeciras, Spain, in January 1906 to conclude an agreement about Morocco. The resulting convention awarded France a controlling interest in Moroccan affairs, but guaranteed equality of trade and economic freedom for every nation and limited any colonial action by any nation without consultation with the other signatories. A Second Moroccan Crisis flared in April 1911, when the French pushed troops into the country, claiming to be defending the sultan against riots that had erupted in Fez but actually violating the terms of the Algeciras convention. In response, Germany sent its own warship, the Panther, which arrived in the port of Agadir on May 21, intensifying the enmity between the two nations and, by extension, their allies.

Slightly more than two years before the outbreak of World War I, then, the two Moroccan crises left no doubt that the traditional power balance in Europe had shifted into large blocs of power, with Germany relatively isolated on one side—enjoying only lukewarm support from Austria-Hungary and Italy—and Britain, France, and Russia on the other.

Article Details:

March 31, 1905 : The First Moroccan Crisis

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2009

• Title

  March 31, 1905 : The First Moroccan Crisis

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  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-first-moroccan-crisis

• Access Date

  March 31, 2015

• Publisher

  A+E Networks

This Day in World War 1 History: MARCH 30, 1918 : ALLIED TROOPS HALT GERMANS AT MOREUIL WOOD

On March 30, 1918, British, Australian and Canadian troops mount a successful counter-attack against the German offensive at Moreuil Wood, recapturing most of the area and forcing a turn in the tide of the battle in favor of the Allies.

After launching the first stage of a major spring offensive on March 21, 1918–masterminded by Erich Ludendorff, chief of the German general staff–the German army swiftly pushed through the British 5th Army along the Somme, crossing the river on March 24. Their attacks were less successful to the north, however, around the crucially important Vimy Ridge, where Britain’s 3rd Army successfully held its positions. Determined to push on toward Paris, Ludendorff threw his troops against the town of Amiens. To Ludendorff’s distress, although they came within 11 miles of the city, the Germans had great difficulty capturing Amiens and its railway junction, which the British and French were told to hold at all costs. Lacking sufficient cavalry, the Germans also had problems delivering artillery and supplies to their front-line troops; those troops also received no relief, and were expected to sustain the momentum of the attack all on their own.

By the morning of March 30, the Germans had occupied Moreuil Wood, some 20 kilometers south of Amiens. On that day, an Allied force including British and Canadian cavalry and air brigades confronted the Germans head-on. By the end of the day, the Allies had managed to halt the German advance at Moreuil Wood, despite suffering heavy casualties.

The events at Moreuil Wood broke the momentum of the German attacks. While the operation had technically been successful, resulting in a gain of almost 40 miles of territory and inflicting heavy losses on the Allies; 177,739 British troops died or were taken prisoner during the battle, at a daily rate of 11,000 men, while the French lost nearly 80,000; German troops had also lost over a quarter of a million men to injury or death. The casualties included Ludendorff’s own stepson, a German pilot shot down over the battlefield during the attacks. Ludendorff called off the attacks on April 5; the next stage of the offensive would begin just four days later.

By early April 1918, both the Allies and the Central Powers had entered a crucial period of reckoning. A major German victory on the Western Front would mean the end of the war, in their favor. As British Prime Minister David Lloyd George told the leaders of the British Dominions in a speech on March 31: “The last man may count.” The Allies, at least, could count on fresh infusions from the United States, which increased its troops in France to more than 300,000 by the end of that month. For their part, the Germans were prepared to wager everything they had on this spring offensive—the last they would undertake in World War I.

Article Details:

March 30, 1918 : Allied troops halt Germans at Moreuil Wood

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2009

• Title

  March 30, 1918 : Allied troops halt Germans at Moreuil Wood

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  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/allied-troops-halt-germans-at-moreuil-wood

• Access Date

  March 30, 2015

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  A+E Networks

This Day in World War 1 History: MARCH 27, 1918 : BESSARABIA ANNEXED BY ROMANIA

On March 27, 1918, in the wake of Russia’s withdrawal from World War I and its acceptance of the humiliating peace terms set by the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk, the Balkan republic of Romania annexes Bessarabia, a strategically important area of land located on its eastern border and bounded on the south by the Danube River and the mouth of the Black Sea.

Ruled by Ottoman Turks from the 16th century, Bessarabia (which today corresponds to the republic of Moldova and part of Ukraine) was annexed by the Russians in 1812 as a result of the Russo-Turkish War. The collapse of the Russian empire and the triumph of Bolshevism in 1917 inspired new stirrings of nationalism in Bessarabia, particularly among its large populations of Romanians and Ukrainians.

Despite its historical alliance with the Central Powers, especially Austria-Hungary, Romania had entered World War I on the side of the Allies in August 1916 with the hope of winning Transylvania, then part of Hungary, and expanding its strength in the Balkans. Within six months, however, Austro-German and Bulgarian forces had crushed Romania, effectively overrunning most of the country and ending its participation in the war by early 1917. (It signed a treaty with the Central Powers on May 7, 1918.) With the fall of the Russian empire, however, Romania saw its chance to reestablish its claims over Bessarabia.

For its part, Ukraine saw the end of czarist Russia as an opportunity. Immediately following the overthrow of the czar in February 1917, Ukraine set up a provisional government and proclaimed itself a republic within the structure of a federated Russia. In January 1918, it declared its complete independence. The Ukrainian government immediately sought control of Bessarabia, or at least its northernmost and southernmost sections, where the majority of the population was Ukrainian.

In January 1918, Romania sent troops to Bessarabia; on March 27, after Russia formally exited the war in early March at Brest-Litovsk, it annexed the region. Ukraine’s national council strongly protested, urging self-determination for the Ukrainian population of Bessarabia. Over the next year, however, turmoil and ultimately civil war in Ukraine made taking any decisive action impossible. On November 10, a day before the armistice ending World War I was signed—and with an Allied victory assured—Romania reentered the war, occupying Transylvania.

At the Versailles peace conference in 1919, the Romanian delegation, headed by Prime Minister Ion Bratianu, included Bessarabia in a long list of territorial demands that also included the former Austro-Hungarian properties of Transylvania and the Bukovina and Banat regions, all of which they claimed were historically and ethnically Romanian. Though the Supreme Council at Versailles—made up of the leaders of Britain, France, the U.S., Italy and Japan—found Romania’s demands excessive, they eventually gave in on most counts, including cession of Bessarabia. Thus, in the post-war period, Romania’s size and population nearly doubled, making it by far the greatest winner of territory to come out of World War I.

Neither the new Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) nor its member republic, Ukraine—which fell to the Bolsheviks in 1919—accepted Romanian control of Bessarabia. During World War II, Bessarabia was occupied by Soviet troops in June 1940, retaken by Romania a year later, and then reoccupied by the Soviets in 1944. After the war ended, the majority of Bessarabia was joined to the soviet republic of Moldavia; the northernmost area and the coastal strip to the south along the Black Sea became part of Ukraine. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Moldavia changed its name to Moldova and, along with Ukraine, joined the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), an association of 12 former republics of the USSR.

Article Details:

March 27, 1918 : Bessarabia annexed by Romania

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2009

• Title

  March 27, 1918 : Bessarabia annexed by Romania

• URL

  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/bessarabia-annexed-by-romania

• Access Date

  March 27, 2015

• Publisher

  A+E Networks