The “Entente Cordiale”
Ancient enemies.—England and France in Africa.—A collision at
Fashoda.—Germany offers to help France.—Delcassé the
peacemaker.—A French-English agreement.—Friendship takes the
place of hostility.—England’s relations with Italy, Russia, and
Germany.—Germans cultivate the friendship and trade of
Turkey.—The Morocco-Algeciras incident.—The question of Bosnia
and Herzegovina.—England joins France and Russia to form the
“Triple Entente.”—The Agadir incident.
England and France had never been friendly. There had been wars
between them, off and on, for five hundred years. The only time
that they had fought on the same side was in the campaign against
Russia in 1855, but even then there was no real sympathy between
them.
In the year 1882, events happened in Egypt which gave England an
excuse for interfering with the government of that country. Egypt
was a part of the Turkish empire, but so long as it paid a
certain amount of money to Constantinople, the Turks did not care
very much how it was governed. But now a wild chief of the desert
had announced himself as the prophet Mohammed come to earth
again, and a great many of the desert tribesmen had joined him.
They cut to pieces one or two English armies in Egypt, and killed
General Gordon, a famous English soldier. It was 1898 before the
English were able to defeat this horde. Lord Kitchener finally
beat them and extended the English power to the city of Khartoom
on the Nile.
[Illustration: An Arab Sheik and His Staff]
In the meantime, the English millionaire, Cecil Rhodes, had
formed a plan for a railroad which should run the entire length
of Africa from the Cape of Good Hope to Cairo. It was England’s
ambition to control all the territory through which this road
should run. But the French, too, were spreading out over Africa.
Their expeditions through the Sahara Desert had joined their
colonies of Algeria and Tunis to those on the west coast of
Africa and others along the Gulf of Guinea. In this same year,
1898, while Lord Kitchener was still fighting the Arabs, a French
expedition under Major Marchand struggled across the Sahara and
reached the Nile at Fashoda, several miles above Khartoom.
Marchand planted the French flag and announced that he took
possession of this territory for the republic of France.
The English were very indignant when they heard of what Marchand
had done. If France held Fashoda, their “Cape to Cairo” railroad
was cut right in the middle, and they could advance their
territory no farther up the valley of the Nile. They notified
France that this was English land. Marchand retorted that no
Englishman had ever set foot there, and that the French flag
would never be hauled down after it had once been planted on the
Nile. Excitement ran high. The French people had no love for
England, and they encouraged Marchand to remain where he was. The
English newspapers demanded that he be withdrawn. Germany, which
had already begun its campaign to wrest from England the leading
place on the ocean, was delighted at the prospect of a war
between France and the British. The German diplomats patted
France on the back, and practically assured her of German help in
case it came to a war with England.
Germany now felt that she had nothing more to fear from France.
The French population was not increasing, while Germany was
steadily growing in numbers. It was England whom Germany saw
across her path toward control of the sea.
There was a man in France, however, who had no thought of making
up with Germany. The memory of the war of 1870 and of the lost
provinces of Alsace and Lorraine was very strong with him. This
was Théophile Delcassé, a little man with a large head and a
great brain. He refused to be tempted by the offers of German
help, thinking that England, with its free government, was a much
better friend for the republic than the military empire of
Germany could be.
Just when the trouble was at its height, the English ambassador
came to see Mr. Delcassé, who at that time was in charge of the
French foreign office. He had in his pocket an ultimatum, that is
to say, a final notice to France that she must give in or England
would declare war on her. As he walked into Delcassé’s presence,
he began fumbling with the top button of his coat. “Don’t touch
that button,” said Delcassé quickly. “Drop your hand. You have
something in your pocket which must not be taken out. It is a
threat, and if I see it, France will fight. Sit down. Let us talk
this matter over coolly. Matters will adjust themselves all right
in the end.” And they did. Delcassé was finally able to quiet the
French people, to recall Marchand from Fashoda and to persuade
France to refuse the offer of German friendship. England was
given a free hand in Egypt, without any interference from the
French. Naturally the English were very grateful to Delcassé for
having refused to profit by German help and declare war. In
return for the French agreement to stay out of Egypt, the English
promised to help France get control of Morocco.
Very soon after this, Queen Victoria of England died, and her
son, Edward VII, became king. He had spent a great deal of time
in France, and was very fond of the French and was popular with
them. He saw the growing power of Germany, and knew that England
could not afford to be without a friend in Europe. He did his
best to bring about a feeling of friendship between the English
and the French, and was very successful in doing so. He made
frequent visits to France, where he was received with great
cordiality. In return the English entertained the president of
France in London in a princely fashion. French warships paid
friendly visits to English waters, and the sailors mingled with
each other and did their best to understand each other’s
language. All France, and England as well, welcomed the beginning
of the “Entente Cordiale,” or friendly understanding between the
two nations.
England also went out of her way to cultivate a friendly
understanding with Italy. With the other nations of Europe
England had no great friendship. Between England and Russia,
there had been a hostile feeling for a long time, for the British
felt that the Russians would like nothing better than to stretch
their empire from Siberia, down to include British India, or at
least Afghanistan and Baluchistan, where the British were in
control.
The emperor of Germany, on the other hand, was planning for the
future growth of the trade of his country. Since his coming to
the throne, Germany had made wonderful progress in the direction
of manufactures. She had become one of the leading nations of the
world. One of her chief questions was, where to market these
goods. In 1896 the emperor paid a visit to Syria and Turkey. He
was received with great enthusiasm by the Turks, who were glad to
have one strong friend among the powers of Europe. Soon
afterwards the Germans began to get more and more of the trade of
the Ottoman Empire. A German company was given permission by the
Turks to build a railroad across Turkey to the Persian Gulf
through Bagdad. German railways ran through Austria-Hungary,
which was Germany’s ally, to Constantinople and Salonika, the two
greatest ports of Turkey in Europe. This short overland route to
Persia was looked upon with suspicion and distrust by the
English, whose ships up to this time had carried on almost all of
Europe’s commerce with India and the neighboring countries.
[Illustration: A Scene In Constantinople]
Germany was reaching out for colonies. She secured land on the
west coast of Africa and, on the east as well. A tract of land in
the corner of the Gulf of Guinea also fell to her share. Islands
in the Pacific Ocean were seized. Her foreign trade was growing
by leaps and bounds, and she threatened to take away from England
a great deal of the latter’s commerce.
The German emperor announced that he must always be consulted
whenever any changes of territory took place, no matter in what
part of the earth. Therefore in 1905 when France, with the help
of Great Britain and Spain, told the sultan of Morocco that he
had to behave himself, the German emperor in person made a visit
to Morocco and assured the sultan that he didn’t have to pay any
attention to France.
There was a great deal of excitement over this incident, and a
meeting was held at Algeciras, Spain, where representatives of
all the great powers came together. In the end, France and
England were upheld, for even Italy, Germany’s ally, voted
against the Germans. On the other hand, Delcassé, the Frenchman
who settled the Fashoda trouble, was compelled to resign his
position as minister of foreign affairs because the Germans
objected to him, and the French felt that Germany had humiliated
them.
In 1908, the “young Turk” party in Constantinople (the party
which stood for progress and for more popular government) drove
the old sultan off his throne, and announced that there should be
a Turkish parliament, or congress, to which all parts of the
empire should send representatives.
You will remember that two counties of the Turkish empire, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, had been turned over to Austria to rule by the
Congress of Berlin in 1878. Austria at the time solemnly promised
that she would never try to annex these provinces. In 1908,
however, she forgot all about her promise. When Bosnia and
Herzegovina wanted to elect men to represent them in the new
Turkish parliament, Austria calmly told them that after this they
should consider themselves part of the Austrian Empire, that they
belonged to Turkey no longer.
The two provinces were inhabited largely by Serbs, and all Serbia
had looked forward to the day when they should once more be
joined to herself. These states, like Montenegro, had been part
of the ancient kingdom of Serbia. As long as they were in dispute
between Austria and Turkey, Serbia had hopes of regaining them,
but when Austria thus forcibly annexed them, it seemed to the
Serbs that they were lost forever.
Serbia appealed to Russia, for as was said, all the Slavic states
look upon Russia as their big brother. The Russians were highly
indignant at this breaking of her promises by Austria, and the
czar talked of war. His generals and war ministers, however,
dissuaded him. “Oh, no, your majesty,” said they, “we are in no
shape to fight Austria and Germany. Our army was badly
disorganized in the Japanese war three years ago, and we shall
not be ready for another fight for some time to come.” Russia
protested, but the German emperor notified her that he stood by
Austria, and asked Russia if she was ready to fight. Russia and
France were not ready, and so they were obliged to back down, but
did so with a bitter feeling toward the “central empires,” as
Germany and Austria are called.
It has already been shown that England for a long time had been
suspicious of Russia, fearing that the northern power was aiming
at control of India. Of late this hostile feeling had been dying
out, especially as the friendship between France and Great
Britain grew stronger. It was impossible for Russia, France’s
partner in the Dual Alliance, to remain unfriendly to England,
France’s ally in the “Entente Cordiale.” Both England and Russia
felt that the growth of Germany and the ambition of her war
chiefs threatened them more than they had ever threatened each
other.
In 1907 Russia and England reached an understanding by which they
marked off two great parts of Persia for trading purposes, each
agreeing to stay in her own portion, and not disturb the traders
of the other country in theirs. After this Russia, England, and
France were usually found acting together in European diplomacy,
under the name of the “Triple Entente.” The “balance of power”
had been leaning toward Germany and her allies, but the English
navy, added to the scales on the other side, more than balanced
the advantage in land forces of the Triple Alliance.
Three years later, Morocco again gave trouble, and France, with
England’s backing and Spain’s friendship, sent her troops among
the Moors to enforce law and order. Any one could see that with
Tunis and Algeria already in French hands, it was only a question
of a little while before Morocco would be theirs also.
This time Germany rushed her warship _Panther_ to the Moorish
port of Agadir. This was a threat against France, and the French
appealed to England to know whether they could look to her for
support. Russia was now in much better shape for war than she had
been three years before, and notified France that she was ready
to give her support. Therefore, when Mr. Lloyd-George, the little
Welshman who was really the leader of the British government,
stood up before a big crowd of English bankers and told the world
that “to the last ship, the last man, the last penny,” England
would support France, it was plain that somebody would have to
back down or else start a tremendous European war.
It was now Germany’s turn to give way. Strong as she was, she did
not propose to fight France, Russia, and England combined. So,
although the French gave Germany a few square miles of land in
central Africa in return for the Kaiser’s agreement to let France
have her way in Morocco, the result was a backdown for Germany,
and it left scars which would not heal.
During all this period from 1898 to 1914 there were incidents
happening, any one of which might have started the world war.
Fashoda, Algeciras, Bosnia, Agadir—each time it seemed as if only
a miracle could avert the conflict. Europe was like a powder
magazine. No man knew when the spark might fall that would bring
on the explosion.
Questions for Review
What were the plans of the English regarding Africa?
How did Major Marchand threaten the peace of Europe?
Why was Germany ready to help France?
Why did Delcassé desire to keep peace with England?
Why was England suspicious of Russia?
Why did Germany cultivate the friendship of the Turks?
Why did not the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by
Austria start a general European war?
Why did England and Russia become friendly?
Why did not the Agadir incident bring about a war?