The Importance of the Agadir Crisis

The Agadir crisis, like so many of the precursors to World War I, was a relatively small event that became blown out of proportion.  The sending of a small German gunboat into the port of Agadir seemed to be a unnecessary act by Germany meant to provoke Great Britain.  With an arms race already existing between Germany and Great Britain, this incident was just Germany's way of casually announcing their readiness for naval battle.  The Germans thought that this intimidation tactic would have the result of joining forces with Great Britain, but instead Great Britain turned to France for support.  This led to France and Great Britain eventually becoming allies, which was not what Germany wanted.  All because of a silly power move, Germany lost the chance to ally themselves with a significant power.  Tensions that were already high because of the Germany-Great Britain arms race were further heightened by these events, leading to a European split and divisions that were a large cause of eventually World War I.