Germany despatches the gunship SMS Panther to Morocco, sparking the Agadir Crisis.
The Agadir Crisis, Agadir Incident or Second Moroccan Crisis (also known as the Panthersprung in German) was a brief crisis sparked by the deployment of a substantial force of French troops in the interior of Morocco in April 1911 and the deployment of a German gunboat to Agadir, a Moroccan Atlantic port. Germany did not object to France's expansion but wanted territorial compensation for itself. Berlin threatened warfare, sent a gunboat, and stirred up German nationalists. Negotiations between Berlin and Paris resolved the crisis on 4 November 1911: France took over Morocco as a protectorate in exchange for territorial concessions to Germany from the French Congo.In Britain, David Lloyd George, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, made a dramatic "Mansion House" speech on 21 July 1911 with the consent of the prime minister and Foreign Secretary Grey, bypassing the non-interventionist majority in the Cabinet, that denounced the German move as an intolerable humiliation. There was talk of war and Germany backed down; relations between Berlin and London worsened and the British moved closer to France. Berlin felt humiliated and began to realize that it was operating with no allies against multiple adversaries.
![Agadir Crisis](https://cdn.calendarz.com/uploads/events/july/1/61803/sms-panther_thumb.jpg)
SMS Panther was one of six Iltis-class gunboats of the Kaiserliche Marine and, like its sister ships, served in Germany's overseas colonies. The ship was launched on 1 April 1901 in the Kaiserliche Werft, Danzig. It had a crew of 9 officers and 121 men.