In March 1903, two months after the outbreak of the California crisis, Kaiser Wilhelm II visited Moroccan ports and delivered an anti-French speech, provoking the Moroccan crisis.

The cause was French expansion in Morocco.

After the Boer War ended last year, Britain began to seek to improve relations with France in order to improve the situation in which it was hated by the whole of Europe, especially the Franco-Russian alliance and the German-Austrian alliance.

King Edward VII of England, who had just succeeded to the throne, visited France, and in the early days of his visit to France, the French were resistant to the English king.

Before deciding to go abroad, Edward VII asked the British Prime Minister "what will you be treated", and the Prime Minister said that someone might vomit in your face, and Edward VII said, "If it does vomit on my face, I will not wipe it, let the wind dry it." ”

He did, showing his bearing with his own face.

After arriving in France, the French people on the streets of Paris were very unfriendly, shouting "Long live the Boers" and "Long live Fashoda", giving Edward VII a dismount.

But Edward VII was not annoyed, smiling and waving everywhere, showing charm to anyone.

He delivered an impassioned speech in France, praising the greatness of the French people and French culture, expressing his admiration and love for France, and claiming that Britain and France were neighbors who were dependent on each other. During the visit, Edward VII quickly stood up and saluted whenever he heard the "Marseillaise"!

As a result of these brilliant political performances, when he embarked on his return journey, the French spontaneously gathered at the pier to say goodbye, and the cry of "Long live the king" sounded in the crowd, which was the first time since the Franco-Prussian War that the French sounded the cry of "Long live the king".

Soon after Edward VII's visit, an agreement was reached between Britain and France, the main content of which was that France would not interfere in British operations in Egypt, and that Britain recognized France's power to maintain peace and assist in reform in Morocco. delineating the spheres of influence of the two countries in Siam; Bounded by the Mekong River, the western half is the British sphere of influence, and the eastern half is the French sphere of influence; France relinquished its exclusive fishing rights in Newfoundland, and Britain ceded some of France's colonies in West Africa.

The success of the Anglo-French Entente cannot be attributed entirely to the political showmanship of the British king, because France had already taken the lead in showing goodwill, and the French foreign minister was the first to express his willingness to act in concert with Britain on international issues, saying that France did not produce goods exported by Britain, such as cotton, only wine and luxury goods, and there was no conflict of interest with Britain.

Edward VII's visit to France was also invited by the President of France.

Therefore, it is more that France is unwilling to make enemies with any other country under the pressure of Germany, especially a world hegemon like Britain, since Germany is challenging the British Empire, France of course wants to win over Britain.

In contrast, the Tsar also visited Germany on a political mission in 1875, and in order to defuse the German threat to France, Bismarck gave in to express Russia's unwillingness to see Germany continue to weaken France. But the Tsar's high-profile publicity of this matter made the whole of Europe know that it was the Tsar who protected France at a critical moment. The Tsar put all the honor on his face, which led to the deterioration of the German perception of Russia, at which point German-Russian relations began to decline, and a few years later Bismarck stopped his economic blood transfusion to Russia and refused to lend money to Russia.

If the Tsar had been able to keep a low profile and portray himself not as a protector of France, but as a humble pacifist, it would have been more acceptable to the Germans.

The Moroccan crisis was actually triggered by the German emperor's tsar-like performance.

First, after signing the Entente with the British, the French received British support for their actions in Morocco.

The French soon demanded that the Moroccan government carry out reforms under French supervision, demanded the control of customs duties at Morocco's important ports, demanded that Morocco hire French military instructors, and demanded that Morocco give France the right to mine and build roads, hoping to strengthen French control over Morocco and make Morocco a French protectorate.

But Germany did not do it, Germany did not have much privilege in Morocco, but had economic interests, they were exporting and re-exporting goods to Morocco in large quantities. For example, before the Moroccan crisis, France re-exported four to five hundred tons of tea to Morocco, and Germany also re-exported more than 100 tons. But Germany had no other privileges in Morocco, and Morocco was also separated by half a European euro, so it could not compete with France for it.

However, Kaiser Wilhelm II immediately visited the Moroccan port of Tangier, claiming that the Sultan of Morocco was an "independent monarch" and that the Great Powers had "absolute equality" in Morocco, and openly opposed France's use of Morocco as its protectorate.

The Kaiser's flamboyant tone made France unable to step down, and it had a Moroccan protector's tone, which made France very dissatisfied, and the German emperor also asked for an international conference to discuss the Moroccan question.

In this era, no powerful country would leave its fate to an international verdict, which in itself is seen as interference in its own power, as well as a humiliation. Because only the fate of the loser will be decided by other countries. For example, France after the Napoleonic Wars.

Even when the war between the United States and the Ming Dynasty was the most difficult, it never let the international community intervene, because once the great powers intervened, the independence of their own power would not exist, and it was easy to lose power. Spain's colonies were left to international adjudication, and the fate of partition was obtained.

Therefore, the French regarded the German Emperor's request as an insult to France, and the newspapers of the two countries reported insulting remarks against each other, and the French foreign minister took a tough attitude and had the posture of not hesitating to fight.

Germany was also very tough, even threatening to cross the German-French border if the French army landed in Morocco.

Once Germany and France fought, many countries did not want to see it, such as Austria-Hungary, which did not want to see it dragged into the war. But they did not dare not stand on the side of Germany when the war broke out, otherwise Germany would not have supported Austria-Hungary against Russia. In fact, Russia does not want to see the outbreak of war, this is the best time for Russia, the period of the most rapid economic development, and it is the opportunity to catch up with the advanced countries, and the Russian politicians see it very clearly. Britain also did not want to see the outbreak of war, and Britain, which had just ended the Boer War, was recovering and was extremely dissatisfied with the strength of its own army, and planned to strengthen the training level of the army and carry out reforms. At this time, the British Empire did not have the ability to export power to the European continent, so it was reluctant to see Germany and France go to war.

The whole of Europe does not want to see the outbreak of a war between Germany and France, but China needs such a war very much, and it needs a world war to make enough room for itself to adjust geographically, mainly to take the opportunity to carve up the territory of the United States.

Because while Europe remains stable, even if China defeats the United States again and occupies the western part of the United States again, there is not enough geopolitical space for China to swallow it, which will inevitably lead to the intervention of European powers. But if Europe fights among itself, it will leave huge political space for China.

Before World War I, wars between countries basically did not change the geopolitical structure, and in the end Prussia did not cede much French territory in a war of this scale. The reason for this is the geopolitical balance in Europe, where other countries cannot accept any victorious country becoming too powerful.

Therefore, after Prussia defeated France and established a powerful German Empire, other countries began to support France, so that Germany could not swallow France at all, and the ceded Alsace and Lorraine were at best only one percent of France proper. In the same way, even if China defeats the United States, it is impossible for them to accept China as a great empire across the Pacific Ocean when the geopolitical balance in Europe is balanced, and they will inevitably support the United States.

Now there is a change, Germany and France are almost at war on the Moroccan issue, in this case, the European countries have to concentrate their forces on Morocco, the attention to the United States is greatly reduced, and most importantly, because Morocco, which is close to Europe, has caused conflicts within European countries, which gives China a huge geopolitical space to act in the United States.

So Zhu Jinglun got the Chinese diplomats to change their attitude and put forward a new proposal to the United States, demanding that the US troops completely withdraw from California, allow Chinese, white and Indian people to be autonomous in the local area, and establish an autonomous government.

The United States refused, and China declared the breakdown of negotiations, announcing that it would send a fleet to San Francisco, in the name of protecting the diaspora.

The war between China and the United States is on the verge of breaking out again.

At the same time, a high-level delegation was sent to visit Germany, and Crown Prince Zhu Ninghua, together with the Chinese consul in Germany, began to communicate closely with German dignitaries, hoping to encourage Germany to go to war against France.

Of course, mere rhetoric will not help, even if the Germans do not see the tangible benefits, they still dare not upset the balance of Europe, and the Germans must be allowed to see a fleeting opportunity.

This was the strategy of the minister to Germany, Fang Lun, who told the Germans that if Germany and France went to war at this time, China could help contain the Russian forces, and China could deploy at least a million troops in the border area. Under China's containment, Russia absolutely did not dare to rashly start a war with Germany, and at this time Germany only needed to fight against France, and did not need to fight on two fronts.

The German military was interested in this proposal, and at this time the German chief of the General Staff was Schlieffen, whose famous Schlieffen plan was constantly being perfected, and the core of this plan was that the eastern countries could contain Russia (historically Japan).

As long as the eastern countries were able to contain Russia, and the German power was against France, and all forces were devoted to attacking Paris on the flanks, it would only take six to eight weeks to end the war.

But what can Germany gain from a war, no matter how small the cost, and who will go to war if it does not gain anything.

Fang Lun proved to Germany that they could reap more benefits than they could have imagined, and that was to undermine the Franco-Russian alliance that was pressing on Germany's head.

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