The Morocco crisis, as we have already seen, produced in Germany a painful
impression, and strengthened there the elements making for war. Thus Baron
Beyens writes:--
The Moroccan conflicts made many Germans hitherto pacific regard another
war as a necessary evil.[4]
And again:--
The pacific settlement of the conflict of 1911 gave a violent impulse to
the war party in Germany, to the propaganda of the League of Defence and
the Navy League, and a greater force to their demands. To their dreams
of hegemony and domination the desire for revenge against France now
mingled its bitterness. A diplomatic success secured in an underground
struggle signified nothing. War, war in the open, that alone, in the eyes
of this rancorous tribe, could settle definitely the Moroccan question by
incorporating Morocco and all French Africa in the colonial empire they
hoped to create on the shores of the Mediterranean and in the heart of
the Black Continent.[5]
This we may take to be a correct description of the attitude of the
Pangermans. But there is no evidence that it was that of the nation.
We have seen also that Baron Beyens' impression of the attitude of the
German people, even after the Moroccan affair, was of a general desire
for peace.[6] The crisis had been severe, but it had been tided over, and
the Governments seem to have made renewed efforts to come into friendly
relations.
Pages:
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105