when France was sending troops into the interior to put down disorders
among the natives, Germany sent a gunboat to Agadir (ah-gah-deer´), on
the west coast of Morocco. It looked as if she intended to take
possession of the port there. France protested and the affair began to
look very warlike. England came to the support of France, and Germany
gave up all claim to Morocco, taking in exchange about 100,000 square
miles in equatorial Africa. After this humiliation the German
militarists became more determined than ever to force the war which they
thought would make Germany supreme over her rivals.

THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE.--The various jealousies among the nations of
Europe which we have just considered, and particularly the general fear
of the growing power of the German Empire, largely explain the strong
international alliances which came into existence between 1870 and 1914.

Germany, after 1870, knew that France would for many years be too weak
to retake Alsace-Lorraine. All that German leaders had to fear was that
France might succeed in securing powerful friends among the other
nations and that a strong combination of countries might some day
challenge Germany's supremacy on the Continent. To prevent or at any
rate to counterbalance any such combination, Germany looked about for
allies upon whose help she might rely in case of necessity. At first she
planned a general league of friendship with the great countries lying to
the east and southeast, Russia and Austria-Hungary. This combination,
known as the League of the Three Emperors, was soon broken up by the
growing jealousies of Russia and Austria in the Balkans. Germany, having
to choose which of these two nations she would support, decided in favor
of Austria. There followed a growing coldness in the relations between
Germany and Russia.