Agadir

Agadir is a city in southwest Morocco. It is located on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, near the foot of the Atlas Mountains, just north of the point where the Sous River empties into the sea.

Founded by the Portuguese around 1500, the city came under Moroccan control in 1526. In 1911, the arrival of a German gunboat triggered the Agadir Crisis between France and Germany.

Agadir was almost totally destroyed by an earthquake on February 29, 1960.

Modern-day Agadir was rebuilt 2 kilometers south of the earthquake epicenter and is now a seaport and seaside resort with a large sandy beach. Because of its large buildings, wide roads, modern hotels, and European style cafés, some consider it not typically Moroccan.

Agadir is served by the Al Massira Airport.

The Agadir Crisis, also called the Second Moroccan Crisis, was the international tension sparked by the deployment of a German warship, the Panther, to the Moroccan port of Agadir on July 1, 1911.

Anglo-German tensions were especially high at this time since the Germans had started to attempt to surpass Britain's naval supremacy. When the British heard of the Panther's arrival in Morocco, they wrongly believed that the Germans meant to turn Agadir into a naval base on the Atlantic. The main result was to increase British fear and hostility and to draw Britain closer to France.

The German move was aimed at reinforcing claims for compensation for acceptance of effective French control of the North African kingdom, where France's pre-eminence had been upheld by the 1906 Algeciras Conference following the Tangier Crisis (or First Moroccan Crisis) of the previous year.

Franco-German negotiations initiated on July 9 led to the conclusion (November 4) of a convention under which Germany accepted France's position in Morocco in return for territory in the French Equatorial African colony of Middle Congo (now the Republic of the Congo).

France subsequently established a full protectorate over Morocco (March 30, 1912), ending what remained of the country's formal independence.

British backing for France during the crisis reinforced the Entente between the two countries and added to Anglo-German estrangement, deepening the divisions which would culminate in World War I