Tangier and Germany's challenge to France

The visit publicly backed the Sultan's sovereignty and encouraged resistance to French-directed reforms. The crisis was a wider German attempt to disrupt the Entente Cordiale and reshape the European balance, rather than simply a dispute over Morocco. Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow's gamble relied on Kaiser Wilhelm II's public intervention producing leverage that German diplomacy could exploit. The ensuing conference therefore became a test of whether Britain would stand visibly beside France.