Rival Approaches to Morocco: Delcasse, Lyautey, and the Algerian-Moroccan Border, 1903-1905

Abstract

A somewhat neglected aspect of the first Moroccan crisis, despite an extensive literature on the subject, is a conflict that developed within the French government over policy concerning the Algerian-Moroccan border in 1903-5. The dispute had to do with military security in the border region, and pitted the foreign minister, Th6ophile Delcasse, against the military commander of the border district, General Louis-Hubert Lyautey. The disagreement was about an apparently minor matter, but it had a significant impact on the course of French policy toward Morocco on the eve of the crisis of 1905. For this reason the dispute merits consideration, particularly since it also shows how French army officers in the empire could influence the final direction of foreign policy. Although Algeria had been placed under civilian rule in the 1870's, the military continued to play an important part in unsettled frontier regions. One of the most turbulent of these areas was in southwestern Algeria, where French army officers argued that continued disturbances called for a firm military policy to prevent clashes between Moroccan bands and Algerians. A forceful spokesman for this view was General Lyautey, who became military commander of the border district in 1903. Lyautey had definite ideas about colonial pacification, and he was certain that the turbulence along the border could be controlled only through the determined action of the French Army, including the occupation of villages on the Moroccan side of the boundary. Delcasse was also a proponent of an active French policy in Morocco, but to him the Moroccan question was diplomatic rather than a matter of border security. He thought that France's position