España y la apertura de la cuestión marroquí (1897-1904)

Laburpena

Spains action as a power with claims to the Moroccan Sultanate was fairly relevant until 1896. It was nevertheless forced right into a background position as a result of the 98 disaster. The Restoration regime then had to face up to a complicated web of problems: the need to keep Cuba made a diplomatic rapprochement with France necessary while the imperialist pressure seen in Tuat and the Rif forced the Sagasta cabinet to attempt to reach an agreement with the United Kingdom. From 1900 the Silvela government undertook a diplomatic offensive attempting to take advantage of the Sultanates weakness to wrench the vast territories of Tarfaya and Sakia al-Hamra from it. The failure of this attempt would lead Sagastas liberal cabinet during the two years 1901-1902 to getting a Spanish-French negotiating process under way in which the distribution of Morocco was secretly discussed. After this agreement came to nothing, from 1903 the conservative cabinets of Silvela, Villaverde and A. Maura began a process of simultaneous rapprochement with the United Kingdom and France, in the new setting in which London and Paris settled their nineteenth century colonial differences. An enclave in the distribution of Morocco would finally be obtained as a result of this rapprochement.