286 
EUROPE AND AFRICA 
secure the suzerainty of Morocco was not accomplished 
without encountering many and serious difficulties, not the 
least of which were the intrigues of competing European 
states. But it has contributed materially to the develop- 
ment of an equitable balance of power in Europe and to the 
establishment of an enlightened codperation of the powers 
in the partition and administration of the Dark Continent. 
It has been shown above (chapters vi, x, and x1) how 
France secured control over Algeria and Tunisia, the Sahara 
and Senegal, so that her possessions extended from the 
Atlantic to the Mediterranean in the rear of Morocco, and 
how she fortified her position by treaties with Great Britain 
in 1882, 1889, 1898, and 1899, and with the German Empire 
in 1894 and 1897. But this was not sufficient to insure the 
complete success of the French colonial empire and the per- 
manent establishment of good order and security in northern 
Africa. Three things remained to be accomplished: the 
completion of a definite understanding with Great Britain as 
to the administration of affairs in North Africa, the develop- 
ment of a system of alliances that would give France a posi- 
tion of security in European circles, and the placing of 
Morocco under French protection. Accordingly, M. Del- 
cassé, who had been so successful in conducting French 
colonial politics, turned his attention to the field of con- 
tinental diplomacy. 
[n 1891, the first and basal of all the treaties — that be- 
tween France and Russia — was arranged; but it did not 
become a really complete and harmonious alliance until 
1898. This was followed by the Italian-French “Rapproche- 
ment” which began with treaties of commerce and naviga- 
tion in 1896-98 and was consummated through definite 
understandings concerning Tunis and Tripoli in 1899, 1900, 
and 1902.1 And after 1900 the relations of France and Italy 
1 See L’ Afrique Francaise. January, 1920, pp. 20-23.