Entente cordiale
French activity in Morocco began at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1904 the French government was trying to establish a protectorate over Morocco and had managed to sign two bilateral secret agreements with Britain (8 April 1904, see Entente cordiale) and Spain (7 October 1904), which guaranteed the support of the powers in question in this endeavor. France and Spain secretly partitioned the territory of the sultanate, with Spain receiving concessions in the far north and south of the country.