Agadir

• Location: Morocco
• Variant names: Santa Cruz

'Embankment', possibly from the Tuareg ağādir to describe the slope on which the town was built overlooking the harbour, or from the Phoenician gadir 'masonry wall enclosing a town'. The Portuguese, who occupied it in 1505–41, called it Santa Cruz 'Holy Cross'. The Agadir Crisis erupted in 1911 when a German gunboat appeared offshore to challenge the French position in Morocco by claiming to 'protect German interests' and, indeed, to enhance them. The Germans backed down and French troops occupied the town in 1913.

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