Friendly understanding between Britain and France. It aimed to settle territorial disputes and to encourage cooperation against perceived German pressure. Britain was to be given a free hand in Egyptian affairs and France in Morocco. Germany, concerned over this entente, tested its strength by provoking a crisis in Morocco in 1905, leading to the Algeciras Conference (1906). The entente was extended in 1907 to include Russia and culminated in the formal alliance of Britain, France, and Russia in World War I against the Central Powers and the Ottoman empire.