This essay focuses on territorial conflicts between European masonic bodies outside Europe, and on the impact of these conflicts on inner-European masonic relations. The period between c. 1870 and c. 1930 marks the height of the European expansion respectively the age of ‘high imperialism’. It also marks the first wave of decolonization. The tides of international masonic relations mirror these overall developments. Bilateral territorial conflicts had a major impact on masonic internationalism around 1900 and in the interwar period. Geopolitical rivalry both deepened and blurred the demarcations between the various ideological ‘camps’ of (European) freemasonries. The ‘Association maçonnique internationale’ made efforts to implement a ‘Code de Droit Maçonnique international’ and to establish itself as a global tribunal of arbitration. By the end of the period, territorial jurisdiction had become a key issue when it came to defining masonic ‘regularity’.