"by means of the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1894, then the 1904 ""Entente Cordiale"" with the U.K, and finally, with the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907 this became the Triple Entente, which eventually led France and the UK to enter World War I as Allies when Germany declared war on Russia. Distrust of Germany, faith in the army and anti-semitism in parts of the French public opinion combined to make the Dreyfus affair (the unjust trial and condemnation of a Jewish military officer for treason) a political scandal of the utmost gravity. The nation was divided between ""dreyfusards"" and"
"Key markers were the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1894, the 1904 Entente Cordiale with Great Britain and finally the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907, which became the Triple Entente. This informal alignment with Britain and formal alliance with Russia against Germany and Austria eventually led Russia and Britain to enter World War I as France's allies. Britain abandoned its ""splendid isolation"" policy in the 1900s after having been isolated during the Boer War. Britain concluded agreements, limited to colonial affairs, with its two major colonial rivals: the Entente Cordiale with France in 1904 and the Anglo-Russian Entente of 1907. Some historians see"
"Entente Cordiale, an agreement delineating British and French colonies in North Africa, and ruling out any future war between the two countries. The Entente was negotiated in 1904 between the French foreign minister, Théophile Delcassé, and the British foreign secretary, Lord Lansdowne. It marked the end of centuries of Anglo-French rivalry and Britain's splendid isolation from Continental affairs, and attempted to counterbalance the growing dominance of the German Empire and its ally, Austria-Hungary. Edward was related to nearly every other European monarch, and came to be known as the ""uncle of Europe"". German Emperor Wilhelm II and Emperor Nicholas II"
"in 1890, Russian leaders grew alarmed at the country's diplomatic isolation and joined the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1894. In 1904, Britain and France signed a series of agreements, the Entente cordiale, mostly in solving colonial disputes. That heralded the end of British splendid isolation and was partly a response to growing German antagonism, as expressed in the expansion of the ""Kaiserliche Marine"" (Imperial Navy) to become a battle fleet that could threaten the supremacy of the British Royal Navy. The Entente, unlike the Triple Alliance and the Franco-Russian Alliance, was not an alliance of mutual defence and so Britain was"
"against threats from France and Russia. They also downplay the impact of Weltpolitik and the Anglo-German naval race, which ended in 1911. Britain and France signed a series of agreements in 1904,which became known as the Entente Cordiale. The most important feature of the agreement was that it granted freedom of action to the UK in Egypt and to France in Morocco. Equally, the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 is the common name used for the Convention between the United Kingdom and Russia relating to Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet. The convention brought shaky British–Russian relations to the forefront by solidifying boundaries"
"the ""second"" Entente Cordiale, that is to say, the written and partly secret agreement signed in London between the two powers on 8 April 1904. The agreement was a change for both countries. France had been isolated from the other European powers, mostly as a result of the efforts of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to estrange France from potential allies, as it was thought that France might seek revenge for its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. The United Kingdom had maintained a policy of ""splendid isolation"" on the European continent for nearly a century, intervening in continental"
"war, both powers ""shucked off their ancient rivalry"" and resolved their differences in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific. Toward this end, French foreign minister Théophile Delcassé, and Lord Lansdowne, the British Foreign Secretary, negotiated an agreement on colonial matters, and Lord Lansdowne and Paul Cambon, the French Ambassador to the UK, signed the resulting convention on 8 April 1904. The Entente was composed of three documents: It is unclear what exactly the ""Entente"" meant to the British Foreign Office. For example, in early 1911 following French press reports contrasting the virility of the Triple Alliance with the moribund"
"Britain to enter World War I as France's Allies. French foreign policy in the years leading up to the First World War was based largely on hostility to and fear of German power. France secured an alliance with the Russian Empire in 1894 after diplomatic talks between Germany and Russia had failed to produce any working agreement. The Franco-Russian Alliance served as the cornerstone of French foreign policy until 1917. A further link with Russia was provided by vast French investments and loans before 1914. In 1904, French foreign minister Théophile Delcassé negotiated the ""Entente Cordiale"" with Lord Lansdowne, the"
"Sir Christopher Mallaby, British ambassador to France between 1993 and 1996. Entente Cordiale The Entente Cordiale () was a series of agreements signed on 8 April 1904 between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the French Republic which saw a significant improvement in Anglo-French relations. Beyond the immediate concerns of colonial expansion addressed by the agreement, the signing of the Entente Cordiale marked the end of almost a thousand years of intermittent conflict between the two states and their predecessors, and replaced the ""modus vivendi"" that had existed since the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815"
"Anglo-French Alliance (1716–1731) The Anglo-French Alliance is the name for the alliance between Great Britain and France between 1716 and 1731. It formed part of the stately quadrille in which the Great Powers of Europe repeatedly switched partners to try to build a superior alliance. Following the end of the War of the Spanish Succession by the Treaty of Utrecht, British and French interests converged as they wished to stop the expansion of Spanish and Russian power. Although British Whig politicians had attacked the Treaty of Utrecht under the slogan ""No Peace Without Spain"", given it seemingly placed Spain under"
"Franco-British Union A Franco-British Union is a concept for a union between the two independent sovereign states of the United Kingdom and France. Such a union was proposed during certain crises of the 20th century; it has some historical precedents. Ties between France and the Kingdom of England have been intimate since the Norman Conquest, in which the Duke of Normandy, an important French fief, became King of England, while also owing feudal ties to the French crown. The relationship was never stable, and it only endured as long as the French crown was weak. From 1066 to 1214, the"
"Franco-British Union A Franco-British Union is a concept for a union between the two independent sovereign states of the United Kingdom and France. Such a union was proposed during certain crises of the 20th century; it has some historical precedents. Ties between France and the Kingdom of England have been intimate since the Norman Conquest, in which the Duke of Normandy, an important French fief, became King of England, while also owing feudal ties to the French crown. The relationship was never stable, and it only endured as long as the French crown was weak. From 1066 to 1214, the"
"Germany on its own, but their combined power might do so. France had finally escaped its diplomatic isolation. The alliance was secret until 1897, when the French government realized that secrecy was defeating its deterrent value. After France was humiliated by Britain in the Fashoda Incident of 1898, the French wanted the alliance to become an anti-British alliance. In 1900, the alliance was amended to name Great Britain as a threat and stipulated that should Britain attack France, Russia would invade India. The French provided a loan so that the Russians could start the construction of a railroad from Orenburg"
"Entente Cordiale The Entente Cordiale () was a series of agreements signed on 8 April 1904 between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the French Republic which saw a significant improvement in Anglo-French relations. Beyond the immediate concerns of colonial expansion addressed by the agreement, the signing of the Entente Cordiale marked the end of almost a thousand years of intermittent conflict between the two states and their predecessors, and replaced the ""modus vivendi"" that had existed since the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 with a more formal agreement. The Entente Cordiale was the culmination"
"forces ejected the Swedish troops in April 1806. Apart from some naval clashes and the peripheral Battle of Maida in southern Italy in July 1806 (though these actions are considered part of the tail end of the War of the Third Coalition), the main conflicts between Britain and France during the Fourth Coalition would involve no direct general military confrontation. Rather, there was an escalation in the ongoing economic warfare between the two powers. With Britain still retaining its dominance of the seas, Napoleon looked to break this dominance (after his defeat of Prussia) with his issuance of the Berlin"
"them. France had finally escaped its diplomatic isolation. In its continuing effort to isolate Germany, France went to great pains to woo Great Britain, notably in the 1904 Entente Cordiale with Great Britain, and finally the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907 which became the Triple Entente.Paris and London had a high level military discussions about coordination in a joint war against Germany. By 1914, Russia and France worked together and Britain was hostile enough toward Germany to join them as soon as Germany invaded Belgium. In the 1880s relations between Britain and Germany improved as the key policy-makers, Prime Minister Lord"
"removal in 1890, French efforts to isolate Germany became successful; with the formation of the Triple Entente, Germany began to feel encircled. Foreign minister Delcassé, especially, went to great pains to woo Russia and Great Britain. Key markers were the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1894, the 1904 Entente Cordiale with Great Britain, and finally the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907 which became the Triple Entente. This formal alliance with Russia, and informal alignment with Britain, against Germany and Austria eventually led Russia and Britain to enter World War I as France's Allies. By 1914 French foreign policy was thus based on an"
"Cordiale with France and the 1907 Anglo-Russian Convention were not formal alliances and both focused on colonial boundaries in Asia and Africa. However, they cleared the way for co-operation in other areas, making British entry into any future conflict involving France or Russia a possibility; these interlocking bilateral agreements became known as the Triple Entente. Britain supported France against Germany in the 1911 Agadir Crisis, with the two countries informally agreeing to cooperate in other areas. By 1914, both the Army and Royal Navy were committed to support France in the event of war with Germany but few even in"
"united Germany, aside from Austria, with its Empire), the two were able to establish the Entente Cordiale by 1904, demonstrating that the ""First"" and ""Second"" Hundred Years' Wars were in the past; cultural differences continued, but violent conflict was over. Many in Europe referred to Great Britain as ""Perfidious Albion"", suggesting that it was a fundamentally untrustworthy nation. People compared Britain and France to ancient Carthage and Rome, respectively, with the former being cast as a greedy imperialist state that collapsed, while the latter was an intellectual and cultural capital that flourished: The republicans knew as well as the Bourbons"
"War of the Fourth Coalition The Fourth Coalition fought against Napoleon's French Empire and was defeated in a war spanning 1806–1807. Coalition partners included Prussia, Russia, Saxony, Sweden, and Great Britain. Several members of the coalition had previously been fighting France as part of the Third Coalition, and there was no intervening period of general peace. On 9 October 1806, Prussia joined a renewed coalition, fearing the rise in French power after the defeat of Austria and establishment of the French-sponsored Confederation of the Rhine. Prussia and Russia mobilized for a fresh campaign, and Prussian troops massed in Saxony. Napoleon"
"the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. Up to 1940, relations between Britain and France were closer than those between Britain and the US. This also started the beginning of the French and British ""Special Relationship"". After 1907 the British fleet was built up to stay far ahead of Germany. However Britain nor France committed itself to entering a war if Germany attacked the other. In 1904 Paris and London agreed that Britain would establish a protectorate over Egypt, and France would do the same over Morocco. Germany objected, and the conference at Algeciras in 1906 settled the issue"
"become essential to Emperor Wilhelm's II plans for expansion of the Imperial Navy. Wilhelm's naval policies aborted an accommodation with the British and ultimately led to a rapprochement between Britain and France, sealed with the ""Entente cordiale"" in 1904. The misleading name for the treaty was introduced by ex-Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who intended to attack his despised successor Caprivi for concluding an agreement that Bismarck himself had arranged during his incumbency. However, Bismarck's nomenclature implied that Germany had swapped an African empire for tiny Heligoland (""trousers for a button""). This was eagerly adopted by imperialists, who complained about ""treason"""
"when France was permitted to retain most of its conquered territory in Europe. France, meanwhile, was upset that British troops had not evacuated the island of Malta. In May 1803, Britain declared war on France. With the resumption of hostilities, Napoleon (proclaimed Emperor in 1804) planned an invasion of England, spending the better part of the next two years (1803–05) on this objective. In December 1804, an Anglo-Swedish agreement led to the creation of the Third Coalition. British Prime Minister William Pitt spent 1804 and 1805 in a flurry of diplomatic activity geared towards forming a new coalition against France"
"occupiers and the beginning of the Peninsular War. War of the Fourth Coalition The Fourth Coalition fought against Napoleon's French Empire and was defeated in a war spanning 1806–1807. Coalition partners included Prussia, Russia, Saxony, Sweden, and Great Britain. Several members of the coalition had previously been fighting France as part of the Third Coalition, and there was no intervening period of general peace. On 9 October 1806, Prussia joined a renewed coalition, fearing the rise in French power after the defeat of Austria and establishment of the French-sponsored Confederation of the Rhine. Prussia and Russia mobilized for a fresh"
"powers reduced the virtual isolation into which they had withdrawn—France involuntarily, the UK complacently—while they had eyed each other over African affairs. The UK had no ally but Japan (1902), of little use if war should break out in European waters; France had none but Russia, soon to be discredited in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. The agreement was upsetting to Germany, whose policy had long been to rely on Franco-British antagonism. A German attempt to check the French in Morocco in 1905 (the Tangier Incident, or First Moroccan Crisis), and thus upset the Entente, served only to strengthen it."
"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 endeavour. France and Spain secretly partitioned the territory of the sultanate, with Spain receiving concessions in the far north and south of the country. The First Moroccan Crisis grew out of the imperial rivalries of the great powers, in this case, between Germany on one side and France, with British support, on the other. Germany took immediate diplomatic action to block the new accord from going into effect, including the dramatic visit"
"been allies for nearly a decade. By 1719 they had become part of a wider Quadruple Alliance, which was overwhelmingly the most powerful force in European politics. This had been demonstrated during the War of the Quadruple Alliance, a largely naval war in the Mediterranean by which the powers had defeated a Spanish attempt to reclaim lost territory in Italy. The alliance was unpopular, however, with many in parliament and in the country who continued to consider France Britain's natural enemy. Newcastle had been joined in government by his young brother Henry Pelham. The two brothers got on well, although"
"only official title. These achievements, however, did not establish a lasting peace on the continent. Prussian worries about growing French influence in Central Europe sparked the War of the Fourth Coalition in 1806. Europe had been in turmoil since the start of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1792. In 1797, after five years of war, the French Republic subdued the First Coalition, an alliance of Austria, Prussia, Great Britain, Spain, and various Italian states. A Second Coalition, led by Britain, Austria and Russia, and including the Ottoman Empire, Portugal and Naples, was formed in 1798, but by 1801, this too"
"so called ""Splendid Isolation"", in the 1900s after being isolated during the Boer War. Britain concluded agreements, limited to colonial affairs, with her two major colonial rivals: the Entente Cordiale with France in 1904 and the Anglo-Russian Entente of 1907. Britain's alignment a reaction to an assertive German foreign policy and the buildup of its navy from 1898 which led to the Anglo-German naval arms race. British diplomat Arthur Nicolson argued it was ""far more disadvantageous to us to have an unfriendly France and Russia than an unfriendly Germany"". The impact of the Triple Entente was to improve British relations"
"recognized French primacy in Morocco. This enabled Britain and France to move closer together, finally achieving a informal military relationship after 1904. French diplomacy was largely independent of domestic affairs; economic, cultural and religious interest groups paid little attention to foreign affairs. Permanent professional diplomats and bureaucrats had developed their own traditions of how to operate at the Quai d'Orsay (where the Foreign Ministry was located), and their style changed little from generation to generation. Most of the diplomats came from high status aristocratic families. Although France was one of the few republics in Europe, its diplomats mingled smoothly with"
"is unknown, as is the date when the possibility was first discussed. However, the two nations had secretly discussed forming a closer relationship since 1663. The only participants in the talks to begin with were Louis XIV of France, Charles II of England, and Charles's sister Henrietta, ""duchesse d'Orléans"". Louis was first cousin to Charles (through their grandfather Henry IV of France). Henrietta was also Louis's sister-in-law through her marriage to his only brother Phillippe, ""duc d'Orléans"". By the secret treaty Charles was to abandon England's Triple Alliance with Sweden and the Dutch Republic in favour of assisting Louis in"
"led to the 1904 Entente Cordiale, the first tangible impact of which was British support for France against Germany in the 1905 Moroccan Crisis. In 1907, the new Liberal government agreed the Anglo-Russian Convention. Like the Entente, the Convention focused on resolving colonial disputes but by doing so, paved the way for wider co-operation and allowed Britain to refocus its naval resources in response to German naval expansion. The 1911 Agadir Crisis encouraged secret military negotiations between France and Britain in the case of war with Germany. A British Expeditionary Force of 100,000 men would be landed in France within"
"were on opposite sides during the War of the Austrian Succession and their colonial rivalry in North America continued. Some have suggested that between 1688 and 1815 Britain and France were 'natural enemies' and the period has become known as the Second Hundred Years' War, but the 17 years spent as allies has been used to challenge the theory that the two states were implacable enemies. Anglo-French Alliance (1716–1731) The Anglo-French Alliance is the name for the alliance between Great Britain and France between 1716 and 1731. It formed part of the stately quadrille in which the Great Powers of"