History question for you Empire folks...

Ammo08

I'm actually being lazy. I'm sure I can research this..however...

What caused the British to suddenly be good buddies with the French after 1000 years of war? The British and French fought each other tooth and nail until around the 1820s or 1830s,,then they make friends and go after the Russians.....and they are keeping the Germans at arm's length...that's a pretty drastic change in policy...

What happened?

Number24

I think the traditional British strategy on the European continent has been to back/ally with the SECOND most powerful country in mainland Europe. This makes sense: if you back the most powerful nation, they might very well get too powerful and invade Britain. If you back someone too weak, you get too little leverage on the mainland. But if you back the second most powerful, you can balance or even win over the most powerful nation there. For a long time France was the main power on the mainland, so other nations were Britain's allies. Back then it was also a point to ally with Protestant countries. But after Germany unified in the 1870's the country quickly became the powerhouse of mainland Europe and the UK needed other allies to keep them in check.

Ammo08

That makes a lot of sense, especially about siding with whoever is number 2.

Silhouette Man

Yes, and the Entente Cordials of 1904 further sealed the deal between the UK and France of course.