Abstract
Despite the signing of the Anglo-Russian agreement on Persia in 1907, which added the final corner to what became known as the Triple Entente, Europe was not yet unequivocally divided into the two opposing blocs which would confront each other in 1914. Triple Alliance and Triple Entente were as yet relatively flexible. For instance, shortly after concluding the agreement with Britain, Russia balanced it first by an agreement with Japan which weakened the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, then by an agreement with Germany to protect the status quo in the Baltic, and finally by proposals to the Austrians to extend the Balkan entente of 1897. Flirtations, agreements and ententes across the alliances were commonplace. No one as yet knew how far Britain, and indeed France, would go in supporting Russia in the event of a war after the Bosnian crisis of 1908–9. It was not even clear whether Britain would be willing to give military assistance to France. Finally, France’s attitude to the Triple Entente since Delcassé’s departure was lax and characteristic of the general diplomatic ‘laisser-aller’ of successive Radical ministries. The Radicals returned to power stronger than ever in the general elections of 1906, but their apparent strength was offset by signs of weakness which encouraged some foreign observers to question the solidity of the régime and to doubt the value of France as an ally.1 Certainly it was nothing new for domestic problems to dominate French Cabinet policy, but the period between 1906 and 1911 was characterised by a series of new and extremely divisive problems which led to a particular introspection.
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Notes and References
J. P. T. Bury, France, 1814–1940 (London, 1949; paperback edn, London, 1969) pp. 210-11.
D.W. Brogan, The Development of Modern France, 1870–1939 (London, 1945) p. 443.
Ibid., p. 444.
Bompard to Minister, 13 Jan 1912, D.D.F., 3e série, I, no. 465.
Allizé to Poincaré, 20 Feb 1912, ibid., II, no. 70.
Paul Cambon to Poincaré, 7 Mar 1912, ibid., no. 168.
Poincaré to Paul Cambon, 13 Mar 1912, ibid., no. 193.
Poincaré to Louis, 24 Mar 1912, ibid., no. 254.
See for example, Louis to P. Loüys, 28 Nov 1911, 30 Jan 1912(?) MAE G. Louis Mss., 3.
Louis to Poincaré, 20 Mar 1912, MAE N.S. Russia 41.
Poincaré to Louis, 8 Apr 1912, ibid., no. 310.
Poincaré to Louis, 11 Apr 1912, MAE N.S. Russia 41.
Isvolsky to Sazonov, 29 Feb 1912, L.N., I, pp. 203-4.
R. Poincaré, Au service de la France, vol. I (Paris, 1926) pp. 301, 322 et seq., 359.
See Isvolsky to Sazonov, 17 and 23 May 1912, L.N., I; Poincaré to Barrère, 20 May 1912, MAE N.S. Russia 41; G. Louis, Les carnets de G. Louis, vol. II (Paris, 1926) 21 May 1912, p. 19; Bertie to Nicolson, 18 May 1912, FO 800/356; M. Paléologue, Au quai d’Orsay à la veille de la tourmente (Paris, 1947) p. 53.
Poincaré to Paul Cambon, 15 Oct 1912, D.D.F., 3e série, IV, no. 170.
Notes, meeting with Sazonov on Serbo-Bulgarian treaty. MAE N.S. Russia 41.
Notes, MAE N.S. Russia 41, pp. 273 et seq.
R. Girault believes that in order to safeguard the Alliance, Poincaré abandoned the principle of the status quo in the Near East. R. Girault, ‘Les Balkans dans les relations franco-russes en 1912’, La Revue Historique, no. 513 (1975) 175. This is not so, see Poincaré to London, Vienna, Berlin, 4 Oct 1912, D.D.F., 3e série, IV, no. 41; Poincaré to Paul Cambon, 8 Oct 1912, ibid., no. 92.
Paul Cambon to Poincaré, 9 Oct 1912, D.D.F., 3e série, IV, no. 107.
E. Halévy, A History of the English People in the Nineteenth Century, vol. VI, The Rule of Democracy, 1905–14 (English trans., 1934; paperback edn, London, 1961) p. 628.
Henri Cambon (on Paléologue’s and Poincaré’s behalf) to Jules Cambon, 31 Oct 1912, in the possession of M. Louis Cambon.
Georges Louis to Pierre Loüys, 31 Oct 1912, MAE G. Louis Mss., 3; Poincaré to Louis, 10 Nov 1912, D.D.F., 3e série, IV, no. 413; Louis to Pierre Loüys, 19 Nov 1912, MAE Louis Mss., 3.
Paul Cambon to Poincaré, 12 Nov 1912, D.D.F., 3e série, IV, no. 434; Poincaré to Louis, 13 Nov 1912, ibid., IV, no. 443.
Poincaré to Isvolsky, 16 Nov 1912, ibid., no. 468. Poincaré explained to Louis what he was trying to do. He had abstained from any words which could be interpreted as a ‘failing in support’ for he knew that in 1908–9 Isvolsky had attributed the failure of his policy to the hesitation of France. ‘I want to be quite sure that reproaches of this type cannot be levelled at us and that responsibilities which are not our own are not attributed to us.’ Poincaré to Louis, 16 Nov 1912, ibid., no. 469.
Poincaré, Au service, II, pp. 334-8.
Poincaré to Louis, 16 Nov 1912, D.D.F., 3e série, IV, no. 469.
Isvolsky to Sazonov, 17 Nov 1912, Mezhdunarodyne otnosheniya, 2nd ser., xxi (i) no. 280, quoted in Taylor, Struggle for Mastery, p. 493.
Poincaré to Louis, 19 Nov 1912, D.D.F., 3e série, IV, no. 494.
Paul Cambon to Jules Cambon, 6 Feb 1913, letter in the possession of M. Louis Cambon. Prime Minister Briand described Louis as ‘a wreck’, in Paléologue, A la veille de la tourmente, 11 Feb 1913, pp. 32-3; 17 Feb 1913, pp. 50-1.
AN Paul Deschanel Mss., 151 AP 44, Poincaré notes.
Bertie to Grey, 17 Mar 1906, FO 800/164, quoted by K. I. Hamilton in F. H. Hinsley (ed.), British Foreign Policy under Sir Edward Grey (Cambridge, 1977) p. 118.
Quoted in C. M. Andrew and A. S. Kanya-Forstner, France Overseas, the Great War and the Climax of French Imperial Expansion (London and Stanford, 1981) p. 9. In late 1904, well after the signing of the Entente Cordiale, the War Office was still perfecting amphibious operations against French colonies. S. R. Williamson, The Politics of Grand Strategy, (Cambridge Mass., 1969) pp. 20-1.
For fuller details, see Williamson, Politics of Grand Strategy, pp. 61-89, 125-6. Williamson makes extensive use of French archives.
Quoted by Hamilton, ‘Britain and France’, in Hinsley (ed.), British Foreign Policy, pp.324-5.
Williamson, Politics of Grand Strategy, p. 165.
Action Nationale (Jan ? 1912).
Paul Cambon to Jules Cambon, 6 June 1912, Correspondance, III, p. 17. For accounts of his independence see Andrew, Delcassé and the Entente Cordiale, p. 180; K. Eubank, Paul Cambon, Master Diplomatist (Oklahoma, 1960).
F. Charles-Roux, Souvenirs diplomatiques d’un âge révolu (Paris, 1956) p. 257.
Un diplomate (H. Cambon), Paul Cambon, ambassadeur de France (Paris, 1937) p. 182.
Eubank, Paul Cambon, p. 201. A recent unpublished dissertation also mentions Paul Cambon’s lack of familiarity with British society and customs, his ignorance of the strength of radical opposition in the Cabinet and Foreign Office, and his overestimation of the speed and unanimity with which Britain would give its support to France. P. E. Prestwich, ‘French Attitudes towards Britain, 1911–14’ (Ph.D. thesis, Stanford, 1973) pp. 239-45.
(H. Cambon), Paul Cambon, ambassadeur de France, p. 234.
Williamson, Politics of Grand Strategy, pp. 144-5; Halévy, History of the English People, p. 631; Z. Steiner, Britain and the Origins of the First World War (London, 1977) pp. 181-6.
For fuller details of Anglo-German rivalry see Steiner, Britain and the Origins, pp. 48-59. For full accounts of the Haldane Mission see Williamson, Politics of Grand Strategy, pp. 249-63; R. T. B. Langhorne, ‘Great Britain and Germany, 1911–1914’, in Hinsley (ed.), British Foreign Policy, pp. 288-308.
Grey to Bertie, 13 Feb 1912, B.D., VI, no. 519.
Williamson, Politics of Grand Strategy, p. 212.
Grey to Bertie, 15 Mar 1912, B.D., VI, no. 540.
Paul Cambon to Poincaré, 15 Mar 1912, D.D.F., 3e série, II, no. 205.
Paul Cambon to Poincaré, 22 Mar 1912, ibid., no. 244.
Grey to Bertie, 22 Mar 1912, B.D., VI, no. 550.
Minute by Poincaré, 27 Mar 1912, D.D.F., 3e série, II, no. 266; see also, Poincaré, Au service, I, p. 171.
Minute by Poincaré, 27 Mar 1912, D.D.F., 3e série, II, no. 266, underlined in the original.
Minute on Bertie to Grey, 3 Apr 1912, B.D., VI, no. 564.
Poincaré to Paul Cambon, 11 Apr 1912, D.D.F., 3e série, II, no. 329.
De Fleuriau to Poincaré, 12 Apr 1912, ibid., no. 332.
Poincaré, Au service, I, p. 180.
Paul Cambon to Poincaré, 18 Apr 1912, D.D.F., 3e série, II, no. 363.
Nicolson to Goschen, 9 Apr 1912, B.D., VI, no. 568.
Williamson, Politics of Grand Strategy, p. 166, see also pp. 132-248.
For a detailed account of the Anglo-French Mediterranean naval agreement and the Grey-Cambon letters, see Williamson, Politics of Grand Strategy, pp. 264-83, 284-99 respectively, and Hamilton in Hinsley (ed.), British Foreign Policy, pp. 324-8.
Paul Cambon to Poincaré, 18 Apr 1912, D.D.F., 3e série, II, no. 363.
See Hamilton in Hinsley (ed.), British Foreign Policy, pp. 328-9.
Ibid., pp. 330-1.
Williamson, Politics of Grand Strategy, pp. 263, 234.
Grey to Carnegie, 22 July 1912, B.D., VII, no. 400.
Nicolson to Grey, 24 July 1912, ibid., no. 401.
Grey to Carnegie, 26 July 1912, ibid., no. 402.
Quoted by Hamilton in Hinsley (ed.), British Foreign Policy, p. 334.
Grey to Bertie, 19 Sep 1912, B.D., VII, no. 410.
Asquith to Grey, 11 Oct 1912, B.D., VII, no. 412.
Quoted in Williamson, Politics of Grand Strategy, p. 296.
Paul Cambon to Poincaré, 23 Nov 1912, D.D.F., 3e série, IV, annexes 1,2; Grey to Cambon, 22 Nov 1912, B.D., X, no. 416; Cambon to Grey, 23 Nov 1912, ibid., no. 417.
Poincaré to Paul Cambon, 25 Nov 1912, D.D.F., 3e série, IV, no. 562.
Steiner, Britain and the Origins, p. 104. Zara Steiner explains that the Cabinet believed it had not incurred any obligation. Harcourt spoke of ‘our unfettered policy and discretion’; Nicolson and Crowe criticised the ambiguity of the Entente, which left Britain with a choice; and both the radicals and the Foreign Office believed, correctly, that the question of war rested with the Cabinet. See ibid.
Williamson, Politics of Grand Strategy, p. 298.
Paul Cambon to Poincaré, 4 Dec 1912, D.D.F., 3e série, IV, no. 622.
Eubank, Paul Cambon, p. 181.
P. Cambon to Delcassé, 22 Dec 1914, in A. Thierry, L’Angleterre au temps de Paul Camhon (Paris, 1961) p. 203.
Williamson, Politics of Grand Strategy, p. 353.
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© 1983 John F. V. Keiger
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Keiger, J.F.V. (1983). France and the Triple Entente in 1912. In: France and the Origins of the First World War. The Making of the 20th Century. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17209-2_6
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