Anglo-French Relations Research Articles

“As catching as the plague, though not all so general”: Syphilis in Tudor and Stuart literature

In this paper I shall address the theme Comment le mal vient aux hommes ? in what might seem an unorthodox manner. Rather than consider any primarily metaphysical or theological issues involving le mal, I shall be pondering the rather more material, physical, or corporal issues affecting the theme, and its repercussions for Anglo-French relations in and around the work of Shakespeare. For this approach, I take my cue from Michel Foucault who, throughout his Folie et deraison (1961), but also...

Anglo-French Relations and Strategy on the Western Front, 1914–1918

Anglo-French Relations and Strategy on the Western Front, 1914–1918

Anglo-French Relations and Strategy on the Western Front, 1914-1918.

List of Maps - Acknowledgements - List of Abbreviations - Deficiencies in Preparation: August 1914 - Differences in the Field: Mons and the Marne, August-September 1914 - The Failure of Coordination: The Siege of Antwerp and the First Battle of Ypres - Discordant Strategies: December 1914-January 1915 - Politics and Grand Strategy - Relations in the Field - The Ascendancy of French Strategy: The Somme Offensive - The Northern Flank Strategy - The Co-Ordination of Allied Strategy - Conclusion - Bibliography - Index

Anglo-French relations and strategy on the Western Front, 1914-18

Anglo-French relations and strategy on the Western Front, 1914-18

British holdings of French war bonds: an aspect of Anglo-French relations during the 1920s

British holdings of French war bonds: an aspect of Anglo-French relations during the 1920s

The British Government and the Channel Tunnel, 1919-39

The opening of the Channel Tunnel in 1994 was accompanied by the publication of Keith Wilson's study, Channel Tunnel Visions, 1850-1945: Dreams and Nightmares (London 1994).3 This study has filled a major gap, for the extensive government attention to the tunnel question in the interwar period has received little academic attention. Before Wilson, the only detailed published study of government policy at that time was a short article on the 1919-20 discussions. A number of general works covered the broad history of the idea from the late eighteenth century, the most detailed being those by Michael Bonavia and Jean-Pierre Navailles.4 Meanwhile, a French doctoral thesis by Bernard Sasso covered British government discussions from 1870 to 1930 in considerable detail, but only from the perspective of how the issue can be seen as representative of broad trends in Anglo-French relations, rather than tackling Britain's general view of Europe.5 However, there are still gaps to be filled. This article is based on the main archives of the various British government departments that took part in the exhaustive enquiry of 1929-30, which was far greater in scope than that of 1919-20. It considers why, when the scheme had been rejected with little discussion in 1920, the situation

Le Passé a-t-il de l'avenir devant lui? Bilan du théâtre francophone de l'Ouest canadien

For the French speaking minorities of Manitoba, the struggle against oppression has often meshed with battles for justice and human rights waged by other Canadian minority groups. Over the past two decades, plays by English and French speaking playwrights have echoed theatrical themes of the nineteenth century by centring on the plight of the Métisse. Being of Amer-Indian and Franco-Canadian descent, the history of the Métisse offers a fascinating perspective on Anglo-French and Anglo-Indian relations. In many of the plays, much attention is paid to the legendary story of Louis Riel, a Métisse chief who led the fight against British expansion into Western Canada and who was executed by the Crown for the murder of Thomas Scott, a British officer. With Riel as an emblem, anglophone and francophone playwrights have forged new outlooks on the historical struggle for control of Western Canada. Furthermore, while investigating the past playwrights have uncovered ways in which conflicting interpretations of history throw light upon present-day Canadian cultural complexities.

Anglo-French Financial Relations in the 1920s

Anglo-French Financial Relations in the 1920s

British Foreign Policy in an Age of Revolutions, 1783-1793.

Introduction 1. The aftermath of war 2. Years of isolation, 1783-6 3. Trade, France and the Dutch, 1786-7 4. To the banks of the Danube, 1787-90 5. To the shore of the Pacific 6. The failure of Britain's continental policy, 1780-91 7. Anglo-French relations from the fall of the Bastille to the Declaration of Pillnitz, 1789-91 8. Neutrality, 1791-2 9. The coming of war, 1792-3 10. The domestic context of foreign policy 11. The international system.

‘Fighting one's own friends is hateful work’: Coalition troubles, January – October 1922

In the aftermath of the 1918 election Law believed ‘Lloyd George can be Prime Minister for life if he wants’. In the event, the government survived only four turbulent years. Although 1922 was to be a critical year for the Coalition, the year began auspiciously. For all the problems during 1921, by December the fortunes and confidence of the coalition leadership were greater than for some time. A week after signing the Irish Treaty, the government claimed something of a diplomatic triumph with the four-power treaty in Washington covering Pacific and Far Eastern questions. Thereafter progress was also swiftly made with regard to naval disarmament (finally signed on 6 February 1922). Two days after the Pacific agreement, the Commons debate on the Irish Treaty provided the government with its first notable parliamentary success for some months. For the moment even Law broke the ominous silence he had maintained throughout the negotiations to declare his approval. While in the longer term the Irish Treaty was to prove both ‘Lloyd George's greatest achievement, but … also the greatest single cause of his overthrow’, in December 1921 it had undoubtedly restored the government's fortunes and renewed its sense of policy direction. Moreover, although relations with France had been gravely aggravated by the unilateral Angora agreement with the Turks in November 1921 and even more by French obstructionism at Washington, even Anglo-French relations provided some substance for hope. The ‘conversations’ with Briand in London from 18–22 December thus set in motion a process which led, via Cannes and Genoa, to an attempt to resolve Anglo-French differences over German reparations. With Ireland settled, Washington still hailed a triumph and plans already in progress for a conference offering the prospect of European peace and the restoration of prosperity, the scene was set for an attempt to engineer indirectly that which could not be achieved by direct calls for ‘fusion’. Encouraged by McCurdy's grossly over-optimistic assessments of the prospects, some time before Christmas Lloyd George decided that circumstances were propitious for another coalition election. At a dinner held by Birkenhead after the Irish Treaty debate, the subject was discussed for the first time by the Coalition leaders.

External Finance in Anglo-French Relations in the First World War, 1914–1917

louis xii of France, while preparing for a campaign against Milan, asked the condottiere Trivulce what was needed for success, Trivulce replied: 'Most gracious King, three things are necessary: money, more money, and still more money.'1 Historians of warfare in early modern and ancien regime Europe have taken these words to heart. More recent periods are not as well served, however, and the role of finance in twentieth-century warfare remains neglected. The First World War is a case in point. With few exceptions, little attention has been paid to allied finance prior to the entry of the United States into the war, and the traditional view that Britain was the paymaster who subsidized its impecunious allies goes unchallenged. The financial role of France, in particular, has been overlooked.

Britain and France go to War: Anglo-French Relations on the Western Front 1914-1918

Britain and France go to War: Anglo-French Relations on the Western Front 1914-1918

'Storming the Campo Vaccino': British Architects and the Antique Buildings of Rome after Waterloo

The later eighteenth century was a period when, as a result of increasingly eclectic and picturesque taste in the use of the classical language of architecture, young British architects were effectively compelled to spend some years studying in Italy if they wished to reach the forefront of their profession. The importance of this first-hand experience of Italy is attested by the physical and financial hardships many architectural students were prepared to endure in order to gain it, as well as by the fact that the pattern of travel continued unabated in the face of political hostilities in which Britain was periodically engaged within Europe. During the Seven Years War of 1756–63, for example, when the British found themselves at enmity with the French, the Austrians and, after 1762, with the Spanish, no fewer than eight British architects nevertheless travelled on the continent and did so relatively unimpeded. In fact there was at least one British architectural student present in Italy in every year between 1740 and 1797. This consistent pattern of travel was brought to an enforced end, however, when the Italian peninsula itself became the setting for overt military action after Napoleon had invaded Piedmont in April 1796. While five British architectural students managed to reach Italy during the brief peace which followed the conclusion of the Treaty of Amiens in March 1802, one finding it possible to travel ‘through the heart of France without the least molestation’, the deterioration of Anglo-French relations after Trafalgar in 1805 left the peninsula largely inaccessible to the British until the final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo on 18 June 1815.

The Internationalization of Colonialism: Britain, France, and Black Africa, 1939-1956

Abbreviations Introduction 1. The MacDonald-Mandel conversations on Anglo-French Colonial co-operation 2. Anglo-French relations and the war in West Africa 1939-1942 3. Wartime policy in West Africa: The effects on relations between the European Colonies, 1940-1942 4. The conversion of AOF and the problems of supply and wartime organization in West Africa, 1942-1945 5. Inter-territorial relations, 1942-1945 6. Regional commissions and the origins of post-war Anglo-French Colonial co-operation in Africa, 1942-1945 7. The progress of Colonial co-operation in London and Paris, 1945-1949 8. Anglo-French Colonial co-operation and its impact in West Africa, 1945-1949 9. The Ewe Question: Origins and impact, 1945-1949 10. The Ewe Question and the future of Togoland, 1950-1956 11. The creation and development of the CCTA, 1950-1956 12. Ministerial discussion and the Anglo-French Colonial co-operation, 1950-1956 13. Conclusion Bibliography Index

Mesentente Cordiale: The Failure of the Anglo-French Alliance. Anglo-French Relations During the Ethiopian and Rhineland Crises, 1934-6

Mesentente Cordiale: The Failure of the Anglo-French Alliance. Anglo-French Relations During the Ethiopian and Rhineland Crises, 1934-6

The peace of 1360–1369 and Anglo-French musical relations

The Treaty of Brétigny, concluded in May 1360, inaugurated the longest period of peace between England and France that the century had yet seen. Although the English success in this agreement later turned out to be less than complete, the king and higher nobility in England could now look to the consolidation of their position in the overseas dependencies of Brittany, Gascony and Ponthieu, to the enjoyment of their new-found wealth at home, and to a superficially more amicable relationship with French magnates. External relations were thus transformed, and the period between 1360 and 1369 also saw a fundamental change in the accessibility in England of French musical culture and in the opportunities for contacts with French musicians.

Review. Studies in Anglo-French Cultural Relations: Imagining France. Crossley, Ceri and Small, Ian (eds)

Review. Studies in Anglo-French Cultural Relations: Imagining France. Crossley, Ceri and Small, Ian (eds)

John of Gaunt and English policy towards France 1389–1395

In the years after the truce of 1389, English and French embassies met in a series of conferences to formulate a peace treaty. The chief English diplomat, John of Gaunt, negotiated for his own ambitions in Guyenne rather than for the claims of his nephew, King Richard II. Despite his skill at the conference table, these claims continued to prevent the achievement of a definitive peace. In the duchy of Guyenne, Gaunt failed to establish himself by force or diplomacy, and the truce remained fragile. With his uncle's peace policy in ruins, Richard took control of foreign affairs and agreed a long truce with France in 1396. A reconsideration of the diplomacy of these years casts new light on Anglo-French relations at the central point of the Hundred Years War.

Natural and Necessary Enemies: Anglo-French Relations in the Eighteenth Century, by Jeremy Black

<i>Natural and Necessary Enemies: Anglo-French Relations in the Eighteenth Century</i>, by Jeremy Black

Les politiques agricoles françaises et britanniques : origines et différences

Ever since the first British application to join the EEC in 1962 agricultural policy has proved to be a stumbling block in Anglo-French relations. The origins of this conflict lie far back in history. In the face of the arrival in Europe, around 1880, of low priced temperate agricultural products from overseas, the reaction of the French was to erect a protective wall in favour of their rural population. The British, on the other hand, preferred to let their predominantly urban population enjoy the benefits of cheap food. This difference of approach has continued to colour the relations between our two countries, whether it has been over New Zealand lamb and butter, the oils and fats tax, or the level of budgetary expenditure on agriculture.