page_title: Splendid isolation
section_title: Post-Bismarck
hierarchical_section_title: Splendid isolation / Post-Bismarck
caption_attribution_description: English: Dropping the Pilot. Cartoon by Sir John Tenniel (1820-1914), first published in the British magazine Punch, 29 March 1890. Showing German Emperor Wilhelm II and former Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who had resigned two weeks earlier. The reference to Bismarck as a "pilot" comes from an earlier cartoon from the Puck magazine from Saint Louis, Missouri. For that magazine, the cartoonist Joseph Keppler made one titled "The Champion Pilot of the age", featuring Bismarck on a ship, having brought it out to the high seas. In the background, the cartoonist depicted the French ship of state in distress. This symbolized Bismarck’s accomplishment of forming the German Kaiserreich by means of the Franco-Prussian War. [source: Satire on Stone: The Political Cartoons of Joseph Keppler]. Deutsch: Der Lotse geht von Bord. Karikatur von Sir John Tenniel, abgedruckt im englischen Magazin Punch. Oben Kaiser Wilhelm II., Reichskanzler Otto von Bismarck muss das Schiff verlassen.
context_page_description: Splendid Isolation is a term used to describe the 19th-century British diplomatic practice of avoiding permanent alliances, particularly under the governments of Lord Salisbury between 1885 and 1902.
  The concept developed as early as 1822, when Britain left the post-1815 Concert of Europe, and continued until the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance and the 1904 Entente Cordiale with France. As Europe was divided into two power blocs, Britain became aligned with France and Russia against Germany and Austria-Hungary.
  The term itself was coined in January 1896 by a Canadian politician, George Eulas Foster. He indicated his approval for Britain's minimal involvement in European affairs by saying, "In these somewhat troublesome days when the great Mother Empire stands splendidly isolated in Europe."
  There is considerable historical debate over the extent to which this approach was intentional or accidental, its impact, or even if it ever existed, other than as a useful phrase.
context_section_description: Although concerned by increasing German industrial and military strength post-1871, British politicians were reassured by Bismarck's efforts to maintain the status quo, one example being the 1890 Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty. His dismissal by Wilhelm II in 1890 introduced greater uncertainty into international politics, at a time when Britain faced numerous foreign policy challenges. 
  The Near East and the Balkans were destabilised by the decline of the Ottoman Empire, and the expansionist ambitions of other European powers. In East Africa, Britain and France nearly came to blows in the 1898 Fashoda Incident; in Southern Africa, the Boer Republics had become increasingly restive. For domestic political reasons, President Cleveland manufactured a quarrel over Venezuela's border with British Guiana. Russian expansion in Central Asia during the 19th century had brought them to the edge of British India, while the two also competed in nominally independent Persia. In China and East Asia, British economic interests were threatened by powers such as Japan, Russia, and the United States. 
  The most pressing issue was Germany, caused by Wilhelm's determination to challenge the Royal Navy, which led to the naval arms race. A tendency to make aggressive statements was as much of a problem as his erratic foreign policy. It included securing 'compensation' for Germany in Africa, China and the Pacific, provision of military support for the Boers, and growing economic and military influence in the Ottoman Empire. Wilhelm's aim was to end "Britain's free ride on the coat-tails of the Triple Alliance."
caption: Dropping the Pilot; Punch, 29 March 1890
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