Abstract
THE bewilderment of foreign observers at the inconsistencies of Britain’s relations with Europe during the nineteenth century is familiar to us all. To some extent, it is to be explained by the oftrepeated fact that although Britain counted as part of Europe, she was not primarily a European power. Her major interests lay outside the Continent. Indeed, the only possessions which she had in Europe were Gibraltar and Malta, and (after 1878) Cyprus, although Cyprus was of little importance until after the First World War, for in 1915 Britain offered to give it away to Greece in return for a Greek entry into the war — a refusal which viewed from this vantage-point in time is ironic, to say the least. Most of Britain’s trade was carried on with non-European countries; most of her investments likewise were in non-European countries.
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Further Reading
1. Bibliographies
A. Bullock and A. J. P. Taylor (ed.), A Select List of Books on European History, 1813–1914 (2nd ed., Oxford, 1956)
M. R. D. Foot on ‘La Grande Bretagne et l’Europe, 1815–70’ in L’Europe du XIXe et XXe siècles (1813–1870), 2 vols (Milan, 1959) II 813–38
W. L. Langer, European Alliances and Alignments, 1871–90 (New York, 1931).
2. Documentary Sources
Foundations of British Foreign Policy: Pitt (1792) to Salisbury (1902), ed. H. Temperley and L. M. Penson (Cambridge, 1938).
J. B. Joll (ed.), Britain and Europe (1950).
H. Temperley and L. M. Penson (ed.), A Century of Diplomatic Blue Books (Cambridge, 1938).
Sir E. Herstlet (ed.), The Map of Europe by Treaty, 4 vols (1875–91).
G. P. Gooch and H. Temperley (ed.), British Documents on the Origins of the War, 13 vols (1926–36).
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P. Renouvin, Histoire des relations internationales, vols v and vi (Paris, 1954‘5)
A.J. P. Taylor, The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 1848–1918 (Oxford, 1954).
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Davies, A. (1968). England and Europe, 1815–1914. In: Bromley, J.S., Kossmann, E.H. (eds) Britain and the Netherlands in Europe and Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-00046-3_7
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