Why Britain went to war in 1914

 Unlikely Allies

After decades of unbroken prosperity and peace in Europe, and with a very small army in comparison with her neighbours, why did Britain enter into a continental war in 1914?As early as January 1902, William Robertson, then a Lieutenant Colonel and head of the foreign section of military intelligence, enquired of the Foreign Office regarding Britain's treaty obligations to Belgium in the event of a breach of that country's neutrality by either France or Germany. He was becoming aware of a growing antagonism in Europe and by October of that year said: "That instead of regarding Germany as a possibly ally we should recognise her as our most persistent, deliberate and formidable rival ..."

The extraordinary "Wully" Robertson rose from Private to Field Marshal of the British army. Quartermaster to the BEF in 1914, he was made Chief of the Imperial General Staff in 1915. He strongly disagreed with David Lloyd George's strategic ideas in late 1917 and was soon replaced by Sir Henry Wilson.

Robertson's warning was noted in Government circles, although many considered France - so recently confronting Britain at Fashoda - and Russia, the traditional risk to India - to be equally threatening to British interests. These long-term enemies became unlikely friends when Britain and France signed an agreement in April 1904 formally titled the Declaration between the United Kingdom and France Respecting Egypt and Morocco, Together with the Secret Articles Signed at the Same Time but best known as the Entente Cordiale. The agreement specifically covered the interests of the two parties in Egypt and Morocco but was to prove sufficiently robust as a basis of friendly relations to ward off German challenges until 1914. France was already in alliance with Russia.

After their 1906 landslide election victory, Liberal leaders Asquith, Grey and Haldane were politically disposed to taking action to defend the interests of Britain and empire, being among the "small minority of Ministers in the cabinets of Campbell-Bannerman and Asquith [who] were convinced that the gains to be derived from the entente with France outweighed the liabilities attached to it". Churchill and to a lesser extent Lloyd George could also be counted into this minority.

10 YEARS ON:France and Britain celebrate the years of Entente,in the Spring of 1914