The modern era
As the nineteenth century unfolded, the British Empire engaged in colonials wars around the globe as it enforced the so-called Pax Britannica. There were major wars in Europe as well, including the Crimean War, in which the British and the French fought as allies. The need for both nations to curtail the growth of the Russian Empire and later a unified Germany led to a growing dependence on each other. Competition for colonies in Asia and Africa was replaced with a more co-operative spirit, and eventually an alliance between the former enemies. France and Great Britain began to find mutual interests in containing their European rivals and the growing United States.
France was officially neutral during the American Civil War, though it sent a large Army to Mexico and did little to stop Confederate blockade runners from using its ports during the early days of the war. Great Britain allowed its shipyards to provide vessels to the Confederacy. Neither France nor Great Britain officially recognized the Confederacy, though ministers from the rebellious government were allowed to remain in Paris and London throughout the war. Because Great Britain was dependent on food imports from the United States, it could not risk war with them, and warned France against accepting southern cotton.
In Africa, British and French interests merged against the influence of the Germans and the Italians. By the beginning of the twentieth century the two powers recognized the increasing strength of the German, Italian, and Austro-Hungarian fleets and an arrangement was made in which the British Navy assumed responsibility for the defense of the French Atlantic and Channel ports. In return, the French fleet would assume primary responsibility for the defense of the Mediterranean from its ports in Southern France and North Africa. Both fleets expanded to counter the growth of their European rivals.
When the Vichy government was established as the ruling authority of non-occupied France during the Second World War it was recognized as such by the government of Great Britain. The Vichy government was dominated by leaders hostile to Great Britain, who blamed most of France’s difficulties on the relationship which had evolved with the British. These leaders agreed with those of more than a century earlier, when Vergennes had called Great Britain the “natural enemy” of France. When the British attacked and destroyed the French fleet at Mers-al Kebir in 1940 the Vichy government responded by ending diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom.
The Vichy government of France produced virulent anti-British propaganda throughout its existence, describing Great Britain as the true threat to France, as it supported international Zionism and anti-French expansion. As part of its propaganda campaign it drew on the long history of French-British relations, depicting French history as being one of opposing consistent British aggression. Following the American led invasion of Southern France in 1944 the Vichy government was withdrawn to Germany, where it continued to rail against “perfidious Albion” as American, British, Canadian, and French troops, supported by allies, liberated the rest of France.
Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“The Ideological Origins of the British Empire” by David Armitage, 2000
“Rival Empires of Trade in the Orient”, by Holden Furber, 1976
“Storms and Dreams: The Life of Louis de Bougainville”, by John Dunmore, 2007
“The French and Indian War: Deciding the Fate of North America”, by Walter R. Borneman, 2007
“Revolutionary France 1770 – 1880”, by Francois Furet, 1995
“The French Revolutionary Wars, 1787 – 1802”, by T. C. W. Blanning, 1996
“The Campaigns of Napoleon”, by David Chandler, 2009
“British Strategy in the Napoleonic War, 1803 – 1815”, by Christopher D. Hall, 1992
“The Best of Enemies: Anglo-French Relations since the Norman Conquest”, by Robert Gibson, 2011