Entente Cordiale

This year marks the 120th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale and there is an exhibition on the first floor in Belmont where you can see photos and newspaper articles about it.

This term Entente Cordiale comes from a letter written in 1843 by the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Aberdeen. It’s a significant improvement in Anglo-French relations because it marked the end of almost a thousand years of intermittent conflict between the two states. The change had its roots in a British loss of confidence after the Second Boer War and a growing fear of the strength of Germany.

The divergent interests of the two colonial powers (Fashoda’s incidents and the Russo-Japanese war) could have put an end to the negotiations between the two countries but after an agreement on colonial matters, a convention was signed on 8 April 1904 and transformed into an Alliance in 1914.

The exhibition runs until mid-December, so you still have plenty of time to take a look!