ABSTRACT
From shortly after the signature of the Anglo-German agreements about Africa in 1890 until the end of the Queen’s reign, the international and world scene seemed to turn to Britain’s disadvantage. The twin bases of British world preeminence had been the combination of naval predominance with diplomatic, and in time of war, military alliances in Europe. The former had never sufficed in wartime without the other. But by the end of the century it was being challenged, and throughout virtually the whole decade after 1892 England was, for the first time since the last coalition against Napoleon, unable to rely on the permanent friendship of any continental power.
