From Splendid Isolation to War

The term ‘splendid isolation’ refers to a period in British diplomacy when the British government preferred a policy of isolation to an alliance or close diplomatic ties with other powers. This is usually considered to have lasted from 1895 until 1902. Contemporary politicians certainly used the term; it appeared in the speeches of Salisbury, Rosebery, Harcourt, Goschen and Joseph Chamberlain, to name only a few. Historians, however, have been more wary. The first to use the description consistently was W.H. Dawson, who argued that Lord Salisbury deliberately opted for a policy of ‘splendid isolation’. ¹ This has been questioned by others, who maintain that if indeed Britain was in isolation, it was involuntary and far from ‘splendid’. L. Penson, for example, considered that ‘her isolation was a fact rather than a policy’, ² while Z. Steiner considers that ‘splendid isolation’ is ‘a cliché which must be abandoned’. ³