—a
Peninsular War battle between the French and the British armies in France in 1813 Following the formation of the
Kingdom of Great Britain (which united England and Scotland) in 1707, British foreign relations largely continued those of the
Kingdom of England. British foreign policy initially focused on achieving a
balance of power in Europe, with no single country dominating the continent's affairs. This policy remained a major justification for Britain's wars against Napoleon, and for British involvement in the
First and
Second World Wars. Secondly, Britain continued to expand its colonial "
First British Empire" through migration and investment. France was the chief enemy until Napoleon's defeat in 1815. It had a much larger population and a more powerful army, but a weaker navy. The British were generally
successful in their many wars. The notable exception, the
American War of Independence (1775–1783), saw Britain, without any major allies, defeated by the American colonials who had the support of France, the Netherlands, and (indirectly) Spain. A favoured British diplomatic strategy involved subsidising the armies of continental allies (such as
Prussia), thereby turning London's enormous financial power to military advantage. Britain relied heavily on its
Royal Navy for security, seeking to keep it the most powerful fleet afloat, eventually with a full complement of bases worldwide. British dominance of the seas was vital to the formation and maintenance of the British Empire, achieved by maintaining a navy larger than the next two largest navies combined before 1920. The British generally stood alone until the early 20th century, when they became friendly with the US and made alliances with Japan, France, Russia, and Germany, their former antagonist, now an ally.
1814–1914 (as of 1910). At its height, it was the
largest empire in history. The 100 years were generally peaceful—a sort of
Pax Britannica enforced by the Royal Navy. There were two important wars, both limited in scope. The
Crimean War (1853–1856) saw Russia's defeat and ended its threat to the Ottoman Empire. The
Second Boer War (1899–1902) saw the defeat of the two Boer republics in South Africa, and the
Boxer Rebellion happened the same year. London became the world's
financial centre, and commercial enterprise expanded across the globe. The "
Second British Empire" was built with a base in Asia (especially India) and Africa.
First World War 1920s After 1918, Britain was a "troubled giant" that was less of a dominant diplomatic force in the 1920s than before. It often had to give way to the United States, which frequently exercised its financial superiority. The main themes of British foreign policy included a leading role at the
Paris Peace Conference of 1919–1920, where
Lloyd George worked hard to moderate French demands for revenge on Germany. He was partly successful, but Britain soon had to moderate French policy toward Germany further, as in the
Locarno Treaties of 1925. Furthermore, Britain obtained "mandates" that allowed it and its dominions to govern most of the former German and Ottoman colonies. Britain became an active member of the new
League of Nations, but its list of major achievements was slight. Disarmament was high on the agenda, and Britain played a major role, following the United States, at the
Washington Naval Conference of 1921 in working toward naval disarmament among the major powers. By 1933, disarmament agreements had collapsed, and the issue became rearming for a war against Germany. Britain was partially successful in negotiating better terms with the United States regarding the large war loans which Britain was obliged to repay. Britain supported the international solution to German reparations through the
Dawes Plan and the
Young Plan. After the Dawes Plan had helped stabilize Germany's currency and lowered its annual payments, Germany was able to pay its annual reparations using money borrowed from New York banks, and Britain used the money received to pay Washington. The
Great Depression starting in 1929 put enormous pressure on the British economy. Britain revived
Imperial Preference, which meant low tariffs within the British Empire and higher barriers to trade with outside countries. The flow of money from New York dried up, and the system of reparations and debt payments died in 1931. In British domestic politics, the emerging
Labour Party had a distinctive and suspicious foreign policy rooted in
pacifism. Its leaders believed that peace was impossible because of
capitalism,
secret diplomacy, and the
arms trade. Labour stressed material factors, ignoring the psychological memories of the
Great War and the highly emotional tensions surrounding nationalism and national boundaries. Nevertheless,
party leader Ramsay MacDonald devoted much of his attention to European policies.
1930s , which gave the
Sudetenland to Nazi Germany Vivid memories of the horrors and deaths of the First World War inclined many Britons—and their leaders in all parties—to pacifism in the interwar era. This led directly to the
appeasement of dictators (notably
Mussolini and
Hitler) to avoid their threats of war. The challenge came from those dictators, first from
Benito Mussolini,
Duce of
Italy, then from
Adolf Hitler,
Führer of a much more powerful
Nazi Germany. The League of Nations proved disappointing to its supporters; it failed to resolve any of the threats posed by the dictators. British policy involved "appeasing" them in the hope that they would be satisfied. By 1938, it was clear that war was looming and that Germany had the world's most powerful military. The final act of appeasement came when Britain and France sacrificed
Czechoslovakia to Hitler's demands at the
Munich Agreement of September 1938. Instead of satiation, Hitler menaced Poland, and at last Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain dropped appeasement and stood firm in
promising to defend Poland (31 March 1939). Hitler, however,
cut a deal with
Joseph Stalin to divide Eastern Europe (23 August 1939); when Germany did invade Poland in September 1939, Britain and France declared war, and the British Commonwealth followed London's lead.
Second World War Having signed the Anglo-Polish military alliance in August 1939,
Britain and France declared war against Germany in September 1939 in response to Germany's invasion of Poland. This declaration included the
Crown colonies and
India, which were directly controlled by Britain. The dominions were independent in foreign policy, though all quickly entered the war against Germany. After the French defeat in June 1940, Britain and its empire stood alone in combat against Germany until June 1941. The United States provided diplomatic, financial, and material support, starting in 1940, especially through
Lend Lease, which began in 1941 and reached full strength in 1943. In August 1941, Churchill and Roosevelt met and agreed on the
Atlantic Charter, which proclaimed "the rights of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they live" should be respected. This wording was ambiguous and would be interpreted differently by the British, Americans, and nationalist movements. Starting in December 1941, Japan overran
British possessions in Asia, including
Hong Kong,
Malaya, and especially the key base at
Singapore. Japan then marched into
Burma, headed toward India. Churchill's reaction to the United States' entry into the war was that Britain was now assured of victory, and the future of the empire was safe. Still, the rapid defeats irreversibly harmed Britain's standing and prestige as an
imperial power. The realisation that Britain could not defend them pushed Australia and New Zealand into permanent close ties with the United States.
Postwar in 2016 (blue) and military interventions since 2000 (red) Economically in dire straits in 1945 (saddled with debt and dealing with
widespread destruction of its infrastructure), Britain systematically reduced its overseas commitments. It pursued an alternate role as an active participant in the
Cold War against
communism, especially as a founding member of NATO in 1949. The British had built up a very large worldwide Empire, which peaked in size in 1922, after more than half a century of unchallenged global supremacy. The cumulative costs of fighting two world wars, however, placed a heavy burden upon the home economy. After 1945, the British Empire rapidly disintegrated, with all the major colonies gaining independence. By the mid-to-late 1950s, the UK's status as a superpower had been eclipsed by the United States and the Soviet Union. Most former colonies joined the "Commonwealth of Nations", an organisation of fully independent nations now with equal status to the UK. However it attempted no major collective policies. The last major colony, Hong Kong, was handed over to China in 1997. Fourteen
British Overseas Territories maintain a constitutional link to the UK, but are not part of the country per se. Britain slashed its involvements in the
Middle East after the humiliating
Suez Crisis of 1956. However, Britain forged close military ties with the United States, France, and Germany through NATO. After years of debate (and rebuffs), Britain joined the
Common Market in 1973, which became the
European Union in 1993. However it did not merge
financially, and kept the pound separate from the
Euro, which partly isolated it from the
Euro area crisis. In June 2016, the UK
voted to leave the EU.
21st century with US President
Joe Biden at the
White House, July 2024 Foreign policy initiatives of UK governments since the 1990s have included military intervention in conflicts and for peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance programmes and increased aid spending, support for establishment of the
International Criminal Court, debt relief for developing countries, prioritisation of initiatives to address
climate change, and promotion of
free trade. The British approach has been described as "spread the right norms and sustain NATO". Lunn et al. (2008) argue: :Three key motifs of Tony Blair's 10-year premiership were an activist philosophy of 'interventionism', maintaining a strong alliance with the US and a commitment to placing Britain at the heart of Europe. While the 'special relationship' and the question of Britain's role in Europe have been central to British foreign policy since the Second World War...interventionism was a genuinely new element. The GREAT campaign of 2012 was one of the most ambitious national promotion efforts ever undertaken by any major nation. It was scheduled to take maximum advantage of the worldwide attention to the
Summer Olympics in London. The goals were to make British culture more visible to stimulate trade, investment, and tourism. The government partnered with key leaders in culture, business, diplomacy, and education. The campaign unified many themes and targets, including business meetings, scholarly conventions, recreational vehicle dealers, parks and campgrounds, convention and visitors bureaus, hotels, bed-and-breakfast inns, and casinos. In 2013, the government of
David Cameron described its approach to foreign policy by saying: :For any given foreign policy issue, the UK potentially has a range of options for delivering impact in our national interest. ... [W]e have a complex network of alliances and partnerships through which we can work.... These include – besides the EU – the UN and groupings within it, such as the five permanent members of the Security Council (the "P5"); NATO; the Commonwealth; the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development; the G8 and G20 groups of leading industrialised nations; and so on. The UK began establishing air and naval facilities in the
Persian Gulf, located in the
United Arab Emirates,
Bahrain, and
Oman in 2014–15. The
Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 highlighted a range of foreign policy initiatives of the UK government. Edward Longinotti notes how current British defence policy is grappling with how to accommodate two major commitments, to Europe and to an ‘
east of Suez’ global military strategy, within a modest defence budget that can only fund one. He points out that Britain's December 2014 agreement to open a permanent naval base in Bahrain underlines its gradual re-commitment east of Suez. By some measures, Britain remains the second most powerful country in the world by virtue of its
soft power and "logistical capability to deploy, support and sustain [military] forces overseas in large numbers." Although commentators have questioned the need for global power projection, the concept of "Global Britain" put forward by the Conservative government in 2019 signalled more military activity in the Middle East and Pacific, outside of NATO's traditional sphere of influence. At the end of January 2020, the
United Kingdom left the European Union, with a subsequent trade agreement with the EU in effect from 1 January 2021, setting out the terms of the UK-EU economic relationship and what abilities the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office can use in foreign relations related to trade. == Diplomatic relations ==