- and Again.

 

This is my copy of Tenniel’s December 1894 cartoon “All’s Well”. It reflects a time of rapprochement between British and Russian Empires. They were united in condemnation of massacres in Armenia in the Ottoman Empire, and also in forcing Japn to hand back some of the gains it made in the first Sino-Japanese war of 1894.

Particularly when looking at foreign affairs, Tenniel often used animorphs, that is anthropomorphised animal figures in allegorical fashion. Thus he often depicted the British Empire as a lion the Russian Empire as a Bear, and Prussia, and later the German Empire as an eagle.

By the end of the 19^th century the German Empire had overtaken the Russian Empire as the international bogeyman in popular British conception. However for much of Queen Victoria’s reign it was Russia that was viewed with greatest suspicion. Allies against Napoleon in the first two decades of the century, British mistrust of Russian intentions towards faltering Ottoman Empire led to British involvement in the Crimean War. The Russian defeat in the Crimean War did little to calm tensions between the two countries, and for the rest of the century the two empires were involved in the ‘Great Game’ for control of Central Asia, where it was felt that Russia represented a threat to British control of India.

In 1877, and again in 1885 was only avoided between the two Empires again through frantic diplomacy. I believe that the tensions of 1877 led to the term jingoism, from a song popular in he music halls at that time which went

‘We don’t want to fight you

But by jingo, if we do

We’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men

We’ve got the money too.’

However, tensions eased in the 1890s, and in the early years of the 20^th century they worked together and with other countries to protect their interests in the Boxer Rebellion. Then in 1907 the Entente Cordiale between England and France was extended with the Anglo-Russian entente.