Who Started World War II?

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by August

Didn't they end their rivalry earlier after the Crimean war?

Unofficially you could say that the rivalry ended after the Napoleonic wars, but it wasn't put on to paper until the signing of the Entente Cordiale in 1904. The Cordiale probably would have been signed earlier but we were too busy arguing over who got what in Africa, we did dabble briefly with the idea of joining the Triple Alliance with Germany but in the end sided with France.
Then, of course there was the Russio-Japanese war which involved an ally from both France and Britain going to war with the other, which should have resulted in a war between France and Britain, but both of them decided that such a war would just strengthen Germany and so signed the Entente Cordiale to make sure that such a thing did not happen.