<P> Fashoda was a diplomatic victory for the British because the French realized that in the long run they needed friendship with Britain in case of a war between France and Germany . </P> <P> From about 1900, Francophiles in Britain and Anglophiles in France began to spread a study and mutual respect and love of the culture of the country on the other side of the English Channel . Francophile and Anglophile societies developed, further introducing Britain to French food and wine, and France to English sports like rugby . French and English were already the second languages of choice in Britain and France respectively . Eventually this developed into a political policy as the new united Germany was seen as a potential threat . Louis Blériot, for example, crossed the Channel in an aeroplane in 1909 . Many saw this as symbolic of the connection between the two countries . This period in the first decade of the 20th century became known as the Entente Cordiale, and continued in spirit until the 1940s . The signing of the Entente Cordiale also marked the end of almost a millennium of intermittent conflict between the two nations and their predecessor states, and the formalisation of the peaceful co-existence that had existed since the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 . Up to 1940, relations between Britain and France were closer than those between Britain and the US . This also started the beginning of the French and British Special Relationship . After 1907 the British fleet was built up to stay far ahead of Germany . However Britain nor France committed itself to entering a war if Germany attacked the other . </P> <P> In 1904 Paris and London agreed that Britain would establish a protectorate over Egypt, and France would do the same over Morocco . Germany objected, and the conference at Algeciras in 1906 settled the issue as Germany was outmaneuvered . </P> <P> Britain tried to stay neutral as the First World War opened in summer 1914, as France joined in to help its ally Russia according to its treaty obligations . Britain had no relevant treaty obligations except one to keep Belgium neutral, and was not in close touch with the French leaders . Britain entered when the German army invaded neutral Belgium (on its way to attack Paris); that was intolerable . It joined France, sending a large army to fight on the Western Front . </P>

How many times has england and france been at war