Foreign Policy, Ireland, and the End of an Era

Victorian foreign policy was generally characterized by the principle of "splendid isolation," avoiding binding permanent alliances with continental powers while prioritizing the European balance of power. Lord Palmerston, dominating foreign policy from the 1830s to the 1860s, articulated a pragmatic doctrine summed up in his famous phrase that Britain had "no eternal allies and no perpetual enemies," only "eternal and perpetual" interests. The Crimean War (1853-56) was a significant exception to isolationism, while the prolonged Anglo-Russian rivalry for influence in Central Asia and Afghanistan, known as the "Great Game," dominated much of British imperial strategy; the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-42) ended in a catastrophic British retreat from Kabul, and the Royal Navy maintained, through the Naval Defence Act of 1889, a formal "two-power standard" meant to keep the British fleet superior to the next two largest navies combined.