The 1908 Olympics and the Entente Cordiale

Abstract

When London hosted the Olympic Games in 2012, the overall setting was one of multiculturalism. This was London's first post-colonial Olympics, and this mood manifested itself at every turn, from the multi-ethnic make up of Team GB (albeit only in a marginal way in some sports) to the cross-cultural music, dance, and spectacle that characterised the opening and closing ceremonies and the Cultural Olympiad. London promoted itself as a cosmopolitan city that was able to welcome the world, and as the capital of a United Kingdom that had built its identity on a unique mix of tradition, diversity, experimentation, and progress: any ceremony that involved the Queen, Dizzee Rascal, a reenactment of the Industrial Revolution, and a celebration of the National Health Service tells us a great deal about how London wanted itself to be seen by the world. This was, of course, London's third Olympic Games, following on from those of 1948 and 1908. The context could not have been more different at each turn. In 1948, the mood was one of post-war celebration in a setting of financial austerity, with the first steps of decolonisation being played out as the teams from newly-independent India and Pakistan arrived. Forty years earlier, London's first Olympics had been held in the heyday of British imperialism. Each of London's three Olympics has thus been firmly rooted in its wider cultural and political setting. However, a key feature of the setting of the 1908 Olympics that is easily overlooked by historians is that of the Entente Cordiale, the 1904 agreement that characterised the diplomatic, commercial, and cultural relationship between France and the United Kingdom (UK), and that helped to set the tone for military co-operation between the two empires.1 While the Games were both international and imperial in their setting, they would not have happened without the Franco-British Exhibition, the trade fair that provided the Stadium and many of the facilities for the Games. This article offers an exploration of that setting, and a discussion of some of the ways in which the good relations of the Entente Cordiale were played out in the Olympic Games themselves.