A question of leadership: Lord Salisbury, the unionist cabinet and foreign policy making, 1895–1900

Abstract

This article examines the role of the Cabinet in the making of Foreign‐Policy during Lord Salisbury's third and last administration, 1895–1900. During his earlier premierships, which he always combined with the office of Foreign Secretary, Salisbury's ascendancy over Britain's external affairs was largely unchallenged. Under the impact of the changes in international politics in the course of the late 1890s, however, a group of Cabinet ministers emerged who were increasingly critical of Salisbury's conduct of foreign affairs. Three crises in the geo‐strategic periphery of European politics helped the foreign‐policy outlook and agenda of the Prime Minister's critics gain coherence and consistence, eventually undermining Salisbury's grip on foreign affairs. The underlying clash of ideas between the Prime Minister and his Cabinet colleagues also anticipated some of the elements of the crisis of the Edwardian Conservative party.