What rhymes with splendid isolation?
splen·did isola·tion

Splendid isolation is the term used at the time for the 19th-century British diplomatic practice of avoiding permanent alliances, particularly under the governments of Lord Salisbury between 1885 and 1902. The practice emerged as early as 1822 with Britain's exit from the post-1815 Concert of Europe and continued until the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance. Then, with the 1904 Entente Cordiale with France, Europe was divided into two power blocs and Britain's isolation during the 1899–1902 Second Boer War led to a final reversal of the policy. The term was coined in January 1896 by a Canadian politician, George Eulas Foster, indicating his approval for Britain's minimal involvement in European affairs by saying, "In these somewhat troublesome days when the great Mother Empire stands splendidly isolated in Europe."

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