After the outbreak of the Boer War, anglophobia reached its climax in fin de siècle France. The pro-Boer feelings of French public opinion are well established. By sharp contrast, the orientation of French government policy during the early stages of the conflict remains unclear. This is particularly the case with France's attitude towards Britain and the role of Foreign Secretary Théophile Delcassé in the so-called question of intervention in the Boer War. The latter has been the subject of heated controversies, both at the time of the Daily Telegraph affair in 1908 and in the inter-war period.

In the late 1960s, Christopher Andrew challenged the traditional interpretation of Delcassé's foreign policy, and dismissed the claim laid by the French foreign secretary's collaborators that he was convinced, as early as February 1899, of the need to alter radically the course of French foreign policy by seeking an understanding with Britain, and consistently took steps to implement it. In a masterful reassessment of French foreign policy during the period 1898-1905, considered at the time as the definitive study of Delcassé's foreign policy, the Cambridge historian argued that Delcassé no longer believed, at the beginning of the Anglo-Boer war, in the possibility of an amicable settlement of pending issues with Britain. Favouring intervention in the conflict as an opportunity to reopen the Egyptian question, he sought an alliance with Germany. According to Andrew, he was therefore instrumental in “two separate attempts to persuade Germany to join with the Dual Alliance (France and Russia) in demanding that England end her military occupation of Egypt”, in November 1899 and again in March 1900.