Im slowly coming around to think that there was never really another workable solution for the British Empire.
The problem is many fold and it centers on Russia. With railway building and rearmament Russia had by 1914 a booming economy and reformed and improved its army to a degree that even Germany found alarming.
So what if there is no Entente. What keeps Russia from a second round with Japan? What stops it from conquering swathes of land in Iran or trying again in Afghanistan? And seeing their growing economy and their ever stronger army. Brittain will have to check Russian expansion somehow in any of those directions. But what can it do alone? Build up an army that can match the Russian - even together with Japan? - even if we know that the performance of the russian army was less than stellar than and there the british didnt. That would seem a very risky endeveaur even at best and to be avoided.
So there was really only to options for Britain: to either find someone else to help check Russia - and after the russian military build up that can be only Germany - or make a deal with them.
However Germany cant really help Brittain. A huge war with Russia (and France) for british colonial interests was out of the question. Even if the german leadership had hindsight and knew that this would lead to Brittain making the Entente its really hard to imagine they could have sold it to the german people. And in total wars - which this would be - it matters a lot not to loose the support of your people. If you do you will have a revolution.
So a German alliance wont work out. Even if Britain doesnt make the Entente per OTL and remains isolated for a while longer in the end the russian military build up and railway building leaves Britain with only two option: to make a deal with Russia or hope that Russia starts a war with Germany anyway. However without the Entente Russia wont be forced to concentrate on the Balkans as its only remaining path of expansion (the Entente OTL closed off all the others) so the chances of a crisis there are diminished.
The problem is many fold and it centers on Russia. With railway building and rearmament Russia had by 1914 a booming economy and reformed and improved its army to a degree that even Germany found alarming.
So what if there is no Entente. What keeps Russia from a second round with Japan? What stops it from conquering swathes of land in Iran or trying again in Afghanistan? And seeing their growing economy and their ever stronger army. Brittain will have to check Russian expansion somehow in any of those directions. But what can it do alone? Build up an army that can match the Russian - even together with Japan? - even if we know that the performance of the russian army was less than stellar than and there the british didnt. That would seem a very risky endeveaur even at best and to be avoided.
So there was really only to options for Britain: to either find someone else to help check Russia - and after the russian military build up that can be only Germany - or make a deal with them.
However Germany cant really help Brittain. A huge war with Russia (and France) for british colonial interests was out of the question. Even if the german leadership had hindsight and knew that this would lead to Brittain making the Entente its really hard to imagine they could have sold it to the german people. And in total wars - which this would be - it matters a lot not to loose the support of your people. If you do you will have a revolution.
So a German alliance wont work out. Even if Britain doesnt make the Entente per OTL and remains isolated for a while longer in the end the russian military build up and railway building leaves Britain with only two option: to make a deal with Russia or hope that Russia starts a war with Germany anyway. However without the Entente Russia wont be forced to concentrate on the Balkans as its only remaining path of expansion (the Entente OTL closed off all the others) so the chances of a crisis there are diminished.