Turning a friend into an ally might appear to be an easy job. The case of Britain and Italy at the outbreak of World War I shows how uneven and contested such a process really is. Anglo-Italian friendship was an obvious element of European international relations in the Belle Époque. Britain had sponsored Italian unification in 1861, which was subsequently consolidated mainly thanks to the Pax Britannica; furthermore, the two countries had strong commercial ties; they shared the same liberal values and seemed to have close colonial and Mediterranean interests.