Due to their desire for a strong Central European nation to counterbalance France and Russia and their belief that any people should have the right to unification, the British supported the German nationalist movement after 1866. Due to French meddling in the affairs of other countries and French opposition to what the British thought was the legitimate aim of the German people, the British became anti-French in the late 1860s. Due to the belief of the British in progress, they could view most of the events on the Continent, even the violent ones, as the gradual advancement of civilization. The Franco-Prussian War required the British to re-evaluate all of these views, as well as many others, and conclude that Germany, not France, constituted the threat to Europe.