Félix Faure--and sought to delimit the French colonies in Africa through agreements with the British. The Fashoda Incident of July 1898 was the most notable result of this policy. This seems to have intensified Hanotaux's distrust of England, which is apparent in his literary works (though most of these were written after he had left the Quai d'Orsay).

Hanotaux was elected a member of the Académie française