Formation of Triple Entente
On 20 May 1882, Germany had entered into a Triple Alliance with Italy and Austria-Hungary. Germany was rapidly becoming the predominant social and economic power in Europe, which gave Britain, France and Russia cause for grave concern. Here we will let you informed Why was the triple entente formed?
While the three powers didn’t truly ally until World War One proper, they did move into ‘entente’ on the 31 August 1907.
The fluidity of these allegiances should be stressed. For instance, Italy did not join Germany and Austria during the war, and in 1915 instead joined the entente in the Treaty of London.
The Triple Entente was an alliance between various countries and framed in the conflict of World War I. It integrated France, Great Britain and Russia, which were progressively joined by other nations throughout the conflict.
The germ of the Triple Entente was born in the framework prior to World War I , specifically in 1904, as a consequence of the association between France and the United Kingdom.
Its defining formation is located in 1907 with the union of the Russian Empire and after various diplomatic conflicts in central Europe. They would lead to conflict in 1914.
Due to the evolution of the war, other countries were joining this alliance. This was gradually done by Serbia, Belgium, Romania or Japan, among others. Anecdotally, there is the example of Italy, which ended up joining the other side despite this in the beginning.
Other notable additions were those of powers such as the United States or China. The participation of the former was an important turning point for the development of the war and the subsequent socio-political and economic map.
Enhance your reading: What is gran Colombia/characteristics/dissolution/context
Motivation of the Triple Entente
These allies had a series of outstanding motivations that pushed them to take part in the conflict. The intention of the three main powers was to prevent a possible confrontation that affected the English, French or Russians.
Frequent clashes with Germans and Serbs led the way to the great war.
The main historical arguments would be the following:
- German exponent : Germany’s economic, commercial and military advancement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries caused mistrust in other European powers. The main suspicious country was the then imperialist Great Britain , which, with its colonies , dominated important trade routes around the world.
- Scope of Morocco : North Africa was host to institutional and diplomatic clashes between the Germans and the French in the pre-war stage.
- Period of independence : At the end of the 19th century, and with the formation of many modern states, there were multiple changes regarding the appearance of new independent and sovereign countries.
- Role of the Balkans : Following the previous point, a prime example was that of Serbia. This country was of recent creation and entered into conflict by its will to annex Austrian and German territories. Alternatively, the Austro-Hungarians understood the Serbs as a serious threat in military and strategic terms.
This warlike association between countries for said conflict was also called the allied front or the nationalist major ally.
The contest pitted them against the German Empire, at that time affiliated with another power such as Austria, within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Italy, along with other affiliates in the Triple Alliance.
The power bloc of the three nations, supplemented by additional agreements with Japan and Portugal, was a powerful counterweight to the Triple Alliance.
Britain
During the 1890s, Britain operated under a policy of “splendid isolation”, but as the threat of German expansionism grew more prominent, Britain began to look for allies.
While Britain had regarded France and Russia as hostile and dangerous enemies during the 19th century, the growth of German military power changed policies towards France and Russia, if not perception.
Gradually, Britain began to align itself towards France and Russia.
The Entente Cordiale resolved spheres of influence in North Africa in 1904, and the Moroccan crises that came later also encouraged Anglo-French solidarity against the perceived menace of German expansionism.
Britain had concerns about German imperialism and the threat it posed to its own Empire. Germany had begun construction of the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy), and the British navy felt threatened by this development.
In 1907, the Anglo-Russian Entente was agreed, which attempted to resolve a series of long-running disputes over Persia, Afghanistan and Tibet and helped to address British fears about the Baghdad Railway, which would help German expansion in the Near East.
Enhance your reading: What was the conquest of the desert/objectives/causes/effect
France
France had been defeated by Germany in the Franco-Prussian war in 1871. Germany detached Alsace-Lorraine from France during the post-war settlement, a humiliation that France had not forgotten.
France also feared German colonial expansion, which posed a threat to French colonies in Africa.
To fulfil its revanchist ambitions, it sought allies, and allegiance with Russia could pose the threat of a two-front war to Germany and dissuade their advances.
Russia in turn sought support against Austro-Hungary in the Balkans.
Germany, which had previously held agreements with Russia, believed that the ideological difference between autocratic Russia and democratic France would keep the two countries apart, and consequently allowed the Russo-German Reinsurance Treaty to lapse in 1890.
This undermined the system of alliances that Bismarck had established in order to prevent a war on two fronts.
Russia
Russia had previously been a member of the League of the Three Emperors, an alliance in 1873 with Austria-Hungary and Germany. The alliance was part of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck′s plan to isolate France diplomatically.
This League proved unsustainable because of the latent tension between the Russians and the Austro-Hungarians.
Russian 1914 poster. The upper inscription reads “concord”. In the centre, Russia holds aloft an Orthodox Cross (symbol of faith), Britannia on the right with an anchor (referring to Britain’s navy, but also a traditional symbol of hope), and Marianne on the left with a heart (symbol of charity/love, probably with reference to the recently-completed Sacré-Cœur Basilica) — “faith, hope, and charity” being the three virtues of the famous Biblical passage I Corinthians 13:13. Credit: Commons.
Russia had the largest population, and consequently the largest manpower reserves of all European powers, but its economy was also fragile.
Russia had a long-standing enmity with Austria-Hungary. Russia’s policy of pan-slavism, which cast it as the leader of the Slavic world, also meant that Austro-Hungarian interference in the Balkans antagonised the Russians.
The great fear was that Austria would annex Serbia and Montenegro, and when Austria began to annex Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1908, this fear was amplified.
Russia’s defeat in the Russo-Japanese war in 1905 had prompted concerns about its military, and caused Russian ministers to seek more alliances to secure its position.
