From 1872 to 1907, a series of alliances are formed among European major powers. The international system formed by German chancellor Bismarck in order to ensure Germany's hegemony within Europe and prevent a possible French revenge disappears in 1890. Then, the European powers gather in two hostile groups: the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy) and the Triple Entente (Great-Britain, France, Russia). From 1904 onward, some conflicts oppose the main European countries and those tensions will eventually lead to the First World War. Being victorious over Napoleon III's France, in September 1871, Germany enjoys a certain hegemony on continental Europe during the following twenty years. This hegemony is due to the chancellor and prince of Bismarck, who conducts a clever diplomatic policy. Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) is a man of the Old Regime.
Tags: 1907 diplomacy, Bismarckian Alliance System, Collapse of the Bismarckian system
[...] Kingdom, to deprive France from any possible help in case of a revenge war with Germany Yet, Bismarck's system is fragile enough, in so far as it is based on secrecy and on a definite share of the influences that will burst in pieces with the imperialist rise of the late 1890's. However, the masterpiece of the alliance network against France, that Bismarck tries to set up in order to diplomatically isolate the country, is certainly the so-called Triple Alliance, a treaty signed in 1882. [...]
[...] Notes and annexes Otto Von Bismarck (1815-1898) Map of Europe in 1871: the German hegemony after the French defeat and the annexation of the Alsace-Moselle The meeting of the Three Emperors in Berlin (September 1872) From left to right (sitting down), Tsar Alexander II, Kaiser William I and Emperor Francis-Joseph Please see the following map of European colonial empires in 1914: The Fachoda crisis: caricatures of Commander Marchand and Lord Kitchener, in the newspaper petit illustré amusant' June 10th 1899 The bipolarisation of Europe in 1914: Triple Alliance and Triple Entente Bibliographical references BAECHLER, Christian, L'aigle et l'ours: la politique russe de l'Allemagne, de Bismarck à Hitler, 1871-1945, Bern FULLER, Joseph Vincent, Bismarck's diplomacy at its zenith, Cambridge, [...]
[...] This group of alliances between Great-Britain, France and Russia is named the ‘Triple Entente', as opposed to the ‘Triplice' (Germany, Austria- Hungary, Italy) . The creation of the Triple Entente is the best example of the collapse of the Bismarckian System and the bipolarisation of Europe Nevertheless, an alliance between the British and the Russians was not something straightforward, just like the Anglo-French alliance. It needed the liquidation of the contentious that used to oppose Russia and the United Kingdom in Central Asia (Persia and Afghanistan) and in the Far East. [...]
[...] II- 1890-1907: Triple Alliance and Triple Entente, the collapse of the Bismarckian System and the bipolarisation of Europe The creation of the Triple Alliance Contrary to the Triple Entente, the creation of the Triple Alliance corresponds in fact quite well with Bismarck's political views. The chancellor had had the intelligence to deal tactfully with Austria-Hungary after the Prussian victory of Sadowa (1866) over the Austrian Empire. He had also made efforts to keep good relations with Italy, whose colonial projects in Tunisia had been ruined by French intervention of 1881. [...]
[...] The British and the French are indeed the European leaders in terms of colonial empires, and the French government has difficulties to admit the British supremacy in this domain. In 1914, the sharing of the world is over, essentially for the benefit of Great-Britain (thirty million square kilometres and four hundred million inhabitants) and France (ten million square kilometres and forty-eight million inhabitants). In September 1898, there is a serious diplomatic and military crisis between France and the United Kingdom, on colonial matters. [...]
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