Discuss the two systems of alliances that brought the European powers to war.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers will vary. The Triple Entente was a buildup of a more formalized treaty, signed in 1894, between Russia and France against the belligerent state of Germany. England did not want to formally join but arranged participation through the Entente Cordiale agreements that it made separately with both France and Russia. On the other side was the Triple Alliance. Germany and Italy had made an arrangement for mutual defense after the Berlin Conference, and Austria joined the agreement over concerns that Russian influence in the south Slavic territories might further aggravate nationalist issues and spark an uprising. But there were also individual motivations, beyond imperialism and discord, behind the bickering and rivalries. For the French, regaining Alsace-Lorraine was a matter of pride. For Russia, there was worry that the Ottomans were so weak that some other power might be able to gain control of the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits and cut them off from access to the Mediterranean via the Black Sea. Tensions between Germany and Britain grew after Wilhelm openly supported the Dutch (Boers) in the Boer Wars in South Africa.