In 1871 Prussia defeated France and united the other German states into an empire. The German chancellor, Bismarck, felt the containment of a seething France was vital, and with this aim in mind in 1873 he associated Germany with Austria and Russia in the Three Emperors’ League. By 1882 Italy had joined the alliance formed between Germany and Austria-Hungary - in 1879. foUoyved by Serbia in 1881 and Rumania in 1883. Then in 1887, Russia, by noyv estranged from Austria, negotiated her own treaty yvith Germany. France watched impotent as she was i. solated from Europe by these manoeuvrings.
However, in 1890 the arrogant and unstable Kaiser Wilhelm II became jealous of Bismarck’s prestige and dismissed him. Swiftly all Bismarck’s worst fears were realized. Russia, rejected by the Kaiser in favour of Austria, allied herself yvith France, and at a stroke the Bismarckian policy of containment of France was destroyed.
It has been said of Bismarck that his aim toyvard Britain yvas to keep her ‘in friendly isolation from Germany and unfriendly isolation from France’; but after his departure from office, Anglo-German relations soon deteriorated. This mounting tension resulted in Britain and France reconciling their major differences in the ‘entente cordiale’ of 1904. No formal alliance was established, but especially after the 1907 Anglo-Russian ‘arrangement’, France, Russia, and Britain became known as the Triple Entente, and formed an alliance in fact if not in name.
In 1905, Japan, already allied to Britain since 1902, defeated Russia in a war begun in 1904 over rival claims to influence in Korea. This momentarily strengthened Germany’s position in the balance of poyver. However, in the same year German strong-arm threats to France over the future of Morocco drove the British and the French into a closer relationship. The next increase in tension occurred in 1908 when Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, thereby risking an Austro-Russian war by outraging Russian sensitivity on the subject of the Balkans. Germany, however, backed. Austria and deterred any aggressive move by Russia. .At this point, with France having been alienated in 1905 and Russia in 1908, with Britain still in disagreement yvith Berlin, and with Italy’s attitude still uncertain, Austria remained Germany’s only friend in Europe. Relations yvith V'ienna assumed crucial importance if the Germans yvere not to be totally isolated.
In 1911 Germany increased her pressure on France by-dispatching a gunboat to the Moroccan port of. Agadir, but she was forced to climb down by British support of France. Between 1908 and 1911 German naval strength had been increasing faster than ever, and despite a degree of outyvard friendliness, Britain, traditional bastion of naval power, viewed these developments with suspicion.
World History
