Alliance System in First World War

When countries join hands and agree to help each other in the war in order to gain victory is called alliances. Many alliances were made in order to reach their target. The first alliance was the Austro-Serbian alliance. The austro-serbian alliance was made in the 1881 in which Austro-Hungarian made an alliance with Serbia to stop Russia from gaining control in order to expand their empire. The second alliance was the Dual alliance which was established in the 1879. This alliance was made between Germany and Austria in order to get protection from Russia. The third alliance was the triple alliance between Germany, Italy and Austria 1882. This alliance was made so that Italy would stop taking the Russian side. In this alliance the main countries were Germany and Austria-Hungary and Italy was just at the background.

The current state was 2 on 3 but if Italy joined Russia then, they will have more people thus, greater chances of wining. Franco-Russian alliance war the fourth alliance which was agreed in 1892 between France and Russia in order to protect themselves from Germany and Austria-Hungary. Agreement number five was the entente cordiale which was between Britain and France. This alliance was made is 1904. This alliance wasn’t a formal alliance between France and Britain. This meant Britain was no longer isolated. In 1907 Britain made a similar agreement with Russia who already had made an alliance with France.

Significance of Triple Alliance

There were six alliance systems in total. At the start, there were six alliances which resulted two in the end. On the one hand were Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy in the Triple Alliance. On the other hand were France, Russia and Britain in the Triple Ententes. Triple entente is a bit stronger term. It means that no matter what, all of these countries are going to stick together and fight for each other. Triple alliance was, all the three countries were friends and they will work together but there was no guarantee that they will always fight for each other. They can separate as well. So, there was a lot of backstabbing and making small groups within the large group and everybody made deals in order to get the best of what they could achieve.

Effects of Alliance System in First World War

The Alliance system had two important effects-

a) It might encourage powers to act rashly in the knowledge that they would receive support. E.g. the Austrian government’s actions in provoking a war with Serbia in 1914 can be partly explained by the knowledge that Germany was likely to back them up.

b) It meant that if war broke out between any two powers all other powers in the two sets of alliances were likely to be dragged in as well. This is what happened in 1914.