The Alliance System: Bismarck's Legacy and the Triple Entente

The alliance architecture that split Europe into two hostile blocs by 1914 had its roots in the diplomacy of Otto von Bismarck after Germany's unification in 1871, built specifically to isolate France and forestall a war of revenge over Alsace-Lorraine. This strategy culminated in 1882 in the Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, which committed the three powers to mutual military assistance if attacked, although Italy harbored significant private reservations about how far it would honor its obligations toward Austria-Hungary. Bismarck supplemented this bloc with the Reinsurance Treaty with Russia of 1887, intended to prevent a Franco-Russian alignment that would trap Germany between two fronts, but the treaty lapsed in 1890 after Bismarck's dismissal, when Kaiser Wilhelm II and his new chancellor declined to renew it.