Triple Alliance — Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy
Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy signed a defensive alliance in May 1882 that lasted, on paper, until 1915. Bismarck's problem after 1871 was that France would never accept the loss of Alsace-Lorraine and that Germany's safety depended on France having no allies. His answer was a system of overlapping treaties designed to keep every other great power attached to Berlin, or at least not attached to Paris. The Dual Alliance with Austria-Hungary of 1879 was the core: each would help the other if attacked by Russia. Italy joined in 1882 for reasons that had nothing to do with Germany. France had occupied Tunisia the year before, which Italy regarded as its own sphere and which humiliated a young state with imperial ambitions and no capacity, and the alliance offered protection and status. The terms required Germany and Austria to help Italy if France attacked it, Italy to help Germany if France attacked Germany, and benevolent neutrality otherwise. The whole thing rested on ignoring the fact that Italy and Austria-Hungary were natural enemies, with Italian populations in Trentino and Trieste, and an Italian nationalism that regarded them as unredeemed. Italy also signed a secret agreement with France in 1902 promising neutrality if France were attacked, which made its treaty obligations mutually exclusive. In August 1914 Italy declared that Austria's action against Serbia was offensive rather than defensive and stayed out, then negotiated with both sides and joined the Allies in 1915 for the territory London offered. The alliance system is often blamed for turning a Balkan quarrel into a world war, and the Italian case cuts the other way. Treaties held where interests held and were abandoned where they did not, which is an argument about the interests rather than about the paper.
- Year: 1882 CE
- Category: Political
