Alliances

Two great alliance systems divided Europe by 1914.

• Triple Entente: France, Britain, and Russia. Originally informal alignments built between 1894 (Franco-Russian) and 1907 (Anglo-Russian).
• Triple Alliance: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. Defensive alliance built between 1879 and 1882. Italy actually switched sides in 1915.

The alliances were defensive in design but produced a catastrophic logic of escalation. A war between any two members would draw in the others. The system meant that a regional dispute between Austria-Hungary and Serbia could trigger a Continental war by activating the alliance chains.