preview

Military Alliance System Essay

Decent Essays

Firstly, the Alliance system contributed to the outbreak of WWI. One such example of the Alliance system would be Bismarck’s Dual Alliance in 1879, Triple Alliance in 1882, and the Triple Entente in 1907. In 1878, Germany and Austria-Hungary formed the Dual Alliance, in a bid to increase security. It was enlarged to the Triple Alliance when Italy joined in 1882. The Triple Alliance was a defensive military alliance where the signatories were required to provide military support to each other should one of them be engaged in a battle. In response to the Triple Alliance, Russia, who considered Austria-Hungary as her main rival, sought to ally herself alongside with France, and eventually Britain as well, hence creating the Triple Entente. The …show more content…

Another example would be the July Crisis in 1914. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1914 was significant as it raised the serious rivalry between Austria and Serbia. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot in the morning in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, who was a Bosnian Serb nationalist who was a member of the Black Hand, an anti-Austrian terrorist organization that was sponsored by the government of Serbia. On 5 July, Kaiser William II of Germany had promised to support Austria and agreed that Austria should be given a free hand to start war with Serbia, and gave the “First Blank Check”. Austria then presented Serbia with a list of unreasonable demands and only gave Serbia 48 hours to reply. However, when Serbia replied that they would agree with all the demands except allowing Austrian army into the country, Austria rejected this reply and declared war where she began bombing Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. With this declaration of war, Russia, being involved in an alliance with Serbia, ordered her army to mobilize against

Get Access