Warm Up Activity
 How can defensive alliances lead to stability or
instability in the world?
The Alliance System
A PRELUDE TO WAR
Objectives
 Today we will be able to identify how European
rivalries led to the alliance system that would
become one of many catalysts for the outbreak of the
Great War.
19th Century European Rivalries
 France vs. Germany
 Austria Hungary vs.
Slavs
 Germany vs. Russia (Pan
Slavism)
 Great Britain vs. Russia
France vs. Germany
 The outcome of Franco-
Prussian War.

France loses AlsaceLorraine.
Resource rich, wealthy,
 strategic for France since
the 16th century

 Colonial rivalries

Post-Bismarck Germany
competed for
Mediterranean and North
African colonies.
Austria Hungary vs. Sub-Nationalities
 Dominant Austrians and
Hungarians were satisfied
with the situation in central
Europe.
 All other nationalities
living in the Empire were
not.


Czechs and Slovaks,
Romanians, and South Slavs
(Slovenes, Croats, and
SERBS!!!)
Russia challenged AustroHungarian influence in the
Balkans due to Pan-Slavism
Germany vs. Russia
 Russia fanned the flames
of Serbian nationalism in
the Balkans which
threatened the existence
of the Austro Hungarian
empire.
 This made Austria
Hungary very dependent
on their alliance with
Germany.
Great Britain vs. Russia
 British policy in the
Balkans was based on
keeping Russia from
controlling access to the
Dardanelles and the
straight of Constantinople.
 The Ottoman Empire was
the obstacle in the way of
Russian control of this
important geographical
feature.
 Great Britain became a
protector of the Turkish
Ottomans.
The Alliance System
 Based on three predicaments
 French and German hatred.
 Competing interests of Russia and Austria-Hungary in the
Balkans.
 Germany’s fear of being attacked from the east and west by
Russia and France.
The Triple Alliance
 Germany and Austria
created a defensive alliance
aimed at mitigating
Russian expansion in the
Balkans.
 Germany and AustriaHungary included Italy in
an alliance.
 This alienated Russia and
made them at odds with
not only Austria-Hungary,
but with Germany as well.
France and Russia’s Dual Alliance
 A defensive alliance
between Russia and
France.
 This ended France’s
diplomatic isolation.
Britain and France sign the Entente Cordiale
 Britain and France were
able to put their hatred
aside and signed this
“friendly agreement” in
1901 which ended Britain’s
diplomatic isolation and
strengthened France’s
position in Europe.
 Why sign?




G.B. needed friends
G.B. relations with Germany
soured
German influence in Turkey
German economic growth
made G.B. nervous.
The Triple Entente
 The alliance between
France, Great Britain and
Russia.
The Constitution of the “Black Hand”
 Read the excerpt of the Constitution of the Black
Hand.
 Respond: “How does this document illustrate the
forces leading Europe to war in the early twentieth
century?”
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snGYsb3sn3g