The Triple Alliance was a millitary alliance among Germany, Austria–Hungary, and Italy,
opposing the Triple Entente between Britain, France and Russia. It lasted from 20 May 1882
until World War I in 1914. Each member promised mutual support in the event of an attack by
any other great power, or, in the case of Germany and Italy, an attack by France alone.
In a supplementary declaration, Italy specified that its undertakings could not be regarded
as being directed against Great Britain. Shortly after renewing the Alliance in June 1902,
Italy secretly extended a similar guarantee to France. By a particular agreement, neither
Austria–Hungary nor Italy would change the status quo in the Balkans without previous
consultation. When Austria–Hungary found themselves at
war in August 1914 with the rival Triple Entente, Italy pledged to support the Central Powers:
Germany, Austria-Hungary, and later the Ottoman Empire. However, because Germany and Austria–Hungary
had taken the offensive while the Triple Alliance was supposed to have been a defensive alliance,
Italy did not enter into the war. Later on, Italy entered the conflict on the side of
the Entente, declaring war against Austria–Hungary in May 1915 and Germany in August 1916. Carol
I of Romania, through his Prime Minister Ion I. C. Brătianu, had also secretly pledged
to support the Triple Alliance, but he too remained neutral since Austria-Hungary started
the war.
Germany The man chiefly responsible for the Triple
Alliance was Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of Germany. Bismarck wanted to prevent a war
on two fronts, which is why he targeted these two countries specifically.
Austria–Hungary By the late 1870s, Austrian territorial ambitions
in both the Italian peninsula and Central Europe had been thwarted by the rise of Italy
and Germany as new national powers. With the decline and failed reforms of the Ottoman
Empire, Slavic discontent in the occupied Balkans grew, and both Russia and Austria–Hungary
saw an opportunity to expand in this region. In 1876, Russia offered to partition the Balkans,
but Hungarian statesman Gyula Andrássy declined because Austria–Hungary was already a "saturated"
state and it could not cope with additional territories. The whole Empire was thus drawn
into a new style of diplomatic brinkmanship, first conceived of by Andrássy, centering
on the province of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a predominantly Slav area still under the
control of the Ottoman Empire. On the heels of the Great Balkan Crisis, Austro-Hungarian
forces occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina in August 1878 and the empire eventually annexed
Bosnia and Herzegovina in October 1908 as a common holding under the control of the
finance ministry, rather than attaching it to either Austria or Hungary. The occupation
of Bosnia-Herzegovina was a step taken in response to Russian advances into Bessarabia.
Unable to mediate between Turkey and Russia over the control of Serbia, Austria–Hungary
declared neutrality when the conflict between the two powers escalated into the Russo-Turkish
War. In order to counter Russian and French interests in Europe, an alliance was concluded
with Germany in October 1879 and with Italy in May 1882. World War I started in 1914.
Italy The Kingdom of Italy, like some of the other
European powers, wanted to set up colonies and build up an overseas empire. With this
aim in mind, Italy joined the German-Austrian Alliance to form the Triple Alliance, partly
in anger at the French seizure of Tunisia in 1881, which many Italians had seen as a
potential colony, and partly to guarantee herself support in case of foreign aggression:
the main alliance compelled any signatory country to support the other parties if two
other countries attacked. At the time, most European countries tried to ensure similar
guarantees, and because of the Tunisian crisis Italy found no other big potential ally than
its historical enemy, Austria–Hungary, against which Italy had fought three wars in the 34
years before the first treaty signing. However, Italian public opinion remained unenthusiastic
about their country's alignment with Austria–Hungary, a past enemy of Italian unification, and whose
Italian populated districts in the Trentino and Istria were seen as occupied territories
by Italian irredentists. In the years before World War I, many distinguished military analysts
predicted that Italy would attack its supposed ally in the event of a large scale conflict.
Italy's adherence to the Triple Alliance was doubted and from 1903 plans for a possible
war against Rome were again maintained by the Austrian general staff. Mutual suspicions
led to reinforcement of the frontier and speculation in the press about a war between the two countries
into the first decade of the twentieth century. As late as 1911 Count Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf,
chief of the Austrian general staff, was advocating a military preemptive strike against Austria's
supposed Italian ally. This prediction was strengthened by Italy′s invasion and annexation
of Libya, bringing it into conflict with the German-backed Ottoman Empire.
Italy's reasoning for not siding with the Central Powers in World War I was that the
Triple Alliance was a defensive alliance, but Germany and Austria–Hungary had taken
the offensive. Notes
Citations
References Kann, Robert. A History of the Habsburg Empire.
University of California Press. pp. 470–472. ISBN 0520042069. LCCN 72097733.
Rothenburg, Gunther E.. The Army of Francis Joseph. West Lafayette: Purdue University
Press. pp. 124–125. Further reading
Margaret Macmillan, The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914 ch 8