After 1878 there was a wave of Pan-Slavism throughout Russia. Bismarck was accused of deliberately betraying Russian interests in order to favour Austria. This was, of course, true. It simply encouraged Bismarck to continue towards Austria. However, before the Dual Alliance could be signed he had to convince the Kaiser of its necessity. The Kaiser was initially against the breach with Russia in favour of Austria on the grounds of (a) the dynastic connection, (b) the support of Russia in every Prussian crisis, (c) the solidarity of system of order on a monarchical basis, as depicted by the "entente" of 1871 between Austria, Russia and Germany. This was, after all, the most effective defence of the autocratic system against the disruption forces of liberalism and radicalism. It required considerable effort to bring the Kaiser behind his proposal. Bismarck himself threatened resignation.
The Alliance provided for two eventualities, (1) if either party were attacked by Russia, the other was to come to its assistance with its whole military force, (2) if either party were attacked by a power other than Russia (i.e. France), the other was to observe a benevolent neutrality.
How was Italy drawn into the alliance? She was driven in by her ambition in the Mediterranean and her colonial policy, and in the hope that she would be able to round off her process of unification by obtaining "unredeemed Italy" ("Italia irredenta") - Trieste and Istria, the Alpine frontier of 1810, and the Balkan littoral of the Adriatic. The first was provoked by her fear of France, the second by the view that the Italian speaking territories would be sooner incorporated into Italy in co-operation with Austria and Germany; rather than in opposition, against whose military she would clearly stand no chance. Her own exposed coasts would be protected by the Alliance. Agreement with Berlin also would ensure, in the age of the "Kulturkampf", the support of Germany in Italy's dispute with the Vatican. Principally, however, the alliance was directed against France and it was the French occupation of Tunis in 1881 that provoked Italy to accede to it. Most of Bismarck's political energy had been aimed at not so much finding allies for Germany but in avoiding having a combination of enemies facing her. He considered that this was most effectively achieved by creating mutual aversions amongst the other powers. The final step in negotiating the Triple Alliance had, in fact, been in encouraging France to take Tunis thereby antagonizing Italy, just as Bismarck in 1878 had exploited the rift between Russia and Austria-Hungary.
What were the purposes of the Triple Alliance? Fundamentally, it was the major move in Bismarck's game to maintain the peace of Europe. In 1872 Lord Odo Russell, the British Ambassador in Berlin, had informed the Foreign Office that Bismarck's policy was "the supremacy of Germany in Europe and of the German race in the world." Time and peace were essential ingredients that he needed in order to allow Germany to solve her internal differences and to prepare herself for the gigantic role that she was to play in international affairs. Bismarck described himself as a "Friedensfanatiker" - a fanatic for peace - and this was true. But it was peace imposed by the armed strength of the Empire, a peace by which Germany would develop every quality and characteristic that established the State as Power." In the last of his great speeches on February 6, 1888, he delivered a passionate plea for an invincible German army as the arbiter in international disputes. Peace was to him the means towards an end - that of German "Power".
Bismarck assumed that all nations and all statesmen thought in his own terms and that fear, greed and jealousy were the main motives of international life. It characterised his "Realpolitik" to the end of his days. To secure peace he had to put himself at the cross-roads of European diplomatic relations and the Dual and then Triple Alliance were his means of achieving this. Berlin became, in fact, as he wanted, the clearing house of these relations whilst Bismarck remained in power. Germany's relations with Austria and Italy through the Alliance and with Russia through the "entente" and eventually the "Reinsurance" Treaty ensured that she was at the centre of the web.
Both the Dual and Triple Alliance were aimed principally at France. By the Treaty of Frankfurt on May 10, 1871, the Franco-Prussian war was brought to an end. France was obliged to pay heavy indemnities and endure the occupation of German troops until they were settled. More significant were these factors - (1) she had suffered a serious blow to national pride through the military defeats, and (2) she was obliged to hand over Alsace-Lorraine to Germany. Bismarck saw France as the main threat to Germany and European peace, in her desire to wipe off the humiliation and to regain the lost territory. When France quickly paid off the indemnity and then began to build up an army, Germany was greatly alarmed. There were two possibilities before her - either to attack her militarily, but it would not be accepted by other European powers as the new Germany was regarded with both envy and distrust; or try hard to isolate her diplomatically. Practically all the Powers were potential members of alliance - between France and Russia, and between France and Great Britain. The prospect of either haunted him.
Why then did Bismarck ally Germany with Austria? There were three main reasons. Firstly, an Austrian alliance gave Germany a powerful word in the control of the Danube. Then the strategical and economical conformation of Central Europe was moulded by three great river basins - the Rhine, the Danube and the Vistual. The latter was beyond his control, the Rhine was in German hands. The Alliance, if Romania were brought into the system, would control the Danube from source to mouth. Secondly, it made Germany a powerful factor in the Balkans question, the explosive power of which had been shown in the Austro-Russian rivalry in 1875-6. It also gave Germany the opportunity, strengthened by the Reinsurance Treaty of 1884, of being arbiter and controlling influence in the Russo-Austrian rivalry. Besides, Germany had also a growing interest in the Ottoman Empire and Constantinople. A Russian alliance would have meant condoning Russian occupation of Constantinople; the Dual Alliance meant that she could set herself against it. Two Germanic nations could work better than a Germanic and Slav combination. Thirdly, as Bismarck wrote to the Prince of Bavaria - "The German Empire in alliance with Austria would not lack the support of England." A Russian alliance, for instance, in view of Russo-British rivalry over the Straits of Constantinople and Asia, would have definitely antagonised Britain, and probably have brought about a Franco-British entente. The Dual Alliance meant also that there was solid mid-European "bloc", which could work against the Magyar and Slav influences disintegrating the Habsburg Empire.
The accession of Italy to the Alliance had these advantages.
i. It was one possible ally less for France.
ii. It strengthened, Bismarck hoped, the British support for the Alliance through the historic Italo-British friendship.
iii. It meant that he controlled an excitable, ambitious new state, that could easily upset the European equilibrium.
iv. "Trade followed alliance". German commercial interests could exploit Italy.
v. Germany now had a means of access to the Mediterranean.
Bismarck had once said that when one is one amongst five powers, it is necessary to be "a trios". When Russia signed the Reinsurance Treaty, Germany was virtually "a quatre" among six powers. Only Britain, with whom he would have also liked an alliance, and France were outside his system. The Austro-German-Italian combination represented a strong monarchical phalanx against the forces of liberalism that was "corrupting" Britain, and the republicanism that had already taken over France. Bismarck was not over-eager to enter into alliance. They implied obligations besides advantages. But, on the other hand, it would have been folly to stand alone. And it was imperative that Germany selected her partners before France found hers, as she was eventually to do after Bismarck had stepped down from the Chancellorship. finding Germany's allies, as Bismarck himself said, had been full of "perplexities". these "perplexities" could have brought about a Russo-German alliance. But in 1879 and 1882 it seemed that could be successfully avoided. Germany could enter into an alliance with the antagonist of Russia and still keep the Tsardom within Berlin's orbit. As it was, alliance with Austria was to drag the Hohenzollerns down with the Hapsburgs as a result of the 1914-18 war, and Italy was then no longer an ally.
