Triple Alliance

   A secret treaty signed by Germany, AustriaHungary, and Italy on 20 May 1882, the Triple Alliance bound the signatories to offer mutual assistance in the event that any one of them should be attacked by two or more powers—Russia and France being perceived as the main dangers. It was to be renewed at fiveyear intervals and was in effect until 1915. The alliance was motivated by Otto von Bismarck’s desire to isolate France and by AustriaHungary’s desire to obtain backing against Russia for its adventures in the Balkans. For Italy, allying with its historic enemy, Austria, represented a sea change in foreign policy and signaled that the cabinet of Agostino Depretis did not intend to listen to the nationalists, who since the mid-1870s, had been pressing the Italian government to put the liberation of the Trentino and Trieste—the two largest provinces still under Austrian domination—at the core of its foreign policy. Foreign Minister Felice Nicolis di Robilant, the architect of the new policy, was motivated by Italy’s need for diplomatic support against France, which was blocking its attempts to expand into Tunisia and to build a North African empire. French support for the pope was feared as well. While the alliance offered none of the guarantees of Italy’s position in Rome sought by Italy, it did provide assurances against an attack by France.

   The threat posed by this alliance prompted France to ally itself with Russia in 1894 and to enter an entente cordiale with Great Britain in 1904, thus dividing Europe into two counterposed blocs of powers. Many historians believe that the origins of World War I are to be found in the frictions between the powers that this situation inevitably provoked. In 1915, however, Italy entered the war on the side of Britain and France, rather than Austria-Hungary and Germany.

   See also London, Treaty of.