The alliance systems, or Ententes, were the reason that countries all got involved in the fighting of World War One. In 1907, the Triple Entente was formed between Britain, France and Russia. France already had an agreement with Russia called the Franco-Russian Entente of 1894. They had been to war before this, many times (and were at war for 100 years once!).ĭespite all this history, Britain signed an agreement with their old enemies, France in 1904. France and Britain had been enemies for long time. From this, can you figure out what the Triple Entente was?īecause France and Russia were a bit worried about Germany and Austria-Hungary joining together, they too made some agreements of their own in 1892.īritain stayed out of it at that point.
In Russia, the royals spoke French at the time, so the French and Russians may have specially picked the name for their pact with Britain.Įntente means “friendship, understanding or agreement” in French. The name of the pact between Britain, France and Russia, made before WW1, was the Triple Entente. This pact gets a little bit complicated where Italy is concerned because Italy then secretly told France they would not help Germany if Germany invaded them!īritain, France and Russia also formed a pact. Italy joined because it needed protection from other great powers too. They felt safer in a pact together because they figured that Russia would not attack two Empires at the same time. These countries and ruling powers were worried about Russia attacking them from the East. The German Empire (the Second Reich) and Austro-Hungarian Empire were two important powers in Central and Eastern Europe at the time. Remaining neutral is when you don’t take sides (it just meant that Germany promised not to side with any other powers apart from Austria-Hungary and Italy). They all agreed to protect each other if they were attacked by Russia and to remain neutral in case they were attacked by any other country. When Italy joined in 1882, it became the Triple Alliance. In 1871, Germany made an alliance with Austria-Hungary (which was one single country then).
Who were the Allies, and who were the Central Powers? Reading this will help you to understand who was on whose side and why. So, before we know what caused the First World War, we should look at these pacts and how they started. Actually, there were lots of pacts, friendships and alliances that meant one country would defend another country if war was declared. It seems a bit complicated at first when we look at it that way. Why did Germany declare war on Russia because a Serbian killed an Austrian man? In the First World War, it can be a bit tricky to work out who was fighting who, and who was on whose side.
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