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The deterioration of Russo-German relations, the resurrection of the Triple Alliance in 1891, and the rumors that Great Britain would join the alliance laid the grounds for the conclusion of a political agreement between Russia and France. It was a response to the formation of a military bloc (the Triple Alliance) headed by Germany.
The ambassador to Russia, Maurice Paléologue, hated Germany and reassured Russia that France would fight alongside it against Germany. [16] The central policy goal for Poincaré was maintaining the close alliance with Russia, which he achieved by a week-long visit to St. Petersburg in mid-July 1914.
The Allies or the Entente was an international military coalition of countries led by France, the United Kingdom, Russia, the United States, Italy, and Japan against the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria in World War I (1914–1918).
Russia had previously been a member of the League of the Three Emperors, an alliance in 1873 with Austria-Hungary and Germany. The alliance was part of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck 's plan to isolate France diplomatically; he feared that France's revanchist aspirations might lead it to attempt to regain its 1871 losses stemming from the ...
As the war started, Germany stood behind its ally Austria-Hungary in a confrontation with Serbia, but Serbia was under the protection of Russia, which was allied to France. Germany was the leader of the Central Powers, which included Austria-Hungary at the start of the war as well as the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria; arrayed against them were ...
Russia relied heavily on the French alliance, as Germany would face greater challenges in a two-front war compared to a conflict with Russia alone. French ambassador Maurice Paléologue harbored deep antipathy toward Germany and believed that when war broke out, France and Russia had to be staunch allies against Germany.
Russia, however, had not wanted to terminate the alliance. Needing new allies, Russia opened negotiations with Germany's enemy France. The resulting Franco-Russian Alliance of 1891–1892 to 1917 rapidly began to take shape. Historians consider the new alliance a major disaster for Germany and one of the long-term causes of the First World War. [1]
Negotiations were increasingly successful, and in early 1894 France and Russia agreed to the Franco-Russian Alliance, a military pledge to join in war if Germany attacked either of them. The alliance was intended to deter Germany from going to war by presenting it with the threat of a two-front war ; neither France or Russia could hope to ...