How did the Triple Alliance contribute to the start of World War I?
First of all, there’s not much to say about Italy as it backed out of the Triple Alliance.. So that leaves us with Germany and Austria-Hungary (Austria). The important point is that Austria did not want war with Russia which it knew would come if it attacked Serbia, on account of Serbia’s alliance with Russia. Austria did not want the war because it knew that it would lose the war or at least take very heavy casualties and lose a lot of territory. So the basic point is to discuss how Germany wanted war with Russia and pushed Austria into gettting into such a war so that Germany would have the excuse to go to war with Russia on account of its treatry with Austria. The reason Germany wanted to fight Russia in 1914 is that the German General Staff (chief army officers) believed that Russia would attack Germany as soon as Russia became strong enough and that Russia would do so within two years. The Kaiser (Emperor) of Germany did not want war with Russia whose tsar (emperor) was his cousin
