Why did the First world war happen?
In the 19th century, the major European powers had gone to great lengths to maintain a “balance of power” throughout Europe, resulting by 1900 in a complex network of political and military alliances throughout the continent.[2] These had started in 1815 with the Holy Alliance between Germany (then Prussia), Russia, and Austria–Hungary. Then, in October, 1873, German Chancellor Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors (German: Dreikaiserbund) between the monarchs of Austria–Hungary, Russia and Germany. This agreement failed because Austria–Hungary and Russia could not agree over Balkan policy, leaving Germany and Austria–Hungary in an alliance formed in 1879, called the Dual Alliance. This was seen as a method of combating Russian influence in the Balkans as the Ottoman Empire continued to weaken.[2] In 1882, this alliance was expanded to include Italy in what became the Triple Alliance.[9] After 1870 European conflict was averted largely due to a carefully planned network
