Bismarck and the Three Emperors' Alliance, 1881–87

The Alliance of the Three Emperors was Bismarck's attempt to escape from a dilemma which had led him to a typical crisis of nerves and irritability during the early months of 1879. He had soon recognized after 1871 that the interests of the new Germany could no longer be served by war. Could he secure the isolation of the unforgiving French without embarrassing commitments to his friends and potential allies? The maintenance of friendly relations with, and between, Austria and Russia seemed to him the indispensable basis of German predominance in Europe; the worsening of Austro-Russian relations during the long-drawn-out Near Eastern crisis after 1875 had, however, led both his neighbours to grumble at his limited support, although Russia had been very, much more open and indiscreet in her complaints than Austria. Accordingly he decided at the end of 1878 that the very nebulous Dreikaiserbündnis of 1872–3 no longer provided an adequate basis for German security; in October 1879 he formed a defensive alliance with Austria against Russia, and in June 1881 the new alliance of the three emperors was concluded, although the Austro-German alliance remained in force. The collapse of the three emperors' alliance in the first major crisis that it had to face, namely the Bulgarian crisis of 1885–6, suggests that the solution was hardly a happy one

Alliance · Ancient history · Bulgarian · Dilemma · Economic history · Face (sociological concept · German · Political economy · Political science · Social science · Sociology · European Political History Analysis · History · Law · Philosophy

• The Powers and the Unification of the Two Bulgarias, 1885

  W N Medlicott, W N MEDLIOOTT•The English Historical Review•1939

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