I don't like copying from the internet-the following is completely original by hand, I hope you can respect it.
As early as the Prussian era, Prussia had a long-term good relationship with Russia. 187 1 After the establishment of the empire, the relationship between Russia and Germany did not weaken, and the three emperors' alliance was signed twice-almost realizing Bismarck's strategy of isolating France and stabilizing Europe. However, the political changes in Germany and the deepening Balkan crisis forced Germany to choose between Russia and Austria-Hungary-so Germany and Austria-Hungary secretly signed a double alliance (1879), but Bismarck still tried to avoid the Russian-French alliance through reinsurance treaties.
The problem is that great changes have taken place in the international situation at the end of19th century. Bismarck had to rob Peter to pay Paul-there was no cure, and different forces in Germany began to intervene in foreign policy-which led to a series of changes, including Bismarck's forced resignation, abandonment of reinsurance treaties, introduction of high German tariffs and closure of Russian securities.
Simply put, the reasons can be divided into domestic reasons (agriculture, military, industry and emperors) and international reasons (mainly Balkan and Near East issues).
I wrote a brief diplomatic history of the German Empire, so I adapted it from my original article to explain your question.
If you want to have a panoramic understanding of the diplomacy of the German Empire, you can read my article-I will attach a link (too long, post it).
A shabby troika
Among the diplomatic goals after Bismarck 187 1 year, the most crucial thing is to isolate France and consolidate the fruits of victory in order to achieve peace in Europe. The result of the actual operation is the first Dreikaiserbund that 1873 takes effect. Bismarck made many efforts to urge the German emperor, the czar and the Austrian emperor to meet in 1872 and reached a certain understanding, and established a five-year alliance.
But this alliance is only based on the same sex of the three countries-support for the traditional monarchy and occupation of Poland. The three emperors agreed to oppose * * * and socialism together, however, they would only negotiate together to deal with unexpected problems that other countries threatened European peace. This result is far from Bismarck's goal of completely isolating France. The troika maintained by ancient aristocratic etiquette is not reassuring. 18 15 The holy alliance, much like the san huang League, was the "United Nations" reached by five major countries to deal with the threat of liberalism. Tsar Nicholas I once confidently told the Austrian royal family that Russia could dispatch 500,000 troops at any time to ensure that any European revolution was quickly extinguished. During the riots in Hungary, the Russian army thundered as promised to ensure the maintenance of the European system as a European gendarmerie. However, the growth of international power and the out-of-control of public opinion have given birth to two "demons"-pan-nationalism and chauvinism-which are even more terrible than the socialism that liberalism and Bismarck fear most!
/kloc-the Crimean war that broke out in 0/854 is an ominous sign. The pan-Slavism movement in Russia made its leadership extremely eager to expand its influence in the Balkans to "liberate" Slavs, which clashed with the attempt to control the holy church, the "Russian tradition" of the Orthodox Church, and with Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte, who claimed to be the protector of Catholicism. What deserves more attention is the budding chauvinism of Emperor Napoleon, who tried to transfer domestic contradictions with foreign wars, which directly led to the outbreak of war. Interestingly, the idea of "anti-pan-Slavism" spread rapidly in Britain, which intensified the anti-Russian sentiment in public opinion-even led to the war on Britain's consistent policy. The slow progress caused by the initial restrictions on military spending actually stimulated the rebound of nationalism for the first time, which led to the doubling of military spending-the role of nationalism and chauvinism began to appear. As a result, the Vienna Convention system completely collapsed from 18 15.
The Prussian landlords east of the Elbe River were impacted by the 1848 revolution and had to take' offensive defense', but they suffered from the weakness of the king. By 186 1, William I was king, and then the parliament was dissolved many times. Finally, in 1862, he was appointed as the so-called' the last crossbow that God shot at the conservatives'. Under the leadership of Bismarck, the conservative class took a series of military adventures and made amazing achievements. The alliance of the three emperors he actively advocated was not only to isolate France, but also to some extent included the defense strategy of the Yongke class in East Prussia. However, Bismarck soon realized that he was caught in internal and external troubles. Old wagons will fall apart in the whirlwind of pan-nationalism and chauvinism at any time-especially in the Balkans, which is called the powder keg.
The arsonist on the powder keg
The powder keg in the Balkans is no stranger to China. 1999 the "accidental bombing" of the embassy led to the deterioration of sino-us relations. The complicated political and ethnic problems in the Balkans can be attributed to the expansion of Ottoman Turkey. 1453, the Ottoman Empire captured Constantinople, ending the Millennium-immortal Byzantine Empire, expanding to the Balkans, and once occupied Vienna. Subsequently, the Russian Empire rose, especially in the era of female emperor yekaterina, and defeated Osman twice, thus expanding Russian power to the Black Sea and even the Balkans. But Hungary, as a part of the Holy Roman Empire, became the bridgehead of Balkan countries such as Austria. As a result, three forces formed in the Balkans-Austria (Austria-Hungary after 1867), Russia and the Ottoman Empire. In addition, there are complex ethnic distribution-especially Serbs, because their distribution range is complex, which laid the groundwork for the war of more than 100 years later.
Since the independence of Greece, the Ottoman Empire has completely lost control of the European parts except Istanbul, and various local nationalities have gone their own way. /kloc-In the mid-9th century, pan-Slavic thought became popular, and the Russian royal family began to regard Orthodox Christians and Slavs in Southeast Europe as' people in a certain sense' and thought it was their responsibility to help them get rid of the tyranny of the Turks. For the Austrian Empire, a large number of Slavs in the empire, especially Serbs, are likely to be encouraged by the Russians to become independent. Therefore, the Austrian Empire has traditionally resolutely opposed Russia's help to the Slavs on the east coast of the Black Sea in their struggle for independence. However, after Austria lost to Prussia in the seven-week war of 1866, it completely lost the influence of the German region, so the issue of Eastern Europe became a matter of life and death. Therefore, the Austrian emperor assessed the situation and recognized the Hungarian regime in his region, thus forming the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The main purpose of establishing this two-headed dragon is to unite Hungarians and crowd out Poles and Slavs. After Austria-Hungary joined the Alliance of the Three Emperors, it was thought that the Balkan issue might be settled. I didn't expect the Serbs who set fire to ignite the powder keg even if they blew themselves up.
In the third year of san huang League 1875, religious riots broke out in Bosnia and Herzegovina against the Turks. Therefore, nationalism is highly contagious. After lurking for more than a year, the riots spread to Bulgaria. Taking this opportunity, Serbia and Montenegro declared war on the Ottoman Empire. At that time, there were no Americans to contain Russia-thousands of "volunteers" joined the Serbian army. Austria-Hungary is extremely sensitive to any changes in the Balkans and strongly opposes Russian interference. Bismarck also began to worry about whether he needed to choose between Russia and Austria, but fortunately, the Balkan issue was directly related to the Near East issue. Since the Crimean War, Britain has always supported the Turks against Russia, so it will not stand idly by. Realizing that Russia is likely to be isolated and plunged into the second Crimean tragedy, Russian Foreign Minister Gorchakov started secret consultations with other countries and finally reached an agreement. If the Turks win, they will be prevented from further retaliating against the participating countries, and the situation will remain unchanged. If the Turks are defeated, Russia will gain Bissalabia in the south (Stalin also took a fancy to this, which led to a war with Germany in violation of the secret agreement of 1939), and Austria-Hungary will gain the autonomy of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Romania and Albania.
But the result was completely beyond the calculation of the powers-the Turks won a total victory, so Russia got nothing, and domestic pan-Slavic groups strongly urged Russia to intervene directly. Tsar Alexander II claimed that he "only" wanted to "protect" the local Orthodox Christians, but no big country was willing to support him. The tsar thought that he had carried out reforms and gained muscles, and immediately returned to the attitude in his bones-going it alone! At this time, the Russian-Austrian war may break out at any time.
Both sides turned to Bismarck, and Austria-Hungary sought support. Russia hoped that Germany would remain neutral and was rejected. After all, Alexander II is better than his father. He not only promised the land of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Bosnia and Herzegovina) as before, but also claimed that the scale of the newly independent country would be very small. So with the acquiescence of Austria-Hungary, Russia invaded the Ottoman Empire in 1877, and signed an alliance with the Turks in 1878 in Santostefano, not far from Istanbul. At this time, Austria-Hungary and even Bismarck discovered that the czar had deceived everyone! Powder kegs are not only lit, but also more and more.
Berlin multilateral consultation
Andrasi, the foreign minister of Austria-Hungary, felt completely cheated. Russia and Turkey reached an agreement to build a "Greater Bulgaria" and even have a seaport in the Aegean Sea! This will make the Austro-Hungarian Empire fall into semi-encirclement in Southeast Europe, and the Russian fleet will definitely be rewritten, so the Austro-Hungarian Empire mobilized. Britain even dispatched troops from India on a large scale to prepare for war with Russia. Seeing that his san huang League was actually on the verge of collapse, Bismarck had to play the role of "honest middleman" and invited all parties to Berlin for multilateral consultations in 1878 to solve the Balkan crisis.
Textbooks rigidly point out that this reflects the great power status of the German Empire and the status of European arbitrator-Bismarck doesn't think so, because the result of the meeting is likely to offend both sides of Germany. However, before the meeting, Bismarck made a lot of preparations-reached such an understanding: Russia needs to cut "Greater Bulgaria", while Britain needs to ensure the security of the Ottoman Empire to obtain Cyprus, while Austria-Hungary can still obtain Bosnia and Herzegovina under the guarantee of the British Empire.
The above conditions were finally passed at the meeting, but "Greater Bulgaria" was not only reduced, but also divided into three parts. The north was independent and the southeast was autonomous, and the rest still belonged to the Turks. This simple map operation completely ignores ethnic issues and makes the Balkan issue more complicated. Now not only Serbia is a powder keg, but Bulgaria is also very dangerous. All walks of life in Russia lashed out at the Tsar for "betraying the country" and described the meeting as "the siege of Russia led by European Prince Bismarck". Bismarck's decision in the meeting was not unreasonable. Britain and Austria-Hungary are stronger than Russia itself. However, the Russians have great trust in Bismarck, and this meeting, which prevented Russia from "returning home with a full load", dealt a great blow to Russian intelligence about Germany. The British took this opportunity to ease the pressure in Afghanistan and alienate Bismarck's continental stabilizer, the san huang League. 1878 happened to be the year when the san huang League expired, and the deterioration of Russian-German relations made the renewal of the contract a bubble. Bismarck's eyes immediately saw the scene and result of Russia's alliance with France-the Battle of Titan. Bismarck was at a loss at this time, or the fate of the entire German Empire began to shake-is it desperately to maintain the status quo, or is it preemptive?
Composite shock absorber
After the Berlin Conference, Bismarck realized that Germany had to choose between Russia and Austria-Hungary-at least in order. An alliance with Russia will not only break with Austria, but also offend Britain, a cunning opponent. Therefore, Bismarck signed a dual alliance with Austria-Hungary in the autumn of 1879, which was essentially a military alliance aimed at Russia-when Germany or Austria-Hungary fought a' third party', all parties must remain neutral until Russia intervened. This treaty was renewed four times until 19 18, which ended in the collapse of the Second Reich. But Bismarck did not intend to break with Russia completely. He thinks he can "cool" Russia. Austria-Hungary is on the defensive in the Balkans, so it is natural to support Austria-Hungary. However, the particularity of the German Empire made its foreign policy depend not only on the international situation, but also on domestic issues. And this phenomenon made the beginning of the empire into a dead end, even Bismarck was difficult to control.
Although Bismarck claimed in his memoirs that the German-Austrian alliance was designed in 1866, there is no evidence that Bismarck had a similar plan before 1879. Obviously, Bismarck underestimated the speed of the deterioration of the Balkan problem. Of course, what he really wants to hide is the domestic pressure on himself. The pressure from the core of the whole empire, represented by the agricultural giants east of the Elbe River, and Bismarck's arrogant idea that he could attack and tame Russia made the German agricultural product protection tariff formally implemented in 1880. Russia is in a critical period of industrialization, and it is in urgent need of export of agricultural products to earn foreign exchange, which undoubtedly deepens the contradiction.
The Central Party, the spokesman of Catholicism in southern Germany, strongly supports an alliance with Austria. In order to deal with the emerging Social Democratic Party (SPD), Bismarck had to reconcile with Catholicism and chose to form an alliance with Austria. The General Staff, represented by the Yong-ke landlord class, has been planning eastern exercises-against Russia since 1879. Mao Qi began to consider the war against Russia, and the General Staff planned two East-West exercises every year since then, which undoubtedly influenced Bismarck's foreign policy. Bismarck suspected preemptive strike, but diplomatic opportunities did not exist. Coincidentally, the opportunity came-Alexander II was assassinated in 188 1, and Russia had to struggle on the front of anti-liberalism and socialist extremists. The new czar Alexander III wanted to form a new alliance-but the Austro-Hungarian Empire still wanted to drag Bismarck down against Russia. Bismarck put pressure on Vienna through political and economic means, and finally contributed to the second alliance between san huang.
The alliance stipulates that when any contracting party goes to war with other big powers, other contracting parties remain neutral-this can ensure that Germany goes to war with France alone. Russia and Austria divide their spheres of influence in the Balkans, and Austria and Hungary recognize "Greater Bulgaria". The three parties have made joint efforts to prevent the Black Sea Strait from being used by Britain, and any change in the Balkans requires multilateral negotiations. In this way, Bismarck finally made the Austro-Hungarian Empire yield and frozen the powder keg in a short time. Russia successfully isolated Britain. In fact, isolating Britain was very powerful for the German Empire. Bismarck did not necessarily fail to foresee the prospect of bad relations between Germany and Britain, but the crown prince of the empire was liberal and had a pro-British tendency. During the Franco-Prussian War, the contradiction between Bismarck and the Crown Prince intensified, and Jewish politicians around the Crown Prince constantly planned plans against Bismarck. Bismarck avoided direct conflict with Britain only by considering the crown prince, and Russia will turn to pressure Britain after obtaining the Balkan guarantee. Germany was once in a detached position and did not involve Austria-Hungary, so the situation was far better than that of the Berlin meeting of 1878. In this case, the Battle of Titan seems to be an unreachable threat.
Bismarck publicly declared in 188 1 that' as long as I am the prime minister, the German Empire will not have any colonial policies'. Bismarck hoped to attract the French government's attention to Africa, make the contradiction between Britain and France warm up, and let Germany act as an arbitrator again. However, before the struggle between Britain and France began, France fought Italy. It turned out that Bismarck had supported the French to obtain Tunisia, while Italy invested huge sums of money in Tunisia, which aroused the anger of Italians. The Italian government clashed with the Pope. In order to isolate France and the Catholic Pope, Italy offered to form an alliance with Germany and Austria, which was exactly what Bismarck wanted. Therefore, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy signed the triple alliance at 1882. The alliance stipulates that if any party is attacked by two or more big countries, other parties will support it. There are also special provisions, such as Austria-Hungary goes to war with Russia and Italy is neutral. If France invades Germany, Italy needs support. If Italy is attacked by France, the other two need to fight. In this way, France was completely isolated on the European continent.
188 1- 1883 With the help of Bismarck, Austria-Hungary reached an understanding with Serbia and pulled Romania into the anti-Russian front. Germany and Austria will promise to defend Romania, and Romania will participate in the war when Russia attacks Austria. However, in 1882, the British occupied Egypt, and the relationship with France and Russia deteriorated, which made triple alliance successfully renew the contract in 1884. Bismarck developed his diplomatic talent to the extreme, and formed a complex shock absorber, including the secret alliance between Germany and Austria, the alliance of the Three Emperors, triple alliance, the alliance between Germany and Austria, and the Romanian alliance. It is worth mentioning that all the contents of the treaty describe Germany as the defensive side (except the German-Austrian secret treaty), which means Bismarck has made a choice between preemption and maintaining the status quo. 1884 is also called the peak of Bismarck system. But just like the tiger tanks of the Third Reich, the complex power and suspension system will fall off in an emergency. Only one year after the peak, another crisis in the Balkans made Bismarck once again in a passive situation and exhausted.
Non-insurance reinsurance treaty
As mentioned earlier, dividing' Greater Bulgaria' into three at the 1878 Berlin Conference will lead to more problems. Sure enough 1885 The Balkan crisis broke out in Bulgaria. Alexander, the Grand Duke of Bulgaria, single-handedly annexed "independent" southeastern Bulgaria, showing signs of getting rid of Russia. Alexander III was eager to stop the merger, but what was done was done. Russia's foreign policy failed completely and began to plan to annex Bulgaria. Russia and Austria-Hungary are in danger of going to war again, while in France, the support rate of "revenge general" boulanger is rising rapidly, and the west is extremely unstable. Bismarck, together with France, Italy and Britain, reached the first Mediterranean agreement in March-calling for maintaining the status quo in the Eastern Mediterranean to curb Russian expansion. It is against this background that Mao Qi once again proposed a preemptive strike against Russia, which Bismarck flatly refused.
The san huang League is once again in danger of disintegration. Bismarck rejected Mao Qi because he had other plans-three months later, Bismarck secretly contacted Russia and signed a secret agreement-reinsurance treaty on June 18. The reinsurance treaty stipulates that when a contracting party goes to war with a third country (except France, Austria and Hungary), the other party must remain neutral in good faith and try its best to localize the war, while Germany recognizes the legitimacy of Russia's "dominant position" in Bulgaria and East Lu Mei (that is, southeastern Bulgaria). The two sides reiterated that the agreement reached by the san huang League in 188 1 that is, Russia and Germany put pressure on the Ottoman Empire and refused other countries' navies to enter the Bosporus Strait and the Da Daniil Strait was mainly aimed at Britain.
In addition, in the attachment, Bismarck promised that Germany would sincerely remain neutral and give moral diplomatic support when Russia took military action to defend the Black Sea Strait.
Bismarck's move implies that he even supports Russia's occupation of Istanbul, but this kind of behavior will certainly be strongly opposed by Britain and France. As stated in the contents of the reinsurance treaty, the treaty cannot ensure Russia's neutrality in the German-French war. But the treaty can guarantee that there will be no "offensive" anti-German alliance. In addition, Bismarck believed that the treaty could prevent the Balkan crisis from worsening. However, what if Austria-Hungary was angered and took the initiative to attack Russia? Then the reinsurance treaty becomes an uninsured treaty!
Bismarck wrote in his memoir Thinking and Memories that the General Staff Department would launch a preemptive war. This desire is triggered by the spirit that an institution must have, and he doesn't want to comment on this institution. However, it will be dangerous if this desire is faced by a ruler who lacks insight and resists one-sided and unconstitutional measures. From this, we can also see the typical relationship between the General Staff and political leaders. Back to the original question, what would happen if an aggressive chief of staff faced a reckless and weak-willed ruler and a prime minister without political autonomy?
As can be seen from the above, Bismarck is worried that the radical line of the Austro-Hungarian Empire will drag Germany into the war, but he is more afraid of domestic problems in Germany. If the major agricultural unions and the General Staff ignore the political costs, it is very likely that Germany will be brought into war. But on the other hand, can Bismarck guarantee that his tightrope trick will last forever? The improvement of France's defense facilities on the western front makes it more and more difficult to fight France alone. There is a growing demand in the General Staff Department for Russia to strike first, and Russia's industrialization relies heavily on German investment. However, the military is worried that Russia will use these funds to improve the railway network in western Russia-and the German General Staff is most dependent on railways-for large-scale military operations. So under the joint action of the General Staff and farmers, the German government simply banned Russian securities in June 1887+065438+ 10! -the consequences of this practice are unimaginable. Russia had to introduce France, the capital of the Republic, to develop its economy. Germany's former industrial dignitaries acted against the historical trend, which not only suppressed the emerging industrial groups, but also dealt a heavy blow to German diplomacy. Then Russia cooperated with France to boycott Britain on the issue of Egypt-which made Bismarck more nervous, and Bismarck's growing ambition in the Balkans made him disappointed with Russia. In order to warn Russia, Bismarck suddenly made the secret agreement between Germany and Austria public, and finally reached the second Mediterranean agreement with Britain, Italy and Austria-Hungary in June+February, 5438-fundamentally preventing Russia from occupying Bulgaria in any form. 1888, Bismarck supported Russia to make the anti-Russian Bulgarian Grand Duke step down, thus solving the Bulgarian problem.
Bismarck linked the Balkan Peninsula with the Near East issue through two Mediterranean agreements, and pushed Russia, Britain, Italy, Austria and Hungary to contain each other. However, pan-nationalism's fanaticism threatens the collapse of this complex structure at any time. Bismarck Maria's own pragmatic flexibility and prestige can temporarily suppress the flame, but how long can this situation last? Bismarck wrote worriedly in his letter to his son 1886,' Once Russia and Austria go to war, no matter who is the attacker, Germany has no choice but to join the Austro-Hungarian Empire'. In the increasingly tense international situation, Germany's flexible space is getting smaller and smaller. Bismarck didn't think about it, or didn't want to think about it-were the Germans really' satisfied'? As the largest exporter, the Germans are willing to be the workshop forever and succumb to the Franks in Frankfurt (Rothschild)?
Navigator leaving the ship and "Poseidon's evil son"
1888 was the so-called' year of Huang San', and the old emperor William I and the' pro-British' Crown Prince died one after another (less than three months in office)-and Crown Prince William became the new German emperor, that is, William II. William II, 29, was young and energetic, and soon clashed with Bismarck on this political point of view. Most of the current works hold a negative attitude towards William II, thinking that he is headstrong and arrogant-even thinking that he is mentally ill-which is a brilliant idea of some historians (Hitler and Stalin can't escape). However, William II's attitude is not only a personal problem, but also related to the systematic "disease" of the Second Reich. German contemporary critical historians believe that the imperial policy in Bismarck's era was a kind of' Bonaparte semi-dictatorship', which operated as a power center in Bismarck's era-which put the emperor in an embarrassing position. Even William I told French diplomats privately that "I am not a good emperor in the government of Prime Minister Bismarck". But Bismarck will die one day, so who will fill the right hole? William II is obviously aware of this problem, and he is particularly worried about the power of the Social Democratic Party. Therefore, on the issue of anti-socialist law (also known as extraordinary law), he and Bismarck have completely different opinions. Sure enough, the change of the situation in the imperial parliament completely denied Bismarck's attitude of adhering to unconventional laws-dissolving parliament is a temporary solution, not a permanent cure. In Bismarck's memoirs, he explained that his "biggest" contradiction with William II was his foreign policy towards Russia, and he claimed that William II was "seeking" an "anti-Russian policy". Of course, Bismarck said this mainly because the first emperor William I held a pro-Russian attitude, which undoubtedly showed that Bismarck was an "old minister who cared for his life", supported the policies of the first emperor and won the sympathy of the world. He has always stressed the consequences of bad relations with Russia-this is true. Russia is the only way for other big countries to blackmail Germany. However, the problem is that since the Crimean War, when Russia's strength was at its lowest ebb, Russia wanted something from Germany. Now Russia's strength has grown and become uncontrollable. William II thinks that Britain should unite with Russia to get rid of its strategic disadvantage. In any case, the contradiction between Bismarck and the emperor intensified, which eventually led to his forced resignation in 1890.
Caprivi, Bismarck's successor, thought that he could not maintain the complicated treaty system of his predecessor-he thought that the reinsurance treaty was in conflict with the German-Austrian alliance, so when Russia proposed to renew the reinsurance treaty in 1890, it was rejected by the German government. The reinsurance treaty enabled Bismarck's masterpiece to achieve the goal of two-way containment of Russia and Austria, and abandoning the treaty meant a major change in Germany's foreign policy. Russia's attitude proves that it thinks the reinsurance treaty is better than nothing, and giving it up is tantamount to pushing Russia to France. After 1890, the British stock market was closed to Russia, so we can only rely on French capital to complete Russia's modernization. Under the dual effects of "pro-British faction" and "anti-British faction" in Germany, Germany began to try to move closer to Britain, the "insidious son of Poseidon".
Britain's expansion in Africa and Asia has caused considerable contradictions with France and Russia. In the 1990s, the British had to face the challenges of the French in North Africa, the Russians in Afghanistan and the Dutch rebellion in South Africa-the battle line was too long, which made the British leadership think that the past "glorious isolation" was no longer feasible. Especially in 1887, the near east crisis made Britain and Germany have a certain "* * *" goal. In Bismarck's era, conservative forces were worried about cooperating with Britain, where liberalism was rampant, and thought it would affect Germany's internal affairs. So Bismarck has always kept a good distance from Poseidon's son. However, in William's time, the German Democratic Party (DDP) had already been devastated, and the Social Democratic Party was a menace, so the negative impact of the alliance with Britain was reduced. 1890, Britain and Germany reached an agreement to exchange some German colonies in East Africa with the British-occupied island of Hegeland. In this way, the contradiction between Britain and Germany in East Africa was basically solved, and then the formal alliance between Britain and Germany was put on the agenda. But Britain's century-old trick is to "unite the second strongest and attack the strongest", and sophisticated gladstone will not stand in a trench with the Germans. On the contrary, Britain always flirts with Austria-Hungary from time to time to provoke it against Russia. This is also an important reason for the repeated failures of the san huang League. On the other hand, there is a direct conflict between Germany and Britain on the issue of market expansion-Germany does not have the strong military strength and international influence of the United States to crush the pound area, and its internal views on colonial issues have also become radical. Founded in 1882, the German colonial society has become a powerful "external force" at the end of 19. "Oriental Marked Area" is not feasible, nor can it be consistent with Russia. Austria-Hungary has different aspirations, which makes Africa policy more and more important. And the continuous border between Russia and Germany can't make Germany completely establish an anti-Russian alliance with Britain. However, when the German leadership wavered, secret contacts between Russia and France had begun. 189 1 year, the French military began to contact St. Petersburg. A year later (1892), the military alliance between the two countries established mutual support. Now Germany really has to face the' Titan War'-the relationship between Germany and Russia is irreparable.
Link to my article
Hesitation after Rise —— Foreign Policy of the German Empire (1871-1914)
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I hope it helps you. You can ask me questions about the history of the German Empire.
reference data
Thinking and recalling Bismarck
Blackburn, David. The Long 19th Century: German History,1780–1918
Fischer Fritz. From Caesarea Leahy to the Third Reich: Continuous Factors in German History