Quick questions on Alliances and the arms race explained: N(A)-Level History

By 1907 the great powers of Europe had split into two opposing groups. On one side stood the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. On the other stood the Triple Entente of France, Russia and Britain. These were agreements in which countries promised to support each other if one of them was attacked.

Alliances also changed how leaders behaved in a crisis. A leader who gave way and compromised risked looking weak in front of their allies, and might fear that their allies would no longer trust or support them. So instead of cooling a crisis down, the alliance system gave leaders a reason to stand firm and to support their partners even when compromise would have been wiser. This made it more likely that a crisis would end in war rather than in a peaceful settlement.

At the same time the powers were building up their armed forces, a process called the arms race. On land, the major countries expanded their armies and trained millions of men so they could be called up quickly. At sea, Britain and Germany competed to build the largest and most powerful navy. Britain had long had the strongest fleet in the world, and felt threatened when Germany began to build a large modern navy, including powerful new battleships called dreadnoughts.

The arms race also produced detailed war plans. The most famous was Germany's plan to defeat France quickly in the west before turning to face Russia in the east. These plans depended on moving huge armies by railway on a fixed timetable. Once the order to mobilise was given, it was very hard to stop the machine without falling behind the enemy.