These volumes contain the 456 treaties that meet the Correlates
of War definition of a formal, interstate alliance signed between
the years 1648 and 2008. A summary is included for each
alliance as well as the text of the treaty, when available, or a
summary of the commitment terms.
The treaties in this book are arranged as follows: The alliance
numberand titleof each treaty are listed first. The treaties
appear in chronological order; numbers are assigned as a locat-
ing tool to assist readers. The first digit in the treaty number
indicates the chapter in which that treaty appears. The treaty
title usually refers to the name given the treaty by the signato-
ries. In cases where no clear title exists, a title that provides
some descriptive information is listed.
The alliance members, signature dateand cityrefer to who
signed the treaty and when and where they did so. The date
signed often precedes the date the treaty was ratified and the
date on which it came into force. In the few cases in which
alliances were formed by an exchange of letters between capi-
tals, both cities are included. For each alliance signed between
1816 and 2000, an end dateis also included. This represents the
estimated date on which the treaty could no longer be consid-
ered in force by the signatories. These end dates are often
affirmed by the signatories, but in the majority of instances,
judgment on the basis of the events taking place during the
alliance determined coding of the day the alliance was termi-
nated. Alliances still in force are listed as such. End dates are not
included for the 1648–1815 period. Relations between signato-
ries were often too ambiguous to code consistently the exact
end dates for these alliances.
The alliance typeis the original Correlates of War designa-
tion of alliances: defense pact (Type I), neutrality or non-
aggression pact (Type II), or entente (Type III). Exact coding
rules for these types are provided in an earlier section of the
introduction. Briefly, defense pacts require signatories to come
to the aid of their alliance partners, while neutrality pacts
require alliance partners to remain militarily neutral should
some international crisis occur. Non-aggression pacts are usu-
ally pledges by signatories that they will refrain from interna-
tional acts of violence or that they will stop supporting
insurgent groups that target other alliance members. Ententes
pledge cooperation and consultation should international
crises occur.
Sourceincludes the citation for the original text of the treaty
or for the secondary sources that describe an alliance that is
unpublished or for which the complete treaty text is not avail-
able in English. For most of the alliances between 1648 and
1918, the original source for documentation is Clive Parry’s
excellent Consolidated Treaty Series(Dobbs Ferry: Oceana Pub-
lications, Inc., various years). For these alliances, the alliance
source is cited as Consolidated Treaty Series,volume number,
page number. (Thus, “Consolidated Treaty Series,vol. 1, p. 1”
refers to a treaty starting on page 1 of Volume 1 of Parry’s
series.) For treaties signed after World War I and World War II,
this title relies on the League of Nations Treaty Seriesand the
United Nations Treaty Series,respectively; these texts are refer-
enced using the source series and the treaty number from that
series. For a large minority of treaties, these three large series
have been supplemented with source material from other com-
pendiums; in these cases full bibliographic citation to the origi-
nal text is listed. Finally, some unpublished alliances are coded
on the basis of secondary information, including news reports
and contemporary histories; for these cases, the source of the
description of the terms is provided.
The summaryis a two- to three-paragraph description of the
history surrounding the alliance treaty. Why was the alliance
formed? Were the terms invoked during conflict? What were the
effects of the alliance? For the 1815–2000 alliances, information
is included that will allow researchers to determine the cause of
alliance termination in the Correlates of War alliance data set.
Finally, each entry includes the alliance textwhen an English
translation is available. If only excerpts are available, those
excerpts are inserted. For all other entries, summaries of key
alliance terms are provided.Additional notes on language and features:
Readers will notice that in some older entries, a letter similar to
today’s letter fis often used in place of the letter s.This reflects
the typesetting practices of the time and has been reproducedlxiHow to Use This Book