868 Ch. 22 • The Great War
The foundation of nineteenth-century diplomacy lay in the assumption by
each continental power that alliances with other great powers would protect
it by forcing any nation considering war to face at least two hostile powers.
Bismarck captured the urgency the European great powers felt about the
necessity of alliances, and the delicate nature of the balance of power itself:
“All [international] politics reduces itself to this formula: Try to be a trois
(three) as long as the world is governed by the unstable equilibrium of five
great powers”—Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Britain, and France.
The diplomats of the great powers were the heirs of Klemens von Metter
nich, the Austrian leader who dominated international relations in the three
decades following Napoleon’s defeat in 1815. Many of them were conserva
tive nobles determined, at least in Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia, to
hold the line against forces of democratization in their own states. War to
some extent became an instrument of domestic politics. Diplomats believed
that the great powers ought to make decisions in the interest of the smaller
ones. They embraced nationalism as a principle, but only when considering
the rights of the great powers. If they allowed smaller powers some rights,
they ascribed the non-European peoples (with the exception of the United
States and Japan, the only non-European powers) none at all.
Germany and Austria-Hungary against RussiaGermany at first enjoyed good relations with Russia, another autocratic
power. In 1873, Bismarck forged the Three Emperors’ League, an alliance
between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia; by the alliance, the three
rulers pledged to consult each other in order to maintain the peace “against
all disturbances from whatever side they might come.” But it was difficult to
gloss over tensions between Austro-Hungarian and Russian interests in the
Balkans. When Russia sought and found occasions to extend its influence in
that region, Austria-Hungary reacted with concern. In 1875, a revolt against
Turkish rule had broken out in the Balkan provinces of Bosnia and Herze
govina. Following Russian intervention against and victory over Turkey in
the bloody Russo-Turkish War (1877—1878), the Congress of Berlin in 1878
left Bulgaria nominally under the authority of the Ottoman Empire but also
subject to Russian influence. The Austro-Hungarian government would
henceforth administer Bosnia and Herzegovina, although they would remain
within the Ottoman Empire. But this had the effect of potentially antagoniz
ing Russia, because both territories had populations of Serbs, who looked
to Russia for leadership. Moreover, in part because Britain and Austria
Hungary feared that Bulgaria might serve Russian interests, the Congress
of Berlin recognized the creation of the independent states of Serbia and
Romania (consisting of Walachia and Moldavia) as buffers against further
Russian ambitions in the Balkans. Montenegro also gained independence,
and the Ottoman Empire ceded the Mediterranean island of Cyprus to
British occupation. The Ottoman Empire not only lost considerable territory