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37-596: The Franco-Japanese Treaty of 1907 was a key part of building a coalition as France took the lead in creating alliances with Japan, Russia, and (informally) with Britain. Japan wanted to raise a loan in Paris, so France made the loan contingent on a Russo-Japanese agreement and a Japanese guarantee for France's strategically vulnerable possessions in Indochina. Britain encouraged the Russo-Japanese rapprochement. Thus

74-534: A common foreign policy and mutual strategic military interests between France and Russia . The development of financial ties between the two countries created the economic prerequisites for the Russo-French Alliance. During a visit by a French squadron to Kronstadt in July 1891 , the agreement of 1891 was concluded in the form of an exchange of letters between the ministers of foreign affairs. France

111-628: A rapprochement with Great Britain and Germany, assumed a hostile position vis-à-vis Russia. France's alienation from Russia and her policy of colonial seizures lasted until 1885 when the Franco-German contradictions became heightened after the French victory in Annam . Early in 1887, new complications arose in Franco-German relations. France appealed to the Russian government for aid. In concluding

148-523: The Anglo-German naval arms race . The mission was a failure because the Germans attempted to link a "naval holiday" with a British promise to remain neutral if Germany should become engaged in a war where "Germany could not be said to be the aggressor." Zara Steiner says, "It would have meant abandoning the whole system of ententes which had been so carefully nurtured during the past six years. There

185-652: The Baghdad Railway , which would help German expansion in the Near East . The coming into being of the entente did not necessarily fix a permanent division into two opposing power blocs. The situation remained flexible. The alignment of the Russian Empire with Europe's two largest power centres was controversial on both sides. Many Russian conservatives distrusted the secular French and recalled British past diplomatic manoeuvres to block Russian influence in

222-593: The Dual Entente or Russo-French Rapprochement ( Rapprochement Franco-Russe , Русско-Французское Сближение; Russko-Frantsuzskoye Sblizheniye ), was an alliance formed by the agreements of 1891–94; it lasted until 1917. The strengthening of the German Empire , the creation of the Triple Alliance of 1882 , and the exacerbation of Franco-German and Russo-German tensions at the end of the 1880s led to

259-770: The Dual alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary was concluded in October 1879 and with Italy in May 1882. The situation in the Balkans, especially in the wake of the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War and the 1878 Treaty of Berlin , which made Russia feel cheated of its gains made in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877/78, prevented the League from being renewed in 1887. In an attempt to stop Russia from allying with France, Bismarck signed

296-705: The Entente cordiale . The Tangier Crisis later encouraged co-operation between the two countries from their mutual fear of apparent German expansionism. Britain, traditionally having control of the seas, by 1909 saw the German navy as a serious threat to its Royal Navy. Britain was well ahead in terms of Dreadnought technology and responded with a major building program. They built a Royal Navy that Germany could never rival. The British sent war minister Lord Haldane to Berlin in February 1912 to reduce friction stemming from

333-613: The Fashoda Incident of 1898 with Great Britain, it endeavored even more to strengthen the alliance with Russia. The alliance with France also facilitated the tsarist government's expansion into Manchuria in the 1890s. During the preparatory period and the first years of the existence of the Russo-French Alliance, the determining role was played by Russia, but in time the situation altered. By constantly receiving new loans from France, Russian tsarism gradually fell into financial dependence on French imperialism. Prior to World War I,

370-807: The Franco-Prussian War . The alliance also served to oppose such socialist movements as the First International , which the conservative rulers found unsettling. However, the League faced great difficulty with the growing tensions between Russia and Austria-Hungary , mainly over the Balkans , where the rise of nationalism and the continued decline of the Ottoman Empire made many former Ottoman provinces struggle for independence. To counter Russian and French interests in Europe,

407-564: The Near East . In turn, prominent French and British journalists, academics, and parliamentarians found the reactionary tsarist regime distasteful. Mistrust persisted even during wartime, with British and French politicians expressing relief when Tsar Nicholas II abdicated and was replaced by the Russian Provisional Government after the February Revolution in 1917. An offer of political asylum for

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444-604: The 1890s, Russia received a number of large loans from France. The deterioration of Russo-German relations, the resurrection of the Triple Alliance in 1891, and the rumors that Great Britain would join the alliance laid the grounds for the conclusion of a political agreement between Russia and France. It was a response to the formation of a military bloc (the Triple Alliance) headed by Germany. In Europe, two opposing hostile imperialist blocs had formed. Relying on Russian support, France intensified its colonial policy. After

481-665: The British under Admiral Limpus, et al., the French, and the Germans to reorganize and modernize the Ottoman armed forces, would come to control the Dardanelles , a vital trade artery that carried two-fifths of Russia's exports. There was also Russia's recent rivalry with Austria-Hungary over the spheres of influence in the Balkans and after the Reinsurance Treaty was not renewed in 1890, Russian leaders grew alarmed at

518-534: The German chancellor, Otto von Bismarck , attempted unsuccessfully to obtain from Russia a guarantee to preserve the territory of Alsace-Lorraine as part of Germany in exchange for unconditional support by Germany for Russian policy in the East. In 1877, during the new Franco-German war scare, Russia maintained friendly relations with France. However, after the Congress of Berlin in 1878, French diplomacy, in aiming at

555-624: The Japanese government. In the Franco-Japanese Treaty of 1907, both parties stated their commitment to the territorial integrity of China, as well as their support of the Open Door Policy , but also stated that both parties had a “special interest” in maintaining peace and order in areas of China adjacent to territories where both parties had rights of sovereignty, protection or occupation. The non-public supplement of

592-672: The Romanovs was even withdrawn by the British king for fear of popular reaction. Also, France never brought up the subject of asylum with the deposed tsar. Franco-Japanese Treaty of 1907 The Franco-Japanese Treaty ( 日仏協約 , Nichi-futsu Kyotei ) , ( French : Traité Franco-Japonais ) was a treaty between the French Third Republic and the Empire of Japan denoting respective spheres of influence in Asia, which

629-538: The agreement defined these areas as Manchuria , Mongolia and the province of Fukien for Japan, and the provinces of Yunnan , Guangxi and Guangdong for France. The treaty implicitly recognized France’s position in French Indochina and one of the results of the treaty was a crackdown on the activities of Indochinese independence supporters and Vietnamese exiles in Japan by the Japanese police. However,

666-463: The cooperation of the general staffs of both countries assumed closer forms. In 1912 a Russo-French naval convention was signed. Russia and France entered the war united by the treaty of alliance. This had a significant effect on the course and outcome of the war since it forced Germany from the first days of the war to fight on two fronts. This led to the defeat of Germany in the First Battle of

703-806: The country's diplomatic isolation and joined the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1894. France developed a strong bond with Russia by ratifying the Franco-Russian Alliance, which was designed to create a strong counter to the Triple Alliance. France's main concerns were to protect against an attack from Germany and to regain Alsace-Lorraine. In the last decade of the nineteenth century, Britain continued its policy of " splendid isolation ", with its primary focus on defending its massive overseas empire . However, by

740-403: The decision for war in 1914. But the naval competition nonetheless created an atmosphere of mutual hostility and distrust, which circumscribed the space for peaceful diplomacy and public recognition of shared interests, and helped to pave the twisted road to war in Europe." The Entente, unlike the Triple Alliance and the Franco-Russian Alliance, was not an alliance of mutual defense and so Britain

777-583: The early 1900s, the German threat had increased dramatically, and Britain thought it was in need of allies. London made overtures to Berlin which were not reciprocated, so London turned to Paris and St. Petersburg instead. In 1904, Britain and France signed a series of agreements, the Entente cordiale , mostly aimed toward resolving colonial disputes. That heralded the end of British splendid isolation. France and Britain had signed five separate agreements regarding spheres of influence in North Africa in 1904,

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814-591: The escalating military development of Germany, began building up its own war industries and army to deter German aggression. Russia had previously been a member of the League of the Three Emperors , an alliance in 1873 with Austria-Hungary and Germany. The alliance was part of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck 's plan to isolate France diplomatically; he feared that France's revanchist aspirations might lead it to attempt to regain its 1871 losses stemming from

851-541: The humiliating Russo-Japanese War , a cause of the Russian Revolution of 1905 , and the apparent transformation into a constitutional monarchy. Although it was perceived as useless during the war with Japan , the alliance was valuable in the European theatre to counteract the threat of the Triple Alliance. Tomaszewski describes the evolution of the triple entente relationship from the Russian standpoint during

888-542: The military convention. This formalized the Russo-French military-political alliance. The history of the alliance dates to the beginning of the 1870s, to the contradictions engendered by the Franco-Prussian War and the Treaty of Frankfurt of 1871 . The Russian government had supported France during the war scare of 1875 when Russian and British protests forced Germany to stop threatening an attack on France. In 1876,

925-576: The period 1908 to 1914 as a progression from a shaky set of understandings that withstood various crises and emerged as a fully-fledged alliance after the outbreak of World War I. In 1907, the Anglo-Russian Entente was agreed, which attempted to resolve a series of long-running disputes over Persia , Afghanistan and Tibet and end their rivalry in Central Asia , nicknamed The Great Game . and helped to address British fears about

962-596: The recent conflict, although had been constrained by the Entente cordiale with the United Kingdom and the foreign policies of Théophile Delcassé from taking an open role. However, with Japan emerging as victor in the Russo-Japanese War and with France increasingly becoming estranged from an increasingly belligerent Germany, French foreign policy shifted. The draft of the treaty was completed in May 1907 and sent to Tokyo on May 16 for ratification by

999-404: The secret Reinsurance Treaty with Russia in 1887. This treaty assured that both parties would remain neutral if war broke out. The growing rapprochement between Russia and France and Bismarck's exclusion of Russia from the German financial market in 1887 prevented the treaty from being renewed in 1890, ending the alliance between Germany and Russia. After the forced resignation of Bismarck in 1890,

1036-401: The so-called Reinsurance Treaty with Germany in 1887, Russia insisted on maintaining for France the same conditions that Germany had stipulated for its ally, Austria-Hungary . At the end of the 1880s, Russo-German economic discrepancies grew stronger. The Russo-French political rapprochement contributed to the influx of French capital into Russia. At the end of the 1880s and the beginning of

1073-650: The three parties. Historians continue to debate the importance of the alliance system as one of the causes of World War I . During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, Prussia and its allies defeated the Second French Empire , resulting in the establishment of the Third Republic. In the Treaty of Frankfurt , Prussia forced France to cede Alsace-Lorraine to the new German Empire , souring subsequent relations. France, worried about

1110-648: The wording of the supplemental portions of the treaty were leaked to the French press, causing concern in the United States and in China regarding French and Japanese territorial ambitions in China, and the future of the Open Door Policy. Further negotiations between Japan and the United States to clarify their respective positions contributed to the Root–Takahira Agreement of 1908. The treaty

1147-536: The young Kaiser Wilhelm set out on his imperialist course of Weltpolitik ("world politics") to increase the empire's influence in and control over the world. Russia had by far the largest manpower reserves of all the six European powers, but it was also the most backward economically. Russia shared France's worries about Germany. Additionally, the Russians feared that the Ottomans, who had received assistance from

Triple Entente - Misplaced Pages Continue

1184-608: Was built the Triple Entente coalition that fought World War I. At the start of World War I in 1914, all three Triple Entente members entered it as Allied Powers against the Central Powers : Germany , Austria-Hungary , the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria . On September 4, 1914, the Triple Entente issued a declaration undertaking not to conclude a separate peace and only to demand terms of peace agreed among

1221-554: Was free to make its own foreign policy decisions in 1914. As British Foreign Office Official Eyre Crowe minuted, "The fundamental fact, of course, is that the Entente is not an alliance. For purposes of ultimate emergencies, it may be found to have no substance at all. For the Entente is nothing more than a frame of mind, a view of general policy which is shared by the governments of two countries, but which may be, or become, so vague as to lose all content". Russia had also recently lost

1258-546: Was interested significantly more than Russia in a military alliance and endeavored to supplement the 1891 agreement with military obligations. As a result of the negotiations, the representatives of the Russian and French general staffs signed a military convention on August 17 (August 5 in Russian calendar), 1892, which provided for mutual military aid in the event of a German attack. By an exchange of letters between December 27 (December 15), 1893, and January 4, 1894 (December 23, 1893), both governments announced their ratification of

1295-416: Was no German concession to counter the fear of German aggression." Essentially, the British reserved the right to join whatever country was attacking Germany even if Germany did not start the conflict, dooming the talks to failure. According to German historian Dirk Bönker, "To be sure, the [naval] race was decided early on; political leaders and diplomats learned to bracket it as an issue, and it did not cause

1332-713: Was part of building a coalition as France took the lead in creating alliances with Japan, Russia and (informally) with Britain. Japan wanted to raise a loan in Paris, so France made the loan contingent on a Russo-Japanese agreement and a Japanese guaranty for France's strategically vulnerable possessions in Indochina. Britain encouraged the Russo-Japanese rapprochement. Thus was built the Triple Entente coalition that fought World War I. Franco-Russian Alliance The Franco-Russian Alliance ( French : Alliance Franco-Russe , Russian : Франко-Русский Альянс , romanized :  Franko-Russkiy Al'yans ), also known as

1369-686: Was signed in Paris on June 10, 1907 by Japanese Ambassador Baron Shin’ichiro Kurino and French Foreign Minister Stéphen Pichon . Relations between France and Japan prior to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 had been chilly. France was a member of the Triple Intervention , which Japan had felt humiliatingly limited her gains in the First Sino-Japanese War . France was also a vocal supporter of Russia in

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