Triple Entente

Triple Entente, name given to the diplomatic and military alliance that developed between Great Britain, France, and Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed primarily to counterbalance the military coalition known as the Triple Alliance, which had been concluded earlier by Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. The negotiations leading to the formation of the Triple Entente were initiated by France, whose traditional enmity for Germany had been aggravated by its disastrous defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. The French government approached Russia, and in the late 1880s the existence of a diplomatic understanding between the two powers was indicated by the granting of substantial French loans to stimulate the development of Russian transport and industry. A Franco-Russian military pact was concluded in January 1894, and in 1895 the conclusion of a comprehensive alliance was publicly acknowledged.

Under the leadership of the French minister of foreign affairs Théophile Delcassé, the French government began negotiations aimed at an alliance with Great Britain. These negotiations were hampered at first by the rivalry between France and Great Britain, both of whom were engaged in expanding and consolidating their colonial possessions, particularly in Africa and the Far East. The potential danger embodied in the military power of the Triple Alliance, however, caused the two powers to realize the necessity of forming a coalition as a measure of self-protection, and in 1904 France and Britain concluded several diplomatic agreements. Although no formal military alliance was ever negotiated, a so-called Entente Cordiale, or friendly understanding, was reached; and in 1906 the British Foreign Secretary agreed to “unofficial” conversations between British and French military and naval staffs to coordinate joint action should Britain decide to intervene in a Franco-German war. With the arrangement of a similar agreement between Great Britain and Russia in 1907, the system of alliances known as the Triple Entente was complete. Thereafter, the tension between the countries of the Triple Entente and those of the Triple Alliance became increasingly severe, culminating in 1914 in the outbreak of World War I.