I.

Introduction

Triple Alliance, name given to several international coalitions. The following Triple Alliances are the most important:

II.

Triple Alliance of 1596

The Triple Alliance of 1596 was concluded between England, France, and the Dutch Republic of the United Provinces (now the Netherlands), pledging the signatories to mutual aid against Spain. This treaty was notable in that it constituted the first formal recognition by France and England of the national status of the United Provinces, which was fighting its war of independence from Spanish rule. The alliance lasted until 1609, when a 12-year truce, negotiated by envoys of England and France, suspended the war between the United Provinces and Spain.

III.

Triple Alliance of 1668

The Triple Alliance of 1668 was signed by England, Sweden, and the United Provinces and was designed to check the aggression of King Louis XIV of France, who had invaded the Spanish Netherlands (now Belgium) the previous year. The alliance was broken when Charles II of England negotiated a secret agreement with Louis XIV in 1670, whereby England consented to assist France against the Dutch.

IV.

Triple Alliance of 1717

The Triple Alliance of 1717 was negotiated by Great Britain, France, and the United Provinces and was designed principally to strengthen those clauses of the Peace of Utrecht that guaranteed the succession of the reigning monarchs in their respective countries. In 1718, Austria also became a signatory to the treaty, and the coalition thereupon became known as the Quadruple Alliance.

V.

Triple Alliance of 1882

The Triple Alliance of 1882, the most famous of the triple alliances, was concluded by Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. The groundwork for this alliance was laid in 1879, when the German chancellor Prince Otto von Bismarck negotiated a secret defensive pact with Austria-Hungary. The alliance served a double purpose: It strengthened Germany in its relations with France, which had reached a new peak of animosity because of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, and it gave Austria-Hungary a powerful ally in its resistance to the developing expansionism of Russia (although in fact Bismarck had intended it as a means of restraining Austria from precipitate action). The Italians, angered by the French occupation of Tunisia in north Africa, joined the two allies in 1882, thus forming the Triple Alliance. The existing rivalry between Italy and Austria-Hungary in the Balkans and the Adriatic region, however, prevented the former from becoming completely integrated into the alliance.

During the ensuing three decades, Europe was the scene of a steady heightening of tensions between the countries of the Triple Alliance and the other major European powers. France, Britain, and Russia, alarmed by the threat to their security posed by the powerful combination of the Triple Alliance, concluded a rival pact known as the Triple Entente. The resulting division of Europe into two armed camps led eventually to the outbreak of World War I in 1914. For some years before 1914, the relations between Italy and its allies had been strained, and as a result Italy did not carry out its obligations under the Triple Alliance by entering the war on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary. Instead, after protacted secret negotiations in which the Triple Entente powers promised Italy substantial territorial gains, in 1915 Italy declared war upon its former allies, openly dissolving the Triple Alliance.