Alliances and the Drift to War, 1890–1914 The third and fin
Citations (1)
- The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers whole source · open book
Alliances and the Drift to War, 1890–1914 The third and final element in understanding the way the Great Power system was changing in these decades is to examine the volatile alliance diplomacy from Bismarck’s demise to the outbreak of the First World War. For although the 1890s saw some relatively small-scale conflicts (the Sino-Japanese War, the Spanish-American War, the Boer War), and later one large if still localized encounter in the Russo-Japanese War, the general tendency after that time was for what Felix Gilbert has termed the “rigidification” of the alliance blocs.174 This was accompanied by the expectation on the part of most governments that if and when the next great war occurred, they would be members of a coalition.
chapter: Alliances and the Drift to War, 1890–1914