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World War I was fought by two alliances, the Central Powers and the Allies--initially called the Triple Alliance. The core of the Central Powers was the Dual Alliance between Germany and Austria. The central principal of Bismark diplomacy was to maintain an alliance with Russia and Austria. Kaiser Wilhelm II upon rising to the throne saw Chancellor Bismarck as a relic of the past and not up to the job of guiding Germany into the future. He dismissed Bismarck and allowed the treaty with Russia to lapse. Kaiser turned rather to Austria and Italy for its alliance system. After the War began, the Turks and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers. The core of the Allies was the treaty between France and Russia. Once the Kaiser allowed the treaty with Russia lapse, the French immediately seized the opportunity and negotiated a treaty with the Russian. Republican France and Russia may seem unlikely allies, but the French had learned their lesson from the Franco-Prussian War. Never again would they face the Germans without allies. The question as Europe move toward war was how Britain react. The German invasion of neutral Belgium settled this question. Although Italy was allied with Germany and Austria. The Allies managed to convince them to enter the War on the Allied side. The only major power not engaged in the War by 1917 was America. Britain understood the importance of America. Germany did not. The Kaiser's Government engaged in reckless policies that eventually brought America into the war on the Allied side.
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Read more: http://histclo.com/essay/war/ww1/alli/ww1-as.html