ABSTRACT
If the completion of the Triple Entente gave France unmixed satisfaction, the German allies regarded it with profound misgiving, not to say alarm. King Edward VII had achieved his sinister ambition: Germany and Austria-Hungary were encircled. In 1908 the signatories of the Berlin Treaty were startled to learn that Austria-Hungary, in defiance of its terms, had annexed Bosnia and the Herzegovina. War was declared by the allies upon Turkey and within the 'brief space of one month the Balkan League had', in Gueshoff's triumphant words, 'demolished the Ottoman Empire'. The Russian autocracy could not afford a humiliation imposed upon through Serbia, by Germany; and accepted the alternative of war. The attitude of England towards Russia had, for some years past, been undergoing, even apart from the Agreement of 1907, a considerable change. The Russian Revolution is generally recognized as one of the great events of history.
