ABSTRACT
The condition of European international relations was unusually simple and stable by 1900. The continent was clearly divided into two rival alliances: Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy in the Triple Alliance; France and Russia in the Dual Alliance. Of the great powers, only Britain was unaccounted for. Everyone who engaged in diplomatic and military affairs regarded the alliance system as the primary characteristic of international relations, and every question that arose between 1900 and 1914 was assessed for its possible influence upon this system. After war broke out in 1914 many critics argued that the rival alliances made war inevitable, that sooner or later a crisis was certain to arise that would lead to a general European conflict, that it became increasingly difficult to minimize any friction or localize any controversy that arose in these years. The July crisis seemed the perfect illustration of this argument: what conceivable interest did Germany, Britain and France have in the fate of the Bosnian Serbs, other than the impact of the assassination on the alliance system?
