WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.040 Welcome to the deep dive. Yeah, we are We're 00:00:03.040 --> 00:00:04.860 so glad you could join us today because we have 00:00:04.860 --> 00:00:07.900 a genuinely fascinating Historical puzzle to 00:00:07.900 --> 00:00:10.800 put together. I'm your host and I'm your resident 00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:12.980 expert. It is great to be diving into this with 00:00:12.980 --> 00:00:16.019 you today Absolutely. So I want you the listener 00:00:16.019 --> 00:00:19.359 to imagine a very specific scenario Imagine being 00:00:19.359 --> 00:00:22.280 forced to team up with your absolute worst rivals, 00:00:22.300 --> 00:00:24.960 right? I mean the people you have been bitterly 00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:28.050 feuding with for decades, maybe even centuries. 00:00:28.089 --> 00:00:30.890 Oh yeah. And you make this pack for one single 00:00:30.890 --> 00:00:33.549 reason. A new neighbor has moved in next door 00:00:33.549 --> 00:00:37.090 and they're getting entirely too aggressive for 00:00:37.090 --> 00:00:39.899 comfort. It is the ultimate historical manifestation 00:00:39.899 --> 00:00:42.060 of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The stakes 00:00:42.060 --> 00:00:44.659 were just incredibly high. Exactly. You might 00:00:44.659 --> 00:00:47.240 actively dislike your new partners, but you suddenly 00:00:47.240 --> 00:00:49.759 realize your survival depends on them. That is 00:00:49.759 --> 00:00:52.640 exactly what happened on a massive global scale 00:00:52.640 --> 00:00:54.920 right before the outbreak of World War I. Yeah, 00:00:54.920 --> 00:00:57.460 it really is a wild story. Today, our mission 00:00:57.460 --> 00:01:00.359 is to untangle this massive web of historical 00:01:00.359 --> 00:01:03.409 frenemies. We are pulling from a highly comprehensive 00:01:03.409 --> 00:01:06.129 Wikipedia article detailing the Triple Entente. 00:01:06.349 --> 00:01:08.989 It is a great source for this. It really is. 00:01:09.370 --> 00:01:12.390 We are going to look at how three incredibly 00:01:12.390 --> 00:01:15.590 different empires teamed up to fundamentally 00:01:15.590 --> 00:01:18.590 change the course of the 20th century. Okay, 00:01:18.730 --> 00:01:21.109 let's unpack this. Where should we start? Well, 00:01:21.390 --> 00:01:23.549 before we get into the geopolitical drama, let's 00:01:23.549 --> 00:01:25.769 lay down the core definition from our source 00:01:25.769 --> 00:01:28.290 material. Makes sense. The Triple Entente was 00:01:28.290 --> 00:01:30.609 an informal understanding between the Russian 00:01:30.609 --> 00:01:33.530 Empire, the French Third Republic and the United 00:01:33.530 --> 00:01:36.370 Kingdom. Right. The key word there being informal. 00:01:36.510 --> 00:01:39.590 Definitely. And this trio formed the heavyweight 00:01:39.590 --> 00:01:42.489 counterpunch to the Triple Alliance. That consisted 00:01:42.489 --> 00:01:45.549 of the German Empire, Austria -Hungary and the 00:01:45.549 --> 00:01:47.939 Kingdom of Italy. The term informal really is 00:01:47.939 --> 00:01:50.140 the linchpin of this entire arrangement, which 00:01:50.140 --> 00:01:53.079 we will definitely dig into later. But to understand 00:01:53.079 --> 00:01:55.859 how these three very specific and culturally 00:01:55.859 --> 00:01:58.799 very divergent nations ended up on the same side 00:01:58.799 --> 00:02:01.340 of the trenches, we have to rewind a bit. We 00:02:01.340 --> 00:02:03.620 do. We have to look at how the geopolitical dominoes 00:02:03.620 --> 00:02:05.700 started to fall. Looking at the source material, 00:02:05.859 --> 00:02:08.020 it seems like the catalyst for all this actually 00:02:08.020 --> 00:02:10.460 happens decades earlier. Oh, absolutely. We are 00:02:10.460 --> 00:02:12.560 looking at the fallout of the Franco -Prussian 00:02:12.560 --> 00:02:17.330 War in 1870 and 1871. Prussia and its allies 00:02:17.330 --> 00:02:19.830 completely dismantled the Second French Empire. 00:02:19.969 --> 00:02:22.770 It was a total collapse. Right. Out of that devastating 00:02:22.770 --> 00:02:25.389 defeat, the French Third Republic is established. 00:02:25.889 --> 00:02:28.330 But Prussia forces France to hand over the territory 00:02:28.330 --> 00:02:30.689 of Alsace -Lorraine in the Treaty of Frankfurt. 00:02:30.909 --> 00:02:34.009 Which was a hugely bitter pill to swallow. A 00:02:34.009 --> 00:02:36.939 completely humiliating loss. France is nursing 00:02:36.939 --> 00:02:40.360 deep, revanchist ambitions, completely souring 00:02:40.360 --> 00:02:42.280 their relationship with the newly formed German 00:02:42.280 --> 00:02:45.259 Empire. France responds by heavily building up 00:02:45.259 --> 00:02:47.900 its own war industries and military to deter 00:02:47.900 --> 00:02:50.939 any future German aggression. If we connect this 00:02:50.939 --> 00:02:53.599 to the bigger picture, we have to examine Germany's 00:02:53.599 --> 00:02:55.780 strategic response to that French animosity. 00:02:56.060 --> 00:02:58.139 What do they do? Well, the German Chancellor, 00:02:58.500 --> 00:03:00.759 Otto von Bismarck, was an incredibly pragmatic 00:03:00.759 --> 00:03:03.900 strategist. He understood that France's desire 00:03:03.900 --> 00:03:06.680 to reclaim Alsace -Lorraine was a permanent fixture 00:03:06.680 --> 00:03:09.319 of European politics. He knew he couldn't change 00:03:09.319 --> 00:03:12.139 their minds, so his master plan was to completely 00:03:12.139 --> 00:03:14.840 isolate France diplomatically. So he builds an 00:03:14.840 --> 00:03:19.039 alliance. Exactly. In 1873, he orchestrates the 00:03:19.039 --> 00:03:22.199 League of the Three Emperors. This was an alliance 00:03:22.199 --> 00:03:25.419 linking Germany, Austria -Hungary, and Russia. 00:03:25.580 --> 00:03:28.680 Which forms an absolute powerhouse of an alliance 00:03:28.680 --> 00:03:31.159 right in the center and east of Europe. It really 00:03:31.159 --> 00:03:33.400 was a brilliant piece of diplomatic containment. 00:03:33.900 --> 00:03:36.300 It served a dual purpose. First, it kept France 00:03:36.300 --> 00:03:38.740 entirely alone and friendless on the continent. 00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:41.360 Second, it provided a united front for these 00:03:41.360 --> 00:03:44.259 conservative, monarchical rulers to suppress 00:03:44.259 --> 00:03:47.360 rising socialist movements across Europe. Like 00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:50.409 the First International. Precisely. These monarchs 00:03:50.409 --> 00:03:52.949 viewed organized cross -border labor movements 00:03:52.949 --> 00:03:55.629 as an existential threat to their grip on power. 00:03:55.849 --> 00:03:57.789 But Bismarck's brilliant League doesn't hold 00:03:57.789 --> 00:03:59.750 together, right? No, it doesn't. The fault line 00:03:59.750 --> 00:04:02.229 seems to open up in the Balkans. You have the 00:04:02.229 --> 00:04:04.990 Ottoman Empire in a state of continued messy 00:04:04.990 --> 00:04:07.349 decline. Yeah, the sick man of Europe. Exactly. 00:04:07.810 --> 00:04:10.949 This creates a massive power vacuum and the source 00:04:10.949 --> 00:04:13.590 notes that both Russia and Austria -Hungary are 00:04:13.590 --> 00:04:15.889 eager to fill it. The tensions over the Balkans 00:04:15.889 --> 00:04:17.910 just grow too high to manage within a single 00:04:17.910 --> 00:04:21.689 alliance. You see this manifest in the 1885 Serbo 00:04:21.689 --> 00:04:25.310 -Bulgarian War and the earlier 1878 Treaty of 00:04:25.310 --> 00:04:28.790 Berlin. That treaty actually left Russia feeling 00:04:28.790 --> 00:04:31.529 completely cheated out of the territorial gains 00:04:31.529 --> 00:04:33.949 they had made in the Russo -Turkish War. Wow. 00:04:34.329 --> 00:04:36.829 The Diplomatic Balancing Act was failing. So 00:04:36.829 --> 00:04:38.990 the League of the Three Emperors is effectively 00:04:38.990 --> 00:04:42.759 dead in the water by 1887. Yes. Bismarck tries 00:04:42.759 --> 00:04:45.259 to salvage the situation by signing a secret 00:04:45.259 --> 00:04:48.120 reinsurance treaty with Russia. He secures a 00:04:48.120 --> 00:04:50.339 promise that both sides will remain neutral if 00:04:50.339 --> 00:04:52.459 a war breaks out. He was desperate to keep them 00:04:52.459 --> 00:04:55.079 close. He even resorts to financial hardball, 00:04:55.500 --> 00:04:57.600 excluding Russia from the German financial market 00:04:57.600 --> 00:05:00.560 in 1887 to keep them dependent. Which is a very 00:05:00.560 --> 00:05:03.579 aggressive move. Yeah. But then the leadership 00:05:03.579 --> 00:05:06.379 changes and everything shifts. That is the crucial 00:05:06.379 --> 00:05:08.620 turning point. Right. Bismarck is forced out 00:05:08.620 --> 00:05:12.430 of power in 1890. And in comes the young Kaiser 00:05:12.430 --> 00:05:14.949 Wilhelm II. And he has a very different vision. 00:05:15.170 --> 00:05:18.089 He has absolutely no interest in Bismarck's careful 00:05:18.089 --> 00:05:20.730 secretive balancing acts. He wants to launch 00:05:20.730 --> 00:05:23.310 the German Empire on a course of Weltpolitik, 00:05:23.629 --> 00:05:25.569 world politics. He wants a piece of the global 00:05:25.569 --> 00:05:28.870 pie. Exactly. He wants to dramatically assert 00:05:28.870 --> 00:05:31.509 Germany's influence and secure hegemony on the 00:05:31.509 --> 00:05:35.129 global stage. So Wilhelm lets that secret reinsurance 00:05:35.129 --> 00:05:38.329 treaty with Russia expire in 1890. Just lets 00:05:38.329 --> 00:05:40.689 it go. The alliance between Germany and Russia 00:05:40.689 --> 00:05:44.149 is officially over. Suddenly, Russia finds itself 00:05:44.149 --> 00:05:46.649 completely isolated, both diplomatically and 00:05:46.649 --> 00:05:48.730 financially. Which is their worst nightmare. 00:05:48.870 --> 00:05:51.089 Which brings us to the second big chapter in 00:05:51.089 --> 00:05:54.970 our sources, the odd couple. Because Russia, 00:05:55.569 --> 00:05:57.470 feeling incredibly vulnerable, starts looking 00:05:57.470 --> 00:05:59.810 for a new partner. Yep. and the partner they 00:05:59.810 --> 00:06:02.430 align with is France. It remains one of the most 00:06:02.430 --> 00:06:04.730 fascinating diplomatic pairings in modern history. 00:06:04.870 --> 00:06:06.550 It really is. I was reading through the descriptions 00:06:06.550 --> 00:06:09.550 of these two nations at the time, and it is a 00:06:09.550 --> 00:06:11.990 staggering contrast. Oh, completely. France is 00:06:11.990 --> 00:06:14.790 a secular republic. Right. Russia, while possessing 00:06:14.790 --> 00:06:17.750 the largest manpower reserves of all six major 00:06:17.750 --> 00:06:20.889 European powers, is economically the most backward. 00:06:20.949 --> 00:06:24.670 Yes. It is a massive, reactionary, czarist autocracy. 00:06:25.089 --> 00:06:27.230 On paper, they have absolutely nothing in common 00:06:27.230 --> 00:06:30.329 politically or culturally. But geopolitics rarely 00:06:30.329 --> 00:06:33.389 requires shared domestic values. It usually just 00:06:33.389 --> 00:06:36.769 requires shared fears. It makes sense. France 00:06:36.769 --> 00:06:39.649 is terrified of a preemptive attack from Germany 00:06:39.649 --> 00:06:42.850 and is desperate for a strong counter to the 00:06:42.850 --> 00:06:45.370 Triple Alliance, who eventually reclaim Alsace 00:06:45.370 --> 00:06:47.930 -Lorraine. And Russia is sitting there terrified 00:06:47.930 --> 00:06:51.319 of their own diplomatic isolation. But the source 00:06:51.319 --> 00:06:53.660 material points out that it isn't just a vague 00:06:53.660 --> 00:06:56.879 fear of being alone. No, they have very concrete 00:06:56.879 --> 00:06:59.779 worries. They have very specific strategic anxieties, 00:07:00.040 --> 00:07:02.310 particularly regarding the Dardanelles. The Dardanelles 00:07:02.310 --> 00:07:05.129 was a vital geographical choke point. How so? 00:07:05.370 --> 00:07:08.910 At the time, two fifths of all of Russia's exports 00:07:08.910 --> 00:07:11.970 passed through that single waterway. Two fifths. 00:07:11.970 --> 00:07:14.750 That is massive. And control of it rested entirely 00:07:14.750 --> 00:07:16.990 with the Ottoman Empire. To complicate things 00:07:16.990 --> 00:07:18.649 further for Russia, the Ottomans aren't just 00:07:18.649 --> 00:07:21.240 sitting there unguarded. Right. The source mentions 00:07:21.240 --> 00:07:24.300 a British officer, Admiral Lempis, who along 00:07:24.300 --> 00:07:27.620 with French and German advisors is actively assisting 00:07:27.620 --> 00:07:30.639 the Ottomans in reorganizing and modernizing 00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:33.720 their armed forces. So Russia is terrified that 00:07:33.720 --> 00:07:38.139 this modernized Ottoman military, backed by European 00:07:38.139 --> 00:07:41.660 rivals, will eventually choke off their most 00:07:41.660 --> 00:07:45.079 vital economic artery. It is an existential economic 00:07:45.079 --> 00:07:47.620 threat. Exactly. Add in their ongoing friction 00:07:47.620 --> 00:07:50.639 with Austria -Hungary over the Balkans, and Russia 00:07:50.639 --> 00:07:53.579 is feeling incredibly boxed in. Mutual vulnerability 00:07:53.579 --> 00:07:56.959 is a powerful unifier. It really is. In 1894, 00:07:57.259 --> 00:07:59.720 they officially formed the Franco -Russian alliance. 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:03.660 France finally gets the massive manpower counterweight 00:08:03.660 --> 00:08:05.959 it desperately needs against Germany on the Eastern 00:08:05.959 --> 00:08:08.000 Front. And what does Russia get? Russia gets 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:10.759 a crucial financial and diplomatic lifeline from 00:08:10.759 --> 00:08:13.279 Paris. So the continent is divided, but the seas 00:08:13.279 --> 00:08:15.939 are still wild. We have two sides of our Entente 00:08:15.939 --> 00:08:18.300 triangle, which leaves us with Britain. The big 00:08:18.300 --> 00:08:20.480 wild card. Right. For a long time, Britain seemed 00:08:20.480 --> 00:08:22.939 perfectly content sitting on the sidelines of 00:08:22.939 --> 00:08:25.480 European drama. Yeah, their policy of splendid 00:08:25.480 --> 00:08:27.899 isolation. Exactly. They controlled the oceans, 00:08:28.060 --> 00:08:30.379 they had a massive overseas empire, and they 00:08:30.379 --> 00:08:32.179 just didn't see the benefit of getting bogged 00:08:32.179 --> 00:08:34.500 down in continental squabbles. But that policy 00:08:34.500 --> 00:08:37.980 of splendid isolation became unsustainable. Why 00:08:37.980 --> 00:08:41.399 is that? By the early 1900s, the aggressive posture 00:08:41.399 --> 00:08:44.799 of Germany's Weltpolitik had altered the strategic 00:08:44.799 --> 00:08:47.899 reality so dramatically that Britain realized 00:08:47.899 --> 00:08:50.159 they could no longer afford to stand completely 00:08:50.159 --> 00:08:53.200 alone. The text actually notes that London initially 00:08:53.200 --> 00:08:55.720 made overtures to Berlin to try and reach an 00:08:55.720 --> 00:08:57.960 understanding. They did. But those efforts were 00:08:57.960 --> 00:09:01.360 rebuffed. Feeling dismissed by Germany, London 00:09:01.360 --> 00:09:04.120 turns its attention across the channel to Paris 00:09:04.120 --> 00:09:06.820 and eventually to St. Petersburg. Which is a 00:09:06.820 --> 00:09:11.080 huge pivot. It is. This leads to a massive geopolitical 00:09:11.080 --> 00:09:13.940 shift in 1904 when Britain and France signed 00:09:13.940 --> 00:09:16.480 a series of agreements known as the Entente Cordiale. 00:09:16.600 --> 00:09:18.879 It is crucial to point out that the Entente Cordiale 00:09:18.879 --> 00:09:21.559 was not initially designed as a military pact 00:09:21.559 --> 00:09:24.360 to fight Germany. Really? Yeah, it was far more 00:09:24.360 --> 00:09:26.220 about colonial housekeeping. Oh, interesting. 00:09:26.580 --> 00:09:29.080 Britain and France signed five separate agreements 00:09:29.080 --> 00:09:32.059 specifically to resolve simmering disputes over 00:09:32.059 --> 00:09:34.200 spheres of influence in North Africa. So they 00:09:34.200 --> 00:09:36.159 were just sorting out their empires. They were 00:09:36.159 --> 00:09:38.500 essentially demarcating their colonial borders 00:09:38.500 --> 00:09:40.980 to ensure they wouldn't accidentally end up at 00:09:40.980 --> 00:09:42.960 war with each other. But then outside events 00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:45.440 start applying pressure. Always happens. There 00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:48.019 is the Tangier crisis in Morocco, where Germany 00:09:48.019 --> 00:09:51.799 attempts to test and break this new Anglo -French 00:09:51.799 --> 00:09:54.080 understanding. Which completely backfires on 00:09:54.080 --> 00:09:56.139 Germany. Right. Instead of breaking them apart, 00:09:56.559 --> 00:09:59.100 it makes both Britain and France acutely aware 00:09:59.100 --> 00:10:01.360 of German expansionism and pushes them closer 00:10:01.360 --> 00:10:04.120 together. Exactly. But the real friction. The 00:10:04.120 --> 00:10:05.940 thing that truly puts the British establishment 00:10:05.940 --> 00:10:09.299 on high alert happens with the navies. What's 00:10:09.299 --> 00:10:11.740 fascinating here is the psychological impact 00:10:11.740 --> 00:10:14.519 of the Anglo -German naval arms race. What else 00:10:14.519 --> 00:10:16.899 about that? We have to view this through the 00:10:16.899 --> 00:10:20.179 lens of a classic security dilemma. Okay. Britain's 00:10:20.179 --> 00:10:22.720 entire defense strategy, their economy, their 00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:26.639 entire global empire relied entirely on the absolute 00:10:26.639 --> 00:10:29.379 supremacy of the Royal Navy. They ruled the waves. 00:10:29.960 --> 00:10:32.279 Traditionally, they held unquestioned control 00:10:32.279 --> 00:10:36.120 of the seas. But by 1909, Germany is aggressively 00:10:36.120 --> 00:10:38.559 accelerating its own naval buildup. But wait, 00:10:38.919 --> 00:10:40.779 Britain already had the largest empire in the 00:10:40.779 --> 00:10:43.639 world and an incredibly dominant fleet. Why were 00:10:43.639 --> 00:10:45.820 they so paranoid about Germany deciding to build 00:10:45.820 --> 00:10:48.539 a few more boats? Because of the technological 00:10:48.539 --> 00:10:51.980 leap of the dreadnought class battleships, the 00:10:51.980 --> 00:10:54.940 British had pioneered this technology. Ships 00:10:54.940 --> 00:10:58.220 so heavily armored and heavily gunned that they 00:10:58.220 --> 00:11:01.600 essentially reset the global naval power rankings 00:11:01.600 --> 00:11:04.019 back to zero. But the old ships didn't matter 00:11:04.019 --> 00:11:06.799 anymore. Every older ship was suddenly obsolete. 00:11:07.240 --> 00:11:09.480 This meant Germany didn't have to build a navy 00:11:09.480 --> 00:11:12.080 to match Britain's historical fleet. They just 00:11:12.080 --> 00:11:14.460 had to compete in building these new dreadnoughts. 00:11:14.519 --> 00:11:17.899 Exactly. Britain viewed this as a direct existential 00:11:17.899 --> 00:11:21.139 threat to their home islands. So Britain responds 00:11:21.139 --> 00:11:24.120 with a massive building program of their own, 00:11:24.500 --> 00:11:26.700 eventually producing a Royal Navy that Germany 00:11:26.700 --> 00:11:29.919 simply cannot rival. Yes. But the tension of 00:11:29.919 --> 00:11:32.620 this arms race is suffocating. To try and bleed 00:11:32.620 --> 00:11:35.200 off some of this pressure, the British send their 00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:38.039 war minister, Lord Haldane, to Berlin in February 00:11:38.039 --> 00:11:41.059 1912. To try and calm things down. The goal is 00:11:41.059 --> 00:11:43.429 a diplomatic de -escalation. And the Haldane 00:11:43.429 --> 00:11:46.730 mission fails spectacularly. It represents a 00:11:46.730 --> 00:11:50.190 critical collapse in pre -war diplomacy. The 00:11:50.190 --> 00:11:52.649 Germans essentially counter Haldane's proposal 00:11:52.649 --> 00:11:55.250 by saying they will agree to a naval holiday, 00:11:55.730 --> 00:11:57.990 basically a pause in shipbuilding. Sounds good 00:11:57.990 --> 00:12:01.129 so far. But only if Britain formally promises 00:12:01.129 --> 00:12:03.889 to remain neutral if Germany becomes engaged 00:12:03.889 --> 00:12:08.340 in a war. Specifically, a war where Germany couldn't 00:12:08.340 --> 00:12:10.820 be definitively labeled the aggressor. Which, 00:12:10.899 --> 00:12:13.940 if you are Britain, sounds like a massive diplomatic 00:12:13.940 --> 00:12:17.220 trap. It absolutely was. Yeah. We have an excellent 00:12:17.220 --> 00:12:19.980 quote from historian Zara Steiner in our sources 00:12:19.980 --> 00:12:22.860 regarding this exact moment. She points out that 00:12:22.860 --> 00:12:25.100 agreeing to this German demand would have meant 00:12:25.100 --> 00:12:27.559 Britain abandoning the entire system of Entente 00:12:27.559 --> 00:12:29.860 they had so carefully nurtured with France and 00:12:29.860 --> 00:12:32.019 Russia over the previous six years. Right. They 00:12:32.019 --> 00:12:33.539 would have to turn their backs on their new friends. 00:12:33.740 --> 00:12:35.879 Furthermore, Germany was offering absolutely 00:12:35.879 --> 00:12:38.440 no tangible concession to counter the growing 00:12:38.440 --> 00:12:40.679 fear of German aggression on the continent. So 00:12:40.679 --> 00:12:43.500 Britain says no. The British clearly realized 00:12:43.500 --> 00:12:45.700 that promising neutrality meant they would be 00:12:45.700 --> 00:12:47.879 paralyzed, unable to assist their new friends 00:12:47.879 --> 00:12:50.539 if Germany found a clever pretext to initiate 00:12:50.539 --> 00:12:53.519 a war. They reserve their right to join whatever 00:12:53.519 --> 00:12:55.899 country was attacking Germany, which effectively 00:12:55.899 --> 00:12:58.759 doomed the talks. It results in a complete diplomatic 00:12:58.759 --> 00:13:01.000 stalemate. A total bedlock. The source includes 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:03.980 an insight from a German historian, Dirk Bunker, 00:13:04.419 --> 00:13:07.179 that perfectly summarizes the fallout. What does 00:13:07.179 --> 00:13:10.259 he say? He argues that the actual naval race 00:13:10.259 --> 00:13:13.600 was decided relatively early. Britain won the 00:13:13.600 --> 00:13:15.720 production battle. Right, they outbuilt them. 00:13:16.139 --> 00:13:18.860 And the naval race itself didn't single -handedly 00:13:18.860 --> 00:13:22.879 cause World War I. But it created a highly toxic 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:25.639 atmosphere of mutual hostility and paranoia. 00:13:25.779 --> 00:13:28.340 It really poisoned the well. It completely shrank 00:13:28.340 --> 00:13:31.000 the available space for peaceful diplomacy and 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:34.000 paved a twisted road directly to war. The naval 00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:36.480 race served as definitive proof to the British 00:13:36.480 --> 00:13:39.059 establishment that Germany was not a reliable 00:13:39.059 --> 00:13:41.919 partner for peace. Yeah. That realization made 00:13:41.919 --> 00:13:44.179 tying up the remaining loose ends of their other 00:13:44.179 --> 00:13:46.799 global alliances a matter of absolute urgency. 00:13:47.120 --> 00:13:49.500 Here's where it gets really interesting. Because 00:13:49.500 --> 00:13:51.899 the final piece of the Triple Entente puzzle 00:13:51.899 --> 00:13:55.500 involved settling disputes far outside the borders 00:13:55.500 --> 00:13:59.460 of Europe. Yes, going global. In 1907, Britain 00:13:59.460 --> 00:14:02.440 and Russia finally signed the Anglo -Russian 00:14:02.440 --> 00:14:04.620 Convention. This is a big one. Much like the 00:14:04.620 --> 00:14:07.600 Entente Cordiale, this was initially about settling 00:14:07.600 --> 00:14:10.879 colonial and imperial rivalries. Specifically, 00:14:11.559 --> 00:14:14.519 it ended the Great Game. The Great Game was their 00:14:14.519 --> 00:14:17.820 decades -long, incredibly tense shadow war of 00:14:17.820 --> 00:14:20.519 espionage and diplomatic maneuvering across Central 00:14:20.519 --> 00:14:23.019 Asia. Sounds like a spy novel. It really was. 00:14:23.080 --> 00:14:25.639 They were constantly vying for influence and 00:14:25.639 --> 00:14:28.440 control over regions like Persia, Afghanistan, 00:14:28.879 --> 00:14:31.159 and Tibet. Resolving those issues in Asia seems 00:14:31.159 --> 00:14:33.159 like a massive relief valve. It was essential 00:14:33.159 --> 00:14:36.000 for European security. By formally ending their 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:38.460 rivalry in Central Asia, Britain and Russia could 00:14:38.460 --> 00:14:40.899 safely pivot their military and diplomatic attention 00:14:40.899 --> 00:14:43.379 back toward the West. Ah, freeing up resources. 00:14:43.759 --> 00:14:47.139 Exactly. Strategically, this 1907 agreement also 00:14:47.139 --> 00:14:49.320 helped address deep British anxieties about the 00:14:49.320 --> 00:14:51.509 Berlin -Baghdad Railway. What was that? It was 00:14:51.509 --> 00:14:54.649 a massive German infrastructure project designed 00:14:54.649 --> 00:14:57.230 to project German economic and military influence 00:14:57.230 --> 00:15:00.409 deep into the Near East. I was reading the section 00:15:00.409 --> 00:15:03.029 in our source about how far this web extended 00:15:03.029 --> 00:15:05.870 and it brought up an incredible detail about 00:15:05.870 --> 00:15:08.990 Japan. Oh, this is a fantastic detail. It seems 00:15:08.990 --> 00:15:11.409 like France was effectively using their national 00:15:11.409 --> 00:15:14.809 checkbook. as a geopolitical weapon. They absolutely 00:15:14.809 --> 00:15:17.350 were. How exactly did they pull that off? It 00:15:17.350 --> 00:15:20.429 is a brilliant example of using financial leverage 00:15:20.429 --> 00:15:24.029 for strategic security. OK. Before 1907, France 00:15:24.029 --> 00:15:26.330 was actively taking the lead in creating these 00:15:26.330 --> 00:15:29.350 interlocking alliances. Japan, coming off the 00:15:29.350 --> 00:15:31.909 Russo -Japanese war, urgently wanted to raise 00:15:31.909 --> 00:15:34.669 a financial loan in the Paris markets. And France 00:15:34.669 --> 00:15:37.330 says yes, but with a catch. Exactly. France didn't 00:15:37.330 --> 00:15:39.210 just hand over the capital. They conditioned 00:15:39.210 --> 00:15:42.190 the loan on two strict geopolitical requirements. 00:15:42.529 --> 00:15:45.690 What were they? Japan had to reach a formal diplomatic 00:15:45.690 --> 00:15:48.389 agreement with Russia, and Japan had to guarantee 00:15:48.389 --> 00:15:51.269 the protection of France's strategically vulnerable 00:15:51.269 --> 00:15:54.009 colonial possessions in Indochina. That is just 00:15:54.009 --> 00:15:57.399 a master class in global maneuvering. True. encouraging 00:15:57.399 --> 00:16:01.519 its financial power to force its new ally, Russia, 00:16:01.799 --> 00:16:04.879 and its potential threat in Asia -Japan to play 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:07.759 nice. Yes. All while securing its own colonial 00:16:07.759 --> 00:16:10.480 borders halfway across the world. It is incredibly 00:16:10.480 --> 00:16:13.220 clever. And the text notes that Britain actively 00:16:13.220 --> 00:16:15.639 encouraged this Russo -Japanese rapprochement 00:16:15.639 --> 00:16:18.620 as well. You can see how this coalition that 00:16:18.620 --> 00:16:21.720 would eventually fight World War One was painstakingly 00:16:21.720 --> 00:16:23.720 stitched together across multiple continents. 00:16:24.019 --> 00:16:27.200 It is an intricate geopolitical puzzle. But as 00:16:27.200 --> 00:16:30.139 we transition into analyzing the final shape 00:16:30.139 --> 00:16:32.639 of this arrangement, we have to address the giant 00:16:32.639 --> 00:16:34.179 elephant in the room. The fact that it wasn't 00:16:34.179 --> 00:16:37.299 really an alliance. Right. This entire diplomatic 00:16:37.299 --> 00:16:39.940 structure, the Triple Entente, is frequently 00:16:39.940 --> 00:16:42.860 referred to by historians as an unholy alliance. 00:16:42.980 --> 00:16:45.740 And for very good reason, because the greatest 00:16:45.740 --> 00:16:47.809 irony of the the triple entente, the detail that 00:16:47.809 --> 00:16:50.009 usually surprises people the most, is that it 00:16:50.009 --> 00:16:52.789 wasn't actually a formal binding alliance. No, 00:16:52.830 --> 00:16:54.730 it wasn't. Unlike the triple alliance between 00:16:54.730 --> 00:16:57.690 Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Italy, or even 00:16:57.690 --> 00:17:01.090 the specific Franco -Russian alliance, the overarching 00:17:01.090 --> 00:17:04.630 triple entente was not a pact of mutual military 00:17:04.630 --> 00:17:07.589 defense. Meaning that if Russia or France were 00:17:07.589 --> 00:17:10.789 attacked, Britain was under no legal treaty obligation 00:17:10.789 --> 00:17:13.349 whatsoever to deploy soldiers to their rescue. 00:17:13.690 --> 00:17:15.839 That is wild to think about. Britain retained 00:17:15.839 --> 00:17:18.119 complete freedom to make its own independent 00:17:18.119 --> 00:17:20.700 foreign policy decisions right up until the summer 00:17:20.700 --> 00:17:24.819 of 1914. Wow. To truly grasp how flimsy this 00:17:24.819 --> 00:17:27.460 arrangement was on paper, we can look at a memo 00:17:27.460 --> 00:17:29.579 written by a British Foreign Office official 00:17:29.579 --> 00:17:32.599 named Air Crow. What did he write? He explicitly 00:17:32.599 --> 00:17:34.599 wrote, the fundamental fact, of course, is that 00:17:34.599 --> 00:17:37.359 the Entente is not an alliance. For purposes 00:17:37.359 --> 00:17:39.799 of ultimate emergencies, it may be found to have 00:17:39.799 --> 00:17:42.380 no substance at all. For the Entente is nothing 00:17:42.380 --> 00:17:44.900 more than a frame of mind, a view of general 00:17:44.900 --> 00:17:48.299 policy, which may be or become so vague as to 00:17:48.299 --> 00:17:50.279 lose all content. Nothing more than a frame of 00:17:50.279 --> 00:17:52.880 mind. Yep. That is a genuinely terrifying way 00:17:52.880 --> 00:17:56.180 to describe the primary security apparatus holding 00:17:56.180 --> 00:17:58.319 the major powers of Europe together. It really 00:17:58.319 --> 00:18:02.180 is. And that inherent vagueness meant the deep 00:18:02.180 --> 00:18:04.839 rooted cultural and political mistrust between 00:18:04.839 --> 00:18:07.359 these nations never evaporated. It was always 00:18:07.359 --> 00:18:09.740 there underneath the surface. We talked earlier 00:18:09.740 --> 00:18:12.660 about the ideological odd couple of France and 00:18:12.660 --> 00:18:16.380 Russia. That friction was very real at the citizen 00:18:16.380 --> 00:18:18.680 level. Oh, absolutely. Russian conservatives 00:18:18.680 --> 00:18:21.460 deeply discrusted the secular Republican French, 00:18:21.660 --> 00:18:24.500 and they certainly had not forgotten Britain's 00:18:24.500 --> 00:18:26.680 historical efforts to block Russian influence 00:18:26.680 --> 00:18:28.759 in the Near East. And the distaste was entirely 00:18:28.759 --> 00:18:31.920 mutual. Right. Prominent French and British journalists, 00:18:32.240 --> 00:18:35.420 academics and liberal politicians found the reactionary, 00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:38.140 authoritarian, czarist regime in Russia to be 00:18:38.140 --> 00:18:41.160 entirely unpalatable. I mean, you had two liberal 00:18:41.160 --> 00:18:43.400 democracies actively aligning themselves with 00:18:43.400 --> 00:18:45.779 an autocrat. It was a highly controversial reality 00:18:45.779 --> 00:18:48.220 to sell to their respective publics. There's 00:18:48.220 --> 00:18:50.319 a striking visual mention of the source material 00:18:50.319 --> 00:18:52.859 that perfectly captures this uneasy dynamic. 00:18:53.119 --> 00:18:55.980 The poster. Yes, it is a Russian propaganda poster 00:18:55.980 --> 00:18:59.619 from 1914. It depicts Marianne in Britannia, 00:18:59.799 --> 00:19:02.039 the national personifications of France and Britain, 00:19:02.480 --> 00:19:04.910 looking remarkably uncertain and hesitant. And 00:19:04.910 --> 00:19:07.490 who are they looking to for guidance? They are 00:19:07.490 --> 00:19:10.990 looking to a very resolute, determined Mother 00:19:10.990 --> 00:19:14.329 Russia standing in the center, seemingly relying 00:19:14.329 --> 00:19:16.910 on her to lead them into the coming conflict. 00:19:17.130 --> 00:19:20.569 It really highlights how much the sheer demographic 00:19:20.569 --> 00:19:23.710 scale of Russia was the strategic anchor, even 00:19:23.710 --> 00:19:25.910 if the cultural ties between the three nations 00:19:25.910 --> 00:19:28.589 were incredibly weak. That fundamental lack of 00:19:28.589 --> 00:19:31.009 cultural and political alignment leads to an 00:19:31.009 --> 00:19:33.349 incredibly dark irony later in the conflict. 00:19:33.410 --> 00:19:36.140 It does. The mistrust between these allies was 00:19:36.140 --> 00:19:39.000 so profound that even while their soldiers were 00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:40.880 bleeding together in the trenches of World War 00:19:40.880 --> 00:19:44.000 One, the political reality was starkly different. 00:19:44.160 --> 00:19:46.880 The political reality was brutal. When Tsar Nicholas 00:19:46.880 --> 00:19:49.059 II was forced to abdicate during the February 00:19:49.059 --> 00:19:52.019 Revolution in 1917, replaced by a provisional 00:19:52.019 --> 00:19:54.559 government, you might expect his wartime allies 00:19:54.559 --> 00:19:56.940 to be devastated by the collapse of their partner's 00:19:56.940 --> 00:19:59.380 regime. You would think so. Instead, British 00:19:59.380 --> 00:20:02.359 and French politicians actually expressed open 00:20:02.359 --> 00:20:05.690 relief. Open relief. Yes, the British King George 00:20:05.690 --> 00:20:07.769 the fifth initially offered political asylum 00:20:07.769 --> 00:20:10.910 to the Romanoff family But then actually withdrew 00:20:10.910 --> 00:20:13.730 the offer Why did he withdraw it because he was 00:20:13.730 --> 00:20:16.869 afraid of a popular political backlash at home? 00:20:17.490 --> 00:20:20.170 From a public that despised the czar and the 00:20:20.170 --> 00:20:22.089 French the French government never even brought 00:20:22.089 --> 00:20:23.990 the subject up They just washed their hands of 00:20:23.990 --> 00:20:28.289 him entirely Wow That is incredibly cold your 00:20:28.289 --> 00:20:31.250 allies government collapses mid -war And you 00:20:31.250 --> 00:20:33.970 are just relieved because you found their autocracy 00:20:33.970 --> 00:20:37.990 distasteful. You literally leave the ruling family 00:20:37.990 --> 00:20:41.650 to their fate because of domestic polling. It 00:20:41.650 --> 00:20:44.069 really strips away the romanticism of wartime 00:20:44.069 --> 00:20:46.819 brotherhood. It is a stark reminder of the cold 00:20:46.819 --> 00:20:50.059 calculus of geopolitics. Definitely. As historian 00:20:50.059 --> 00:20:52.500 Fiona Tomaszewski points out in our source text, 00:20:52.799 --> 00:20:55.019 from the Russian standpoint between 1908 and 00:20:55.019 --> 00:20:57.859 1914, this relationship evolved from a very shaky 00:20:57.859 --> 00:21:00.799 set of understandings into a fully -fledged alliance 00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:03.579 only after the actual outbreak of the war itself. 00:21:03.799 --> 00:21:05.839 So the war forced them together. The immediate 00:21:05.839 --> 00:21:08.059 trauma of the conflict is what finally locked 00:21:08.059 --> 00:21:10.640 them together, not genuine ideological friendship 00:21:10.640 --> 00:21:12.920 or shared vision. So what does this all mean? 00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:15.880 Good question. this deep dive, the major takeaway 00:21:15.880 --> 00:21:19.779 for you, the listener, is that history is rarely 00:21:19.779 --> 00:21:22.839 as neat and tidy as a color -coded map might 00:21:22.839 --> 00:21:26.339 suggest. Never is. The Triple Entente wasn't 00:21:26.339 --> 00:21:29.740 a rigid iron -clad contract signed in a dramatic 00:21:29.740 --> 00:21:33.039 smoke -filled room. It was, as Ercro so chillingly 00:21:33.039 --> 00:21:35.920 put it, A frame of mind. Just a frame of mind. 00:21:36.039 --> 00:21:38.319 It was entirely fluid, highly contradictory, 00:21:38.779 --> 00:21:41.640 and built almost exclusively on temporary compromises 00:21:41.640 --> 00:21:44.599 and shared anxieties. And when we look at modern 00:21:44.599 --> 00:21:48.019 global geopolitics today, we see the exact same 00:21:48.019 --> 00:21:50.859 patterns playing out. Exactly. Massive historical 00:21:50.859 --> 00:21:53.089 shifts are rarely black and white. They're often 00:21:53.089 --> 00:21:55.029 just a series of shaky understandings between 00:21:55.029 --> 00:21:57.589 nations who simply happen to fear the same thing 00:21:57.589 --> 00:21:59.869 at the exact same time. This raises an important 00:21:59.869 --> 00:22:01.470 question, and it's a concept I want to leave 00:22:01.470 --> 00:22:03.750 a listener with today to mull over. What is that? 00:22:04.210 --> 00:22:06.950 If the Entente was truly an unholy alliance, 00:22:07.289 --> 00:22:09.670 a partnership built almost entirely on a mutual 00:22:09.670 --> 00:22:12.430 fear of German expansion rather than any shared 00:22:12.430 --> 00:22:15.349 civic values or genuine trust, what happens to 00:22:15.349 --> 00:22:17.829 those ties the exact moment that shared enemy 00:22:17.829 --> 00:22:20.130 is finally defeated? That is a great question. 00:22:20.279 --> 00:22:23.680 It forces us to wonder if any partnership, whether 00:22:23.680 --> 00:22:26.099 it's a massive security treaty between modern 00:22:26.099 --> 00:22:28.460 superpowers or even a strategic partnership in 00:22:28.460 --> 00:22:31.460 the business world, can truly survive long term 00:22:31.460 --> 00:22:33.920 when it is defined entirely by what it is against 00:22:33.920 --> 00:22:37.069 rather than what it is for. That is a fascinating 00:22:37.069 --> 00:22:39.490 psychological thought to end on. It really makes 00:22:39.490 --> 00:22:42.630 you look at the alliances forming in our own 00:22:42.630 --> 00:22:45.049 time in a completely different light. It really 00:22:45.049 --> 00:22:47.390 does. Thank you so much for joining us on this 00:22:47.390 --> 00:22:49.950 deep dive into the Triple Entente. We hope you 00:22:49.950 --> 00:22:52.589 walk away with a richer, more nuanced understanding 00:22:52.589 --> 00:22:55.309 of how these fragile connections shape the modern 00:22:55.309 --> 00:22:57.490 world. Keep questioning the history behind the 00:22:57.490 --> 00:22:59.150 headlines. We will see you next time.