Triple Entente

It was the freedom from foreign occupation and above all from French foreign occupation, making sure that no French, uh, arch enemies are coming from that direction, uh, at some point in future.

But they're also looking in the eastern direction because shortly before the d- the monument was finished, there was the signing of the so-called Triple Entente between Russia, Great Britain, and France.

And so all these fears about German encirclement in the First World War were beginning to come up, which shows to the extent to which it's, uh, a time document also for the period around 1913, as well as remembering a historical battle from 1813.

Yeah, that's, uh, very interesting, actually.

If you look at the period before World War I, World War I, of course, breaks out in 1914, August 1, 1914.

Before World War I, there were these two alliances in Europe, the Triple Entente, which included Britain, France, and Russia, and then the Triple Alliance, which was Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary.

And Austria-Hungary and Italy were not really very reliable allies.

It was really Germany against Britain, France, and Russia.

Throughout the crisis the Great Powers, by the conferences of their ambassadors and the utterances of their statesmen, had shown their earnest desire for peace.

The Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente, those two good-natured giants, both showed the same conciliatory disposition.

The balance of power between these two groups compelled them, even had they wished otherwise, to maintain a pacific attitude, while the Balkan conflagration, being thus localized, was dying out at their feet.

After so searching a test, the prospect for the future seemed bright indeed.

A war that has set three-fourths of Europe ablaze and has spread like wildfire to other continents and other seas.

What was the immediate cause of this general outbreak? A political murder of unexampled brutality and the need for severely punishing a little nation of conspirators, say the two Germanic empires with one voice.

Mere pretext is the convincing reply of the Entente powers.

The origins of the war, of course, go much further back, and the causes lie deeper and are less obvious to the eye.

Their armies multiplied and the Germans advanced.

The Somme, I pray, 1916 and 1917 was a terrible time for the Allies, the so-called Triple Entente, but little did the Germans know this was the beginning of their end.

In 1917, as per a directive to attack transport ships in the Atlantic, a German U-boat sunk the passenger ship Lusitania off the coast of Ireland.

Thousands died, a lot of them Americans.

The British then tried to create a neutral zone 50 miles wide in the upper Mekong Valley, where French and British borders were now too close for comfort, but in 1896 they gave up the effort, and the Mekong was recognised up to the Chinese frontier as the French boundary.

The next step was taken in 1904, when France and England signed their Entente Cordiale.

One feature of the Entente was an agreement that all lands east of the Menam River basin, in which Bangkok lies, were under French influence, and all lands west of it under British influence.

France thus gained a free hand to appropriate the Siamese province of Battambang in 1907, and England to appropriate in 1909 four Malay states, Kedah, Kelantan, Trengganau, and Perlis, situated on the smaller peninsula which runs south from Siam.

England, we may as well note in this connection, had already secured the other Malay states and the island of Singapore at the tip of the peninsula, and thus gained command of one of the world's greatest waterways, the Straits of Malacca, through which passes the trade of the Far East and the East Indies.

On European international relations, the effects were many and significant.

As Russia was the ally of France, and Japan the ally of England, there was danger that France and England might come to blows.

Realizing the danger, French and English statesmen decided to avert it by becoming friends, if not allies, and the Entente Cordiale was concluded shortly after the first shots were fired in the Far East.

In other words, Japan could do what she liked with Korea.

This bond was followed in 1907 by other agreements with France and Russia, by means of which Japan was reconciled with Russia and became practically a fourth member of the Triple Entente.

Russia was to give Japan a free hand in Korea and southern Manchuria.

Japan would allow Russia to treat northern Manchuria as a Russian sphere of interest.

In other words, Japan could do what she liked with Korea.

This bond was followed in 1907 by other agreements with France and Russia, by means of which Japan was reconciled with Russia and became practically a fourth member of the Triple Entente.

Russia was to give Japan a free hand in Korea and southern Manchuria.

Japan would allow Russia to treat northern Manchuria as a Russian sphere of interest.

But in eighteen ninety-six they gave up the effort, and the Mekong was recognized up to the Chinese frontier as the French boundary.

The next step was taken in nineteen oh four when France and England signed their Entente Cordiale.

One feature of the Entente was an agreement that all lands east of the Menam River Basin, in which Bangkok lies, were under French influence and all lands west of it under British influence.

France thus gained a free hand to appropriate the Siamese province of Battambang in nineteen oh seven, and England to appropriate in nineteen oh nine formerly states Kedah, Kelantan, Trengganau, and Perlis, situated on the smaller peninsula which runs south from Siam.

England, we may as well note in this connection, had already secured the other Malay states and the island of Singapore at the tip of the peninsula, and thus gained command of one of the world's greatest waterways, the Straits of Malacca, through which passes the trade of the Far East and the East Indies.

On European international relations the effects were many and significant.

As Russia was the ally of France and Japan the ally of England, there was danger that France and England might come to blows.

Realizing the danger, French and English statesmen decided to avert it by becoming friends, if not allies, and the Entente Cordiale was concluded shortly after the first shots were fired in the Far East.

[engine roaring] [tires screeching] [guns firing] [people screaming] Archduke Franz Ferdinand has been assassinated in Sarajevo.

Italy has joined the Triple Entente.

Conscripts will be drafted quickly to defend the republic.

I have been drafted as a soldier.