"So, the last thing that Bismarck wanted are these two big states to come together on either side of him. How does this happen? Both France and Russia are outside of the triple alliance, which you already know. But there's another reason. As a matter of fact, I read about four or five years ago there are still French companies trying to get their money back from Russia because they lost their money in 1917, when the Bolsheviks came to power and ultimately nationalized industries, big industries particularly. It is economic in that one of the old things the people say about the French economy, but it's still true, is that French money investments, much of it goes outside of France. They build the railroads in Spain, but they invest heavily in Russian industry and in Russian railroads.
So, these economic ties are very important. There are also cultural ties. Because of the popularity of the French in aristocratic circles within Russia, but on the other hand, there were lots of Russian nobles who spoke German, who lived in Konigsberg, which is still this sort of enclave now that is still part of Russia, sort of stuck between Poland and Lithuania. But the most important reason is that French investment in Russia increases dramatically in the 1880s and 1890s. And that France seeks an ally against Germany and that relations between Russia and Germany, and this is already obvious, you've already discerned this, are going to deteriorate because of this tender relationship between Austria-Hungary and Germany over the Balkans.
In 1892 France and Russia sign a military treaty that says that there'll be a military response if the other were attacked by Germany or by one or more of its allies. They form a formal alliance in 1894."
© John Merriman
Yale Lectures on European Civilization, 1648-1945 (2008)
[link]
So, these economic ties are very important. There are also cultural ties. Because of the popularity of the French in aristocratic circles within Russia, but on the other hand, there were lots of Russian nobles who spoke German, who lived in Konigsberg, which is still this sort of enclave now that is still part of Russia, sort of stuck between Poland and Lithuania. But the most important reason is that French investment in Russia increases dramatically in the 1880s and 1890s. And that France seeks an ally against Germany and that relations between Russia and Germany, and this is already obvious, you've already discerned this, are going to deteriorate because of this tender relationship between Austria-Hungary and Germany over the Balkans.
In 1892 France and Russia sign a military treaty that says that there'll be a military response if the other were attacked by Germany or by one or more of its allies. They form a formal alliance in 1894."
© John Merriman
Yale Lectures on European Civilization, 1648-1945 (2008)
[link]
No comments:
Post a Comment