Reinsurance Treaty

The Reinsurance Treaty was a diplomatic agreement between the German Empire and the Russian Empire that was in effect from 1887 to 1890. Only a handful of top officials in Berlin and St. Petersburg knew of its existence since it was so secret. The treaty played a critical role in German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's extremely complex and ingenious network of alliances and agreements, which aimed to keep the peace in Europe and to maintain Germany's economic, diplomatic and political dominance. It helped keep the peace for both Russia and Germany. The treaty provided that both parties would remain neutral if the other became involved in a war with a third great power, but that would not apply if Germany attacked France or if Russia attacked Austria-Hungary. Germany paid for Russian friendship by agreeing that in Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia (now part of southern Bulgaria) were in the Russian sphere of influence and by agreeing to support Russian action to keep the Black Sea as its own preserve. After Bismarck had lost power in 1890, his enemies in the Foreign Ministry convinced the Kaiser that the treaty was too much in Russia's favor and should not be renewed. The cancellation, as had been like the treaty itself, remained a total secret. Russia, however, wanted the protections that the treaty had afforded, and so was angered by its termination. Needing new allies, Russia opened negotiations with Germany's enemy, France. The resulting Franco-Russian Alliance of 1891–1892 to 1917 rapidly began to take shape. Historians consider the new alliance a major disaster for Germany and one of the long-term causes of the First World War. The Reinsurance Treaty originated after the German-Austrian-Russian Dreikaiserbund (League of the Three Emperors) had lapsed in 1887 because of competition between Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire for spheres of influence in the Balkans.

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