Alliances were one of the reasons World War I happened. The alliances began as the Triple Entente and Triple Alliance. The Triple Entente involved three countries: Great Britain, France and Russia. For the Triple Alliance there were Germany, Austria, Hungary and Italy. Later the alliances involved more countries and the alliances were called Central Powers and Allies. They secretly allied themselves during the 19th century. Prussian Chancellor Bismarck formed a new German Empire from multiple smaller German states around a Prussian core because France and Austria-Hungary could act to destroy Germany due to their recent defeats. He also wanted a careful series of alliances and foreign policy decisions to stabilize Europe until Germany became an established fact. Bismarck wanted to have an alliance with other countries and knew that France was not one of them due to the hatred and anger he felt for German control of Alsace-Lorraine. France knew that Britain was engaged in a foreign policy called "splendid isolation". ” Splendid isolation is what has kept the no...