Reading a Map of the Alliance Blocs, 1882 to 1907

The idea

A map of the blocs asks you to date it by who is joined to whom. Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy form the Triple Alliance from eighteen eighty-two, a central block from the North Sea to Sicily. If France and Russia are linked, the map is eighteen ninety-four or later, when their alliance answered the Triple Alliance and put Germany between two allies. If Britain is shaded with France, the Entente Cordiale of nineteen oh-four has been signed; if with Russia too, the Anglo-Russian Convention of nineteen oh-seven has made the Triple Entente. Two cautions. Italy sat in the Triple Alliance on paper while its quarrel with Austria over Italians under Habsburg rule pulled it away, so a map that shades Italy with Germany is right for the treaty and wrong for the war. And Britain's ententes were understandings, not alliances; the witness says they did not formally bind Britain to fight.