Reinsurance Treaty

June 17, 1887

In a last desperate piece of Bismarckian juggling, Germany secretly agreed with Russia that each would stay neutral in most wars the other got into. It was incompatible with the Austro-German alliance and only Bismarck could have signed both treaties at once. His successors, in 1890, let the Reinsurance Treaty lapse - and Russia drifted toward France.