rotect him. Russia, smarting under the treatment which she had
been given by the Congress of Berlin, was full of resentment against
Germany. Both the French and the Russians felt themselves threatened
by Bismarck's Dreibund, and so, in self-defense each country made
advance toward the other. The result was the "Dual Alliance" between
France and Russia, which bound either country to come to the aid of
the other in case of an attack by two powers at once.

In this way, the balance of power, disturbed by Bismarck's "Dreibund,"
was again restored. Many people thought the forming of the two
alliances a fine thing, "for," said they, "each party is now too
strong to be attacked by the other. Therefore, we shall never again
have war among the great powers."

England was not tied up with either alliance. On account of her
position on an island, and because of her strong navy, she did not
feel obliged to keep a large standing army such as the great powers on
the continent maintained.

These nations were kept in constant fear of war. As soon as France
equipped her army with machine guns, Germany and Austria had to do the
same. As soon as the Germans invented a new magazine rifle, the
Russians and French had to invent similar arms for their soldiers. If
Germany passed a law compelling all men up to the age of forty-five to
report for two weeks' military training once every year, France and
Russia had to do the same. If Italy built some powerful warships,
France and Russia had to build still more powerful ones. This led to
still larger ships built by Germany and Italy. If France built a fleet
of one hundred torpedo boats, the Triple Alliance had to "go her one
better" by building one hundred and fifty. If Germany equipped her
army with war balloons, Russia and France had to do the same. If
France invented a new kind of heavy artillery, Germany and Austria
built a still bigger gun.

This mad race for war equipment was bad enough when it had to do only
with the five nations in the two alliances about which you have been
told. However, the death of the old emperor of Germany in 1888 brought
to the throne his grandson, the present Kaiser,[5] and he formed a
plan for making Germany the leading nation on the sea as Bismarck had
made her on the land. He saw France and England seizing distant
colonies and dividing up Africa between them. He at once announced
that Germany, too, must have colonies to which to export her
manufactures and