My history teacher once told me that the alliance system before and during the great war was so complex that even the nations themselves didn't know with who they where allied with.
but after searching some time i found these treaty's:
Britain's guarantee of independence of Belgian, which got Britain into the war
the treaty of Britain and France that solved some dispute in Africa over British control of Egypt and French control of Morocco. but that was not what got Britain into the war,
the dual alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary, and after that the triple alliance which added Italy. but this was a defensive alliance so they didn't join because of this treaty,
Austria-Hungary, Germany and Russia had a treaty that country's would be neutral when the other attacked a third nation, but Germany didn't renew the treaty,
the Russia Franco treaty was signed because Germany didn't renew the treaty mentioned above,
then Britain made a treaty with Russia causing a sort of entente but the treaty only settle some issues in central Asia and would not force Britain to help France or Russia,
Serbia and Montenegro had a defensive alliance,
Russia guarantee of independence of Serbia because it was a Slavic nation,
Britain had a treaty with japan.
Now looking at this i don't think this is that confusing.
Yeah you have to put everything down and start drawing some alliances lines on a map but i can make sense of it. I see no reason why a nation at that time would not be able to.
so are there any more treaty's in don't know about?
edit: i forgot to mention that i don't need to know the relationships or general opinion between country's (although i would appreciate it) because I think we would be here forever.
Well a pretty obscure alliance, especially when it comes to the modern day, is the Anglo-Portugese Alliance. Originally signed between King Edward III and King Ferdinand I in 1373 as both a declaration of friendship and a mutual defence pact against the kingdom of Castille, the alliance is the long-lasting alliance in history - having remained in effect for 647 years.
A famous exerpt from alliance's initial treaty is as follows:
"There shall be between the respective kings and their successors, their realms, lands, dominions, provinces, vassals, and subjects whomsoever, faithfully obeying, true, faithful, constant, mutual, and perpetual friendships, unions, alliances, and leagues of sincere affection; and that, as true and faithful princes, they shall henceforth reciprocally be friends to friends and enemies to enemies, and shall assist, maintain, and uphold each other mutually, by sea and by land, against all men that may live or die or whatever degree, station, rank, or condition they may be, and against their lands, realms, and dominions ... It is cordially agreed that if, in time to come, one of the kings or his heir shall need the support of the other, or his help, and in order to get such assistance applies to his ally in lawful manner, the ally shall be bound to give aid and succour to the other, so far as he is able (without any deceit, fraud, or pretence) to the extent required by the danger to his ally's realms, lands, domains, and subjects; and he shall be firmly bound by these present alliances to do this." - Anglo-Portugese Treaty, 1373
This alliance has been evoked numerous times since its signing in 1373, most famously in the Second World War. Though Portugal fought alongside the Entente in the First World War, their involvement in the conflict did not come out of the Anglo-Portugese Alliance, but rather, out of the German invasion of Portugese Angola in 1916.
One issue and sort of alliance i find amusing was the Belgian/ German thingy. It was never really formalized. But the UK and US were objecting to the Belgian treatment of people in the Congo.
The UK even threatened to invade and add it to its massive African territory already. It soon became clear though that the Germans would come and defend Belgium as they saw the UK as the aggressor. That’s ironic in all honesty. This was all around 1908 I believe.
Another “alliance” or agreement was between the US and the UK before the war. As I’ve said the US and UK came together on an issue as they had been drifting towards this way ever since the end of the US civil war.
But this alliance, more of a non aggression pact was very important to both powers. What ended up happening was the US agreed to defend the UKs American possessions in an event of a war. What this did was make it able for the UK to divert resources away from protecting its American colonial possessions and focus on Germany as the Anglo- German arms race was demanding on the British. The UK liked the US because it had its own sphere of influence and did not want to be involved in European affairs, as well as a cultural background.
The US on the other hand liked this deal too because there was a huge issue in the 1900-1914 era that was bothering the US and that was Japan. Japan and the US had harsh tensions as this time for various reasons. The US fleet thus could not worry about the UK as much and instead focus on Japan entirely. The Panama Canal wasn’t built for part of this time and under construction for most of it and a huge fear in American society was a repeat of the 1905 Russo- Japanese war where the US fleet would have to sail all the way around the globe just to be defeated in its own waters ( from East coast to west )
So in summery, the UK and US sort of started becoming friends because each one had its own issues to worry about. Both understood this and that agreement for the US to watch the British territory came to benefit Both.