germany joined the triple alliance to protect itself against whom
Triple Entente Russia had previously been a member of the League of the Three Emperors, an alliance in 1873 with Austria-Hungary and Germany. The alliance was part of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarckâ€²s plan to isolate France diplomatically; he feared that France's revanchist aspirations might make it to regain its losses in 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War.[2] The alliance also served to fight against progressive sentiments, which the conservative rulers found unsettling, such as the First International.[3]