The Reinsurance Treaty, a top secret agreement signed in 1887 between Germany and Russia—only a handful of top officials in Berlin and St. Petersburg know of its existence—is a critical component of German chancellor Otto von Bismarck's extremely complex and ingenious network of alliances and agreements, designed to keep the peace in Europe, and to maintain Germany's economic, diplomatic, and political dominance.
As part of Bismarck's system of "periphery diversion", the treaty, which is highly dependent on Bismarck's personal reputation, provides that each party will remain neutral if the other becomes involved in a war with a third great power, though this will not apply if Germany attacks France or if Russia attacks Austria.
Germany pays for Russian friendship by agreeing to the Russian sphere of influence in Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia (now part of southern Bulgaria) and by agreeing to support Russian action to keep the Black Sea as its own preserve.
After the dismissal of Bismarck in 1890, his successor Kaiser Wilhelm II feels unable to obtain success in keeping this policy, while the German Foreign Office under Friedrich von Holstein has already prepared a renunciation toward the Dual Alliance with Austria–Hungary.
When, in 1890, Russia asks for a renewal of the treaty, Germany refuses persistently.
The Kaiser believes his own personal relationship with Tsar Alexander III will be sufficient to ensure further genial diplomatic ties and feels that maintaining a close bond with Russia would act to the detriment of his aims to attract Britain into the German sphere.
Like the ongoing Austro-Russian conflict, the Anglo-Russian relations too are strained at this point due to the gaining influence of Russia in the Balkans and their aims to open up the Straits of the Dardanelles, which would threaten British colonial interests in the Middle East.
