Alliances

Abstract

The states of this system were generally, as we have seen, self-seeking and competitive. They saw every other state as a rival which could easily become an enemy. None was always a friend. The major states of the system were at war, at one time or another, with almost every other. But despite this — and even because of it — they sometimes found it advantageous to establish alliances with one or more other states, if only to be able to make war more effectively against whichever was the greatest threat at the time. As the French diplomat de Callières put it: “There is indeed no prince so powerful that he can afford to neglect the assistance offered by a good alliance in resisting the forces of hostile powers which are prompted by jealousy of his prosperity to unite in a hostile coalition.”¹