Editing Triple Alliance (1882) (section)

==Romania==
King [[Carol I of Romania]] was of German ancestry, which, combined with his wish to turn [[Kingdom of Romania|Romania]] into a centre of stability in Southeastern Europe and his fear of Russian expansion and the competing claims on [[Bessarabia]], led to Romania secretly joining the Triple Alliance on 18 October 1883. Only the King and a handful of senior Romanian politicians knew about it. Romania and Austria-Hungary pledged to help each other in the event of a Russian, Serbian or [[Principality of Bulgaria|Bulgarian]] attack. There were, however, several disputes between Romania and Hungary, the most notable being the status and community rights of Romanians in [[Transylvania]]. Romania eventually managed to achieve the status of regional power in the aftermath of the [[Balkan Wars]] and the [[Treaty of Bucharest (1913)|1913 Treaty of Bucharest]], but less than a year later, [[World War I]] started, and Romania, after a period of neutrality in which both the [[Central Powers]] and the [[Allies of World War I|Allies]] tried persuading Romania to join their respective sides, eventually joined the Allies in [[Treaty of Bucharest (1916)|1916]], after it had been promised significant Romanian-inhabited Hungarian lands. Romania's official reason for not siding with the Triple Alliance when the war started was the same as Italy's: The Triple Alliance was a defensive alliance, but Germany and Austria-Hungary had taken the offensive.<ref>[[Keith Hitchins]], ''A Concise History of Romania'', p. 149</ref>