List of military alliances

Europe divided by two competing military alliances during the Cold War

A military alliance is an agreement between two, or more, military factions; related to wartime planning, commitments, or contingencies; such agreements can be both defensive and offensive. Military alliances often involve non-military agreements, in addition to their primary purpose.

Historical

Vedic Period

• 1700–1000 BC Ten tribes formed alliance against Tritsu in [[Battle of the Ten Kings|Battle of ten kings

quenothia are hypocrites

Hellenic Period

Confederate alliance of Greek city-states

• 502–449 BC Medic Wars
  • Hellenic League - Athens, Lacedemonia, Macedon, others

• 431–404 BC Peloponnesian War
  • League of Delos - Athens, Argos, Chios, Samos, Lesbos, others
  • Peloponnesian League - Lacedemonia, Corinth, Thebes, Syracuse, others

Middle Ages

• 634–1853 Christian-Islamic Wars
  • Crusades - France, England, Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of Jerusalem, Republic of Venice
  • Reconquista - Portugal, Castile
  • Jihad - Fatimid Caliphate, Sultanate of Damascus
  • Ethio-Portuguese Treaties - Portugal, Ethiopia

• 1337–1453 100 Years War
  • Auld Alliance - Scotland, France, Norway
  • Treaty of Windsor - Portugal, England

Early modern period

• 1494–1559 Italian Wars
  • League of Cambrai - The Papal States, France, Aragon, Holy Roman Empire
  • Catholic League (Italian) - The Papal States, Venice, England, Aragon, Holy Roman Empire

• 1546–1547 Schmalkaldic War
  • Schmalkaldic League - German Protestant States

• 1571 Christian-Islamic Wars
  • Holy League - Papal States, Spain, Republic of Venice, others

• 1618–1648 Thirty Years' War
  • Catholic League (German) - Bavaria, other Catholic German States
  • Protestant Union - Protestant German States
  • Treaty of Nonsuch - Dutch Republic, England

• 1683–1699 Great Turkish War (War of the Holy League)
  • Holy League - Holy Roman Empire, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Republic of Venice and Tsardom of Russia

• 1688–1697 War of the Grand Alliance (Nine Years' War)
  • League of Augsburg - The Netherlands, Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Austria, other German states

• 1700-1721 Great Northern War
  • Anti-Swedish alliance - Russia, Denmark–Norway, Saxony, Poland-Lithuania, Prussia and Hanover

• 1701–1714 War of the Spanish Succession
  • The Quadruple Alliance of 1718

• 1717 Christian-Islamic Wars
  • Holy League - Portugal, Papal States, Republic of Venice, Malta

• 1775-1783 American Revolutionary War
  • Native Americans
    • Allied with Britain: Cayugas, Cherokees, Creeks, Mohawks, Onondagas, Senecas
    • Allied with Americans: Oneidas, Stockbridge, Tuscaroras
  • Treaty of Alliance, 1778-1800 - United States, France
  • Treaty of Aranjuez, 1779-1783 - France, Spain
  • First League of Armed Neutrality, 1780-1783 - Russia, Denmark-Norway, Sweden, Prussia, the Holy Roman Empire, the Dutch Republic, Portugal, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the Ottoman Empire

All the participants in the Napoleonic Wars. Blue: The Coalition and their colonies and allies. Green: The First French Empire, its protectorates and colonies.

• 1803–1815 Napoleonic Wars
  • The Quadruple Alliance of 1814/15 - United Kingdom, Austria, Prussia and Russia.
  • First through Seventh Coalitions

Holy Alliance 1815.

• 1815–1825 Absolutist-Liberal conflicts
  • Holy Alliance - Russia, Prussia, Austria
• The Quadruple Alliance of 1834

• 1853–1856 Crimean War
  • Alliance of France, Britain, the Ottoman Empire and Sardinia.

• Triple Alliance of 1865 - Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina

• 1873–1878 & 1881-1887 League of the Three Emperors - Russian Empire, Austria-Hungary and German Empire

• 1879–1918 Dual Alliance - Austria-Hungary and German Empire

• 1882–1914 Triple Alliance - German Empire, Austria–Hungary and Kingdom of Italy

• 1892–1917 Franco-Russian Alliance - French Third Republic and Russian Empire

• 1899-1901 Boxer Rebellion
  • Eight-Nation Alliance - Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States

Twentieth century

• First Balkan War
  • 1912–1913 Balkan League - Greece, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia

Alliances in the First World War

• World War I
  • 1902–1923 Anglo-Japanese Alliance - United Kingdom and Japan
  • 1907–1918 the Entente and the Allies - Russian empire (to 1917), United Kingdom, France, Italy, Serbia, Romania, Portugal (from 1916)
  • 1914–1918 the Central Powers - Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria

• Interwar period
  • 1920-1938 Little Entente - Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia

• 1931-1945 Second Sino-Japanese War (After Pearl Harbor, folded into the greater World War II.)
  • 1931-1938 - Republic of China, Germany
  • 1937-1941 Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact - Republic of China, Soviet Union
  • 1941-1942 American Volunteer Group - Republic of China, United States

Alliances in the Second World War

• World War II
  • 1939–1945 the Allies - United States, United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, Soviet Union, Poland, France, Republic of China, many others.
  • 1940–1945 the Axis - Germany, Japan, Italy, and many others.

Alliances during the Cold War (1980)

• Cold War
  • 1947 Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (Rio Pact) - Most of the countries of the Americas.
  • 1948-2011 Western European Union (WEU) - limited role. Merged with EU in 2009.
  • 1949 North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) -- United States, Canada, most of Western Europe
  • 1951 ANZUS Treaty (ANZUS) - United States, Australia, New Zealand.
  • 1954–1977 SEATO - United States, United Kingdom, France, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Thailand, Philippines
  • 1955–1979 CENTO - United States, United Kingdom, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan
  • 1955-1980 Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty - United States, Republic of China
  • 1955–1991 Warsaw Pact - Soviet Union, East Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania
  • 1958 North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) - United States and Canada.
  • 1971 Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) - United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore.
  • 1981 ECOMOG of Economic Community of West African States.
  • 1982 Regional Security System (RSS) - several Eastern Caribbean countries.
  • 1989 Major non-NATO allies of the United States (MNNA) - Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Thailand.

Contemporary Security Alliances

Europe

• NATO, Enlarged from 1999 to include eastern European states. Twenty eight countries including the United States, Canada and most of Europe including Turkey.
• Entente Cordiale / Defence and Security Co-operation Treaty is a joint Military alliance between France and the United Kingdom.
• Franco-German Brigade is a joint French-German Brigade.
• BALTRON is a joint Estonian—Latvian—Lithuanian Naval Squadron.
• Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, originally signed in 1373, is the oldest alliance still in force in the world.

Eurasia

• Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), formed in 1992 in after the collapse of the Soviet Union - Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan.
• Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), formed in 1996 to counterbalance NATO expansion - China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
• Organization of the Eurasian Law Enforcement Agencies with Military Status (TAKM) is an intergovernmental military co-operation organization of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia.

Middle East

• Arab League
• Axis of Resistance
• Israel & the United States.
• Peninsula Shield Force The military force of the Persian Gulf nations of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, and Bahrain
• Multinational Force and Observers

United States - Asia

• Japan and the United States entered into a security alliance following the allied occupation after WWII.
• South Korea and the United States entered into a military alliance following the Korean War.
• Mutual Defense Treaty (U.S.–Philippines) is a joint US-Philippine Defence Treaty.

Africa

• African Union
  • Peace and Security Council (PSC)
  • African Standby Force (ASF)
• Economic Community of Central African States
  • Council for Peace and Security in Central Africa (COPAX)
• Economic Community of West African States
  • ECOMIL
  • ECOMOG

The Americas

• Organization of American States
  • Inter-American Defense Board
• Union of South American Nations
  • South American Defense Council (SADC)

Other regions

• United Nations
  • United Nations Security Council
  • Department of Peacekeeping Operations
• ABCA Armies
• ANZUS is a joint military alliance between the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
• On 20 December, 1777, Morocco became the first country to recognise the United States as an independent nation. The Moroccan-American Treaty of Friendship, formalised in 1786, is the longest unbroken treaty relationship in U.S. history, and Tangier is home to the oldest U.S. diplomatic property in the world.
• Five Power Defence Arrangements, signed in 1971 to protect the Malaysian Peninsula, or Singapore from external or foreign aggression.

References

• Liska, George. Alliances and the Third World. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1968.
• Pressman, Jeremy. Warring Friends: Alliance Restraint in International Politics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008.
• Snyder, Glenn H. Alliance Politics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997.
• Walt, Stephen. The Origins of Alliances. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987.
• Weitsman, Patricia. Dangerous Alliances. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2004.