Treaty of Björkö

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message.
This article has been tagged since September 2006.

The Treaty of Björkö was a secret mutual defense accord signed on July 24, 1905 between Wilhelm II of the German Empire and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

Contents

[edit] Secret meeting

Prior to the signing of the mutual defense treaty, Wilhelm II arranged four days earlier to meet secretly with Tsar Nicholas II. On Sunday evening July 23, 1905, the Kaiser arrived from Vyborg Bay to Björkö Sound in his yacht, the Hohenzollern. He dropped anchor near Tsar Nicholas' yacht, the Standart. This secret meeting is confirmed based on their discussions via telegram dubbed, "The Willy-Nicky Correspondence."[1]

[edit] Treaty

The overall defense treaty contained four articles and was signed by Wilhelm II and Tsar Nicholas II. It was countersigned by Von Tschirschky, Count Bekendorf, and Naval Minister Birilev.[2]

Their Imperial Majesties, the Emperor of All the Russias on the one side, and the German Emperor on the other, in order to insure the peace of Europe, have placed themselves in accord on the following points of the herein treaty relative to a defensive alliance:

  • Art. I. If any European state attacks one of the two empires, the allied party engages to aid the other contracting party with all his military and naval forces.
  • Art. II. The high contracting parties engage not to conclude with any common enemy a separate peace.
  • Art. III. The present treaty will become effective from the moment of the conclusion of the peace between Russia and Japan and may be denounced with a year's previous notification.
  • Art. IV. When this treaty has become effective, Russia will undertake the necessary steps to inform France of it and to propose to the latter to adhere to it as an ally.

[Signed] Nicholas. William.

[Countersigned] Von Tschirschky. Count Bekendorf. Naval Minister, Birilev.

Although the treaty was signed by the Tsar, it was inevitably a "dead letter" because of Russia's commitment to France.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Fay, Sidney B. (p. 48). Author cites from A. A. Knopf's work (ed. Herman Bernstein), The Willy-Nicky Correspondence (January 1918). Nobody has the slightest idea of meeting. The faces of my guests will be worth seeing when they suddenly behold your yacht. A fine lark. Tableaux. Which dress for the meeting? Willy.
  2. ^ Fay, Sidney B. (p. 68-69). The treaty was published in the Izvestia on December 29, 1917. On December 31, 1917, the treaty was copied in the Paris Excelsior. Afterwards, the treaty was copied (with slight paraphrasing) by works from Bompard and Nekludov.

[edit] Reference

  • Fay, Sidney B. The Kaiser's Secret Negotiations with the Tsar, 1904-1905. The American Historical Review: Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 48-72. October 1918.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../t/r/e/Treaty_of_Bj%C3%B6rk%C3%B6_9cbb.html"
In other languages