Triple Alliance ( 1788 ) The Triple Alliance of 1788 was a military alliance between Great Britain , Prussia and the United Provinces . Great Britain saw it as necessary to maintain the balance of power , and Prussia was hoping for the territorial gains . The alliance was primarily aimed at the Russian Empire , which stood to increase its influence with its looming victory over the Ottoman Empire . Due to efforts of Russian diplomacy , particularly in fostering parliamentary dissent in Great Britain , where the main proponent of action against Russia , William Pitt the Younger , lost support , the Alliance fell apart before it was ready to engage in planned military action against Russia . The destruction of the Triple Alliance is considered a major success of the Russian diplomacy . Formation . In April 1788 Prussia secured a credit in case of a war with Russia from the United Provinces . In return , Prussia provided military backing for the unstable Dutch government . On 13 August 1788 , the Anglo - Prussian military alliance was signed . This marked the formation of the Triple Alliance . From the British perspective , the Alliance was formed to maintain the balance of power in Europe , particularly with regards to France and Russia , and the potentially unstable regions of the Baltics , the Balkans and the Netherlands . Prussia , on the other hand , was hoping for some territorial gains in the Baltic region , through war ( with Russia ) or diplomacy ( from the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth ) , or a combination of the above . With regards to the Balkans , the Triple Alliance aimed at restraining the Russian Empire , as well as the Austrian Empire , then in alliance ( Austro - Russian alliance ) , and there were expectations of a war between the Alliance and Russia ( and possibly Austria ) around 1791 . Evolution . Great Britain did not want war , in so much as it would be content if Russia would retreat from its war with the Ottomans without any territorial changes , but it realized this was an unlikely outcome . Starting in August 1790 , British and Prussian diplomats in Russia started pressuring the Russians to begin negotiations with the Ottomans , with no luck . Realizing that William Pitt the Younger was seriously considering hardline politics towards Russia , and that a war with Prussia and Great Britain would likely end up with a loss , Russian Empress Catherine the Great ordered her ambassador in London , Semyon Vorontsov , to aid Pitt ' s opponent , Charles Fox , in the British Parliament . Vorontsov and other members of the Russian diplomatic staff had arranged , on occasion through bribery , for support from many members of the British establishment . The United Provinces were much less interested in the war with Russia , as Russia had significant debts to Dutch bankers , which the war could jeopardize . William Eden , 1st Baron Auckland , British ambassador to the United Provinces , was on good terms with local Russian diplomatic staff , and tended to argue against any action that would involve hostilities with Russia . Britain also failed at improving its relations with the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth , which at that point considered itself on good terms with Russia and did not want to jeopardize those relations by getting closer to the Triple Alliance . The end of the Russo - Swedish War ( 1788 – 1790 ) also meant one less potential ally for the Triple Coalition , as the king of Sweden was not willing to reopen the Russian front . By early 1791 , around February , Prussian diplomacy managed to secure an agreement with Austria . Although Austria refused to switch sides , it also agreed to remain neutral in case of a war between Russia and Prussia . This convinced Pitt to assure Frederic that Britain would send a fleet to the Baltic , and to craft an ultimatum to Russia , requiring it to retreat from its war with the Ottomans or face an Anglo - Prussian intervention ; by late March this position got royal approval and the debate in British parliament was to take place soon . In the meantime , in early March , Frederic Wilhelm II assured an Ottoman representative of his desire to attack Russia as soon as the Royal Navy appeared in the Baltic Sea , and encouraged him , in a handwritten letter , to continue the ongoing war with Russia and undertake a new offensive in the Balkans . Prussia ' s military preparations were very advanced , with about 90 , 000 troops massing on the border , and plans for three corps to advance on Riga . Russia itself was gearing itself to defend the Baltic sea border against the expected invasion . Aware of the significance of the debate to take place in the British parliament in late March , Russian diplomats in London pulled out all stops to mobilize allies to oppose an Anglo - Russian conflict . Russian diplomats spent significant funds on diplomacy and propaganda . It had assured the support of about twenty British newspapers , and begun printing and distribution of many leaflets arguing against the " Russian armament " proposal of Pitt the Younger , as the issue became known in contemporary British discourse . Russian supporters included merchants with influence at the London Stock Exchange , writers and publicists such as John Paradise ( " Doctor Johnson " ) , as well as members of the British Parliament , such as the son of Thomas Dimsdale , Charles Fox , Edmund Burke and others . In the days before the British debate , the Dutch had offered to negotiate between Russia and the Triple Alliance , and Auckland reported that he saw documents in which Frederick Wilhelm questioned the need for the war and expressed concerns over the militant Austrian attitude ( according to Polish historian Jerzy Łojek , that was either Auckland ' s own or Russian misinformation , or a combination of both ) . The debate begun on March 29 . Despite criticism from the minority opponents , like Charles Fox , the House of Commons expressed its approval for the war with Russia thrice on that day . However , over the next two or three days , debates within Pitt ' s own government resulted in a drastic change of plans . The specific reasons for this sudden conflict within Pitt ' s government are not fully understood ; Łojek suggests it was through the influence of Fox , Auckland and the Russian diplomacy on several of its members . Pitt could have forced the issue by creating a new government , but he decided that was not a viable solution , as a crisis in the government could result in an unpredictable shift of power . By mid - and late April , with William Grenville , 1st Baron Grenville replacing Francis Osborne , 5th Duke of Leeds as the Foreign Secretary , the British policy was now set as pro - Russian , and anti - French . A British courier with an ultimatum and a joint British - Prussian declaration to Russia arrived in Berlin on the night of April 3 to 4 , but before he left , was intercepted on April 8 by another courier ordering a delay . It was only in early June that Prussia realized that British politics had taken a significant shift , and Britain no longer desired a war with Russia . This meant the end of the Triple Alliance . Aftermath . The end of the alliance was cemented by the British - Netherlands - Prussian - Russian treaty of 26 July 1791 , in which the Triple Alliance " de facto " capitulated to all Russian demands , accepting all Russian territorial demands on Ottomans . Within two years all the signatories of the alliance were at war with France following the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War . Łojek notes that historiography of the fall of the Triple Alliance is sparse , as it was overshadowed by the interest in issues related to the French Revolution ; as he notes , a war that never started is much less interesting than the revolution that changed the world . He notes that the end of the alliance was a triumph of the Russian diplomacy , and failure of the British one , as well as a personal failure of Pitt , who since this defeat removed himself from the British foreign policy . From the Polish perspective , he notes that the failure of the Polish diplomacy to pursue an alliance with the Triple Alliance was another major factor which resulted in its weakening , and by correspondingly strengthening Russia , this Polish inactivity contributed to the fall of Poland . He notes that although some Poles , like Antoni Augustyn Deboli , argued for an alliance with Great Britain , king Stanisław August Poniatowski , who controlled most of Polish diplomacy , refused to stand in opposition to Russia , which in hindsight was a major blow for Poland .