Otto von Bismarck created the Triple Alliance .
Erich Eyck , Bismarck and the German Empire ( 1964 ) pp 58-68 For the next twenty years , Otto von Bismarck managed to maintain the balance of power , by proposing treaties and creating many complex alliances between the European nations such as the Triple Alliance. After the resignation of Otto Von Bismarck in the 1890s , the foreign policy of the German Empire became expansionary and the newly created alliances were proven to be fragile , something that triggered the First World War in 1914 .