An alliance between Prussia, Austria, and Russia. In 1872, following the creation of the new German Second empire, Bismarck persuaded the emperors of Austria and Russia to join an unofficial alliance. It was strained by the Treaty of San Stefano (1878) which, in conclusion of the Russo‐Turkish Wars, assigned Russia the eastern part of Armenia and created a large state of Bulgaria. In June 1881, following the assassination of Alexander II, the league was revived as a more formal alliance. Renewed in 1884, it finally expired three years later, as tension between Russia and Austria‐Hungary mounted in the Balkans.