What were tensions in Europe like before they were increased during World War 1?

Answer 1

There were not that many tensions between European countries, really. The German Kaiser had always done a lot of verbal sabre-rattling, but very few politicians and diplomats in Europe took that very seriously. France was still smarting from its defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 but mainly focused on defensive treaties to prevent that from happening again. Germany DID feel somewhat boxed in and slightly threatened by these treaties, certainly by the one between France, Russia and the UK.

In the years before 1914 there had been some tensions about Germany's pretensions and ambitions in Morocco and on the subject of colonies, but nothing that diplomacy had not been able to solve.

In central Europe, the Serbs living in the Austrian territories resented being treated as second-class citizens and dreamed of a Greater Serbia, but generally kept quiet. Russia had been badly beaten a few years before in a naval battle by the Japanese and was certainly not out to get involved in another war.

It is generally assumed that WW I therefore did not start as a result of escalating conflicts between European counties coming to a boil, but as a result of German adventurism, first prodding the Austrians to invade Serbia as a revenge for archduke Franz Ferdinand's assassination, and then aching to test their Schlieffen Plan for a quick and final defeat of France.