Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy were in an alliance together known as the Triple Alliance. This was an agreement between the empires to provide support to each other in case of a Russian declaration of war against them. Serbia was an ally to Russia and so Austria felt that the Serbians helped the Bosnians carry out the assassination. Ferdinand's uncle was emperor of Austria at the time and felt that this was a direct attack on their country. When he went to Kaiser Otto von Bismarck of Germany, Germany agreed to intervene against any Russian threats or threats from their allies. In this case, Germany gave Austria permission to send demands to Serbia to repay them, which they refused to comply with. At the same time, Russia was gathering their army to come to Serbia's aid, which Austria also saw as a direct threat and declared war on Serbia. This culminated in World War I.