What responsibility did the alliance systems play in the outbreak of World War I?

The rise of Germany, whose supremacy France dreaded and whose navy menaced [threatened] England, had created among [England and France] an alliance which claimed it was defensive in nature but was denounced by German propaganda an attempt at [the] encirclement of [Germany]. The two-armed camps alarmed each other, and each grew heavy with multiplied incidents, which spread East [with the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand], where Russia and Austria were advancing contradictory claims.