Were the pre-WW1 alliances really created to prevent war?
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Short answer: Yes.
Bismarck carefully maintained network of alliances designed to contain France after the Franco-Prussian War in order to prevent a war where France might conceivably try and regain control of Alsace-Lorraine.
Bismarck believed that France would always oppose the unification of Germany as it would create a powerful neighbour on its northern border, and of course a powerful rival on the continent. See below for more details:
France was strongly opposed to the annexation of the Southern German States (Bavaria, Wurttemberg, Baden and Hesse), which would have created a too powerful a country next to its border. In Prussia, a war against France was deemed necessary to arouse German nationalism in those States that would allow the unification of a great German empire. This aim was epitomized by Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's quote: "I knew that a Franco-Prussian War must take place before a united Germany was formed."[1] Bismarck also knew that France should be the aggressor in the conflict to bring the Southern German States to side with Prussia, hence giving Germans numerical superiority.[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_Franco-Prussian_War
This meant that preventing war with France via diplomatic means was a vital interest to the Germans.
It is quite interesting that when Wilhelm II came to power, he let the threads of this tapestry of alliances aimed at containing France unravel, mostly due to pride and incompetence, that ancient enemy of monarchs and autocrats through history. Liddell Hart (despite his other flaws as a historian, military scientist and human being) noted this break down in the diplomatic topography of Europe in his History of the First World War.
This is just a quick answer as I didn't get around to writing this earlier and I hopefully haven't missed the boat on this question - I will edit in more details/generally flesh the answer out over the course of the evening.
There's some more details here regarding the 'containment of France' - some of it is in French though. https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-15772192/bismarck-and-the-containment-of-france-1873-1877
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