raharris1973
Gone Fishin'
Why didn't it happen then? Sixtus was quite explicit to his French interlocutors about them getting Alsace-Lorraine back. France was offensively inert for that fighting season after the Neville debacle, watching the British do all the big offensives and being murderous but not getting too far, and the Russians and Italians and Salonika/Macedonia not doing great. One would think Clemenceau wouldn't have much reason to hold out for a greatly improved deal over what the Austrians were offering, considering the Americans were looking slow to arrive and U-Boat losses day to day were high, What was he waiting for?I am not convinced that the Austro-Hungarians need to offer territorial concession. Serbia and Romania are under Central Powers occupation, Russia is in no position to be making territorial demands of A-H in 1917 and Italy isn't doing particularly well on their front either. Its just as plausible that British and French decide to throw the Balkans and Italy under the bus and accept a status quo ante bellum peace with the Habsburgs to turn their full attention to Germany, Bulgaria, and the Ottomans.
Yet he threw the Sixtus offer back in Austria-Hungary's face and used it for cheap propaganda points and to stir up intra-CP bad feeling. So he must have had some confidence that said everything should work out fine, just in time with no compromises. What would it take to change western leaders evaluations?