Status Quo Ante Bellum, the Peace to end the Great War

Should Italy make peace just after the Western Entente or fight on?

  • Early Peace

    Votes: 19 73.1%
  • Fight On

    Votes: 7 26.9%

  • Total voters
    26
The problem is that even the actual entente goverment know all that, for this reason Wilson and Sixtus proposal were sent to the trashbin; you need a good reason because the Entente decided to throw the fight and award the continent to the Germans and resign to be at best the last semi-independent nation of Europe. If you think the premise it's ASB put in the proper forum

Well, one could very easily argue given Wilson's well known Anglophilic stance and broader pro Entente US policy that the French and British legitimently believe they can win in the negotiation conference what they're failing to get in the trenches; hence why we're only talking a ceasefire on a limited scale. As far as they're concerned they can restart the war at any time if the terms aren't to their liking, and can demonstrate to Wilson how truly impossible peace without victory with "The Hun" truly is, thus allowing them to draw America properly into the war. It would fit with the broader Entente "High Geopolitics" grand strategy and the obsession with achieving a decisive battle/move on the diplomatic chessboard, with the paired failure in practice to produce the results they want.
 
Well, one could very easily argue given Wilson's well known Anglophilic stance and broader pro Entente US policy that the French and British legitimently believe they can win in the negotiation conference what they're failing to get in the trenches; hence why we're only talking a ceasefire on a limited scale. As far as they're concerned they can restart the war at any time if the terms aren't to their liking, and can demonstrate to Wilson how truly impossible peace without victory with "The Hun" truly is, thus allowing them to draw America properly into the war. It would fit with the broader Entente "High Geopolitics" grand strategy and the obsession with achieving a decisive battle/move on the diplomatic chessboard, with the paired failure in practice to produce the results they want.

Once stopped it's more difficult start again a massacre of the level of WWI and it's not a limited scale, the Western Front was the principal one, the one where the war will be won or lost, plus by that article seem that they have not even bothered alert their allies leaving them alone and to scramble to make sense of all that/cover their asses, it's a move a 'little' to risky for some possible diplomatic advantage, expecially because even the most naive and braindead diplomats of the entente will know that they don't have much to pressure the CP go give up something that at least will save the face of Italy and France or at least give the respective goverment a shoot at it (the UK it's different but doing that will mean throw away any diplomatic influence on the continent for at least a generation), hell they don't have enough to pressure Germany to effectively pay any promised reparation.
 
Once stopped it's more difficult start again a massacre of the level of WWI and it's not a limited scale, the Western Front was the principal one, the one where the war will be won or lost, plus by that article seem that they have not even bothered alert their allies leaving them alone and to scramble to make sense of all that/cover their asses, it's a move a 'little' to risky for some possible diplomatic advantage, expecially because even the most naive and braindead diplomats of the entente will know that they don't have much to pressure the CP go give up something that at least will save the face of Italy and France or at least give the respective goverment a shoot at it (the UK it's different but doing that will mean throw away any diplomatic influence on the continent for at least a generation), hell they don't have enough to pressure Germany to effectively pay any promised reparation.

Don't underestimate the power of the civilian governments of the Entente to overestimate their own abilities/dellude themselves at the realities on the ground, especially this late into the war with censorship so hard and their own propaganda being pushed to an extent (a perception encouraged by the military brass) that they were actually falling for it themselves in many cases. As far as France and Britain are concerned at this point, as they've been trumpeting for years now, Germany is at the end of its rope in terms of manpower (having official casualty estimates far higher than what the CP was actually suffering) and has only been able to do what its been doing by shuffling troops around... a situation that's only going to tilt more to their side as Russia is informing them they're preparing for a big offensive this spring. That will give them far more leverage as a threat to Germany if they "restart" the war in the West (Which, again, is easier said than done should they actually try to pull that trick, but its perception that matters here) while the Germans have shifted forces east to face the Russian threat. In effect, by slowing down the Western front and taking the possability for iniative there, the Western Entente is throwing Italy and Russia deeper into the meatgrinder in order to gain relative advantage to themselves in addition to getting support from/continued liquid capital from the USA.

This is precisely the kind of convoluted , sneaky plan that I'd expect from the WW I governments; trying to weaken Germany immediately and put themselves in an advantagious position in the post-war world and negotiations in one masterstroke. Again, I'm not saying itd actually work out that way, but its a reasonable trap to fall into in the heat of wartime and without the perfect information of 20/20 hindsight.
 
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