Lloyd George and the Dual Monarchy, 1917–1918
Lloyd George and the Dual Monarchy, 1917–1918

Summary/Abstract: The present study aims to offer a contribution to the research on the diplomatic history of World War I, focusing its attention on the relation between Great Britain and the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1917–1918. To be more precise, it attempts to highlight the personal role of the prime minister of Britain, Lloyd George in shaping this relation. The fundamental assumption of the article is that, Lloyd George was committed to detach the Dual Monarchy from Germany by means of a separate peace. The study focuses on the repeated attempts to negotiate a secret arrangement with the Monarchy after Emperor Karl came to the throne in 1916 and initiated a new foreign policy, with the view to secure peace for his empire and eventually to break with Berlin. The author analyses in details the secret mission of Prince Sixtus in the first half of 1917 and the confidential talks between Jan Smuts and Albert Mensdorff in December 1917. The primary source for this work is the War Memoirs of Lloyd George, but the memoirs of Prince Sixtus are also extensively utilized. The major conclusion of the author is that Lloyd George realized that in Central Europe a large – federalized – political structure might serve better international stability than a large number of small states divided along national lines and inimical to one another.

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