Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

When the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to the Netherlands Conce heard on the radio that Dutch Foreign Minister Joseph Beit hinted that he was preparing to win over the French Second Empire in order to fight against the German Empire, he immediately thought something bad in his heart.

It was through the Second French Empire that the German Empire came to power and became the hegemon on land in Western Europe.

According to Ambassador Cons, Bismarck has been pushing European countries to isolate France since 1870. Maintaining the status quo in Europe and ensuring the security of the German Empire are the same thing. The international environment Bismarck faced was extremely complex: in order to encourage the French Empire, it had to maintain a conservative alliance with the three major monarchies: the Russian Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Germany. For this reason, Bismarck had to exert influence on the development of Russian-Austrian relations. The Russian-Austrian relations were too close. So much so that leaving Germany aside or having a conflict over the Balkans would damage Germany's diplomatic status in Europe. While he regarded German-Russian friendship as the cornerstone of German diplomacy, he was not able to offend Britain, which was in sharp opposition to Russia in the Near East and Central Asia.

However, there was a lot of commotion some time ago. The former Tsar Alexander II was assassinated by the British, but some people said that it was the Germans who assassinated him and then blamed the British. No one knows who is right here. Under such circumstances, Alexander III suddenly signed a defense mutual assistance agreement with the Netherlands in the Balkans in May, and then announced an alliance between the two countries in October to jointly attack Austria. The Hungarian Empire was concerned about its actions in Mexico, and even announced that the two countries would send troops to conduct military exercises on both sides of Mexico in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

The coalition forces of the Group of Thirteen countries will participate in the exercise. Isn’t this a naked expression that all thirteen countries except Mexico are publicly expressing their support for Mexico?

Therefore, Russia, the cornerstone of German diplomacy, chose to form an alliance with the Netherlands after the establishment of the German-Austrian Alliance. In order to deal with them, the German-Austrian Alliance naturally chose that the enemy's enemy is a friend, and it allied with Britain, but it followed the trend.

From the perspective of Ambassador Kangs, the ambassador of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, everything seems to be developing in a good direction for Austria-Hungary.

The message sent to him from Vienna also told him to keep an eye on the possible next moves of the Netherlands. However, the message from Vienna was not trivial or serious. Apparently, after the alliance between Britain, Germany and Austria, they had already counterattacked against the Netherlands. Ability was doubted. Even Ambassador Kang believed that the Netherlands might have become timid when facing the alliance between Britain, Germany and Austria.

He originally listened with curiosity, but now he was shocked when he heard that the Netherlands was preparing to win over France's second empire.

Austria-Hungary wooed Germany as its backing, thinking that it could use Germany to deal with the so-called Thirteen-Nation Alliance members in Latin America. The Netherlands then roped in the Russian Empire to deal with the German-Austrian Alliance.

The German-Austrian Alliance also attracted Britain, the sworn enemy of the Tsarist Empire, and originally thought it would have the upper hand. But now it seems that the Netherlands has made a surprising move to win over the French Empire, the enemy of the German Empire.

It's true that there is no success or failure. The addition of Germany made it increasingly difficult for Austria-Hungary to control the development of the situation.

"However, maybe Vienna is trying to learn from Bismarck's use of the Austrian Empire to attack Denmark, to consume Berlin's power, and then maybe Vienna will come back to power. After all, there is still a lot of gap between our Austro-Hungarian Empire and the German Empire. "

"But can the Netherlands really win over France?"

Ambassador Cons is not the only one who thinks so. In fact, the ambassadors of various countries in the Netherlands are thinking about whether the result of this win-over can come true.

The Embassy of the Kingdom of Siam in the Netherlands was shocked by the news, so they quickly sent the news back to Bangkok. After all, if the Netherlands wooed the French Second Empire, Bangkok would now be occupied by the British colonies in the west, Myanmar and Myanmar. The Second French Empire in the east was surrounded by Laos and Cambodia, which had already occupied the Kingdom of Siam in the east. Will the cost of the Second French Empire's successful win over be that the Netherlands gave up its absolute support for the Kingdom of Siam to resist France? Is it conditional to support France in occupying southern Laos and eastern Cambodia in the Kingdom of Siam?

All this must be told to His Majesty King Chulalongkorn of Siam.

However, the Netherlands has not done anything to harm the relationship between the Netherlands and Siam so far, and it can be taken as a precaution.

This is the concern of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Siam.

On the other side of the Tsarist Russian Empire, everything was calm, and there were even faint laughter. Apparently, the Tsarist Russian Empire thought it would be a good idea to win over France. After seeing Tsarist Russia's attitude, many spies from other countries even I wonder if this will be the result of discussions between the Netherlands and Russia.

To put it simply, maybe a land alliance between France and Russia in Europe can have a very strong intimidation effect? After all, the Netherlands is still at the northern end of Western Europe. What about the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, and Spain in the Nordic Alliance?

Thinking of this made everyone tremble.

"If we really win over the Second French Empire, then the balance in the past will be broken. A new camp is about to come."

This is what the German Ambassador to the Netherlands Lansi wanted to say, but obviously, this news is definitely a very important diplomatic move for the Netherlands.

on Dutch radio.

I saw Herman Van Peron saying on the radio:

"The Near Eastern crisis from 1875 to 1878 reflected the limitations of Prime Minister Bismarck's policies relative to the historical environment. We can see the intensification of the contradiction between Russia and Austria, making it difficult for Bismarck to avoid the issue of choosing between Russia and Austria for a long time. Bismarck tried to use this The German-Austrian Alliance finally found a way out. The true destination of the alliance was the alliance between the three empires of Britain, Germany and Austria, which allowed the German Empire to continue to maintain restraint on Russian-Austrian relations. Unfortunately, the opportunity for mediation was lost. , and I didn’t expect that Russia would form an alliance with the Netherlands. Mr. Beit, regarding the original Dutch criticism of Austria-Hungary’s invasion of Mexico, now it has turned into a German-Austrian alliance plus Britain to deal with the Netherlands and Russia. How should we deal with it in order to maximize our interests? I am I want to say that there are other ways to win over the Second French Empire than just mentioned."

This question gets to the point.

This is not just the case for the Dutch audience, even foreign envoys and others are delighted by the tricky nature of Herman Van Peron's questions. As expected, he was the world's top current affairs commentator more than ten years ago. The questions are so profound.

The ambassadors of Austria-Hungary, Germany, and France almost stood up with their ears pricked up. The pens in their hands and the small notebooks on the desktop were all ready, ready to record the next conversation and send it back to their countries in the form of telegrams or intelligence.

Joseph Beit's voice came out from the radio just right at this time.