Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

On December 3, 1881, Li Hongzhang, the Prime Minister of the Qing Dynasty who visited Bluesban, Queensland, to attend the Seven Eyes Alliance Summit, held talks with Dutch Prime Minister Linden. The two parties signed a "Strategic Partnership Plan" upgraded to a "Strategic Partnership Plan". Core Partnership Plan" document.

In this regard, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Qing Dynasty explained that the "Core Partnership Plan" is different from the previous "strategic partnership" of pure economic cooperation and ordinary political cooperation. The Core Partnership Plan clarifies the selected background, strategic goals and implementation of the cooperation field. Period is a matter of concrete cooperation between the two parties of the Seven Eyes Alliance.

Li Hong-Zhang pointed out, “After signing the core partnership plan, the cooperation framework between the Qing Dynasty and the Seven Eyes Alliance will be institutionalized. The Seven Eyes Alliance summit we participated in this time is regarded as discussing military intelligence and global political and military cooperation in the Pacific. Inseparable from the security of the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, in addition to the seven member countries of the Netherlands, Greece, Sweden, Denmark, Siam, Ecuador, and Spain, the Qing Dynasty, Brazil, Tsarist Russia and other countries have cooperated more closely with the Seven Eyes Alliance than ever before. are all important”

Dutch Prime Minister Linden emphasized that "security work cannot rely on detailed work, but global cooperation. The negative impact of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's reactionary war on Mexico has spread to the whole world." "The threat of the alliance between Germany, Austria, and Britain also affects the Seven Eyes Alliance." and important issues of global security.”

Regarding the signing of the core partnership country plan, the work carried out by the Qing Dynasty and the Seven Eyes Alliance involves regular meetings in the government and military fields, promoting "dialogue and consultation" between the Qing Dynasty, Tsarist Russia, and Brazil to participate in internal discussions on emerging technologies and military defense, as well as intrusion prevention, strategic cooperation, Promote 7 areas including "substantial cooperation in coordinated operations" led by the Seven Eyes Alliance and participating in the Qing Dynasty, Tsarist Russia, and Brazil."

In a public interview at the request of Dutch Prime Minister Linden, Li Hong-Zhangka commented, “Taking the Seven Eyes Alliance Summit as an opportunity, the meeting with representatives of the Dutch Senate showed that the relationship between the Qing and the Netherlands is mechanically expanding towards a semi-alliance stage. ". Prior to this, Li Hongzhang met with Jann Sartan, co-director of the Seven Eyes Alliance Observer Group of the Dutch House of Representatives, and a delegation of the Dutch House of Representatives composed of Representative Tom Diess and others.

Director Tom Diess said, “The Dutch Parliament’s cross-party support for the semi-alliance between the Netherlands and Qing Dynasty will not change in the future.”

Next, Li Hongzhang also held one-on-one meetings with Prime Minister Gorchakov of the Russian Empire on the issue of territorial disputes in Central Asia, and Li Hongzhang had one-on-one discussions with Prime Minister Fonseca of Brazil on the issue of grain import and export supply and demand. International talks.

Next, in Brusban, the Netherlands, Li Hongzhang also met with Swedish Prime Minister Arved Posse, King Chulalongkorn of the Kingdom of Siam, Spanish Prime Minister Praxades, Danish Prime Minister Skavennis and others to strengthen the discussion. Conduct a series of bilateral talks on security and economic cooperation and other issues. Prime Minister Li Hongzhang also lobbied specifically for the 1890 Development Blueprint and sought support from governments of various countries.

Obviously, the Dutch government, as the host, gave great treatment to Li Hongzhang, the Prime Minister of the Qing Dynasty, its huge neighbor to the north. Even implicitly, although the Netherlands did not reach the status treatment given to Gorchakov of the Tsarist Russian Empire, at least it More than Brazil’s Prime Minister Fonseca is in the same situation.

Obviously, for the Netherlands, the Qing Dynasty received more attention than Brazil.

Inside the Russian Embassy.

"I didn't expect that the Netherlands would treat the Qing Dynasty like this. This will have a major impact on many of our future plans," Takinav, the Russian ambassador to the Netherlands, said with a frown.

"In the past hundred years, we have implemented territorial expansionism around the Qing Dynasty and captured millions of square kilometers of territory. Now we originally planned to continue to implement an expansion strategy in Central Asia, and in some places in the Pacific" we also continued to expand coastal territories, at least We can only occupy more immovable port areas. Now the Netherlands’ statement makes it difficult for us.”

In Gorchakov's silence, his index finger and middle finger took turns tapping on the table. Obviously, this important minister of the Russian Empire who had served three tsars was not at peace in his heart.

"The territory of the Qing Dynasty cannot be given up easily. Even our Majesty answered with certainty. Also, the approach of the Netherlands is actually not much different from that of the United Kingdom."

Gorchakov flashed his light and said with a half-smile: "With the development of the Qing Dynasty, our strength in the Far East has actually been compressed in disguise."

Takinav was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then nodded: "Yes, the Qing Dynasty guarded the eastern part of Central Asia and had a population of 300 million in the Far East, while our Tsarist Empire had less than a million people there. Even if it was in 1890 in advance The completion of the Siberian Railway will only make it faster for the army to cross the border. On the contrary, the Qing Dynasty can deal with us if they go directly north or west. The Qing Dynasty is currently developing rapidly with the support of the Netherlands. According to the embassy’s understanding , many research institutions in the Netherlands pointed out that under the foreign affairs movement of Li Hongzhang as Prime Minister and the absorption of advanced Western technology, although the current industry of the Qing Dynasty is not as good as that of the Tsarist Russian Empire, it is not worse than Brazil, and even Because Brazil only has a population of 12 million, while the Qing Dynasty has a population of 300 million, the numerical calamity has made the Qing Dynasty far more powerful than Brazil. Therefore, the treatment given to the Qing Dynasty by the Netherlands this time has been recognized by many people in the Netherlands.

In addition, Japan has been in confusion with Britain for more than ten years, and even openly formed an alliance some time ago. This is very disgusting to the Netherlands, so they united with the Qing Dynasty across the sea to the west of Japan to deal with it. The unsinkable warships invested by the British in the Far East are definitely a good investment. Therefore, our embassy believes that the Qing Dynasty will be the country that the Netherlands will continue to cooperate with for a long time. In terms of importance, even if it is not as important as the Russian Empire in the Netherlands The position in the strategic pattern is not worth much."

Takinav's analysis made Gorchakov bang louder and faster.

Obviously, he was even more dissatisfied with the results of this analysis.

After a cup of coffee, the tapping stopped, and the sound of needle dropping could be heard from where the two of them were. Takinav felt relieved, and he knew that the result was coming. I saw Gorchakov saying: "Your analysis is good, but the results of the analysis are indeed not good for us."

Takinav nodded. The attitude of the Netherlands determines that Tsarist Russia may have an uncertain position in the future due to the hostility between the Qing Dynasty and Russia. This is too bad for Tsarist Russia, which is in desperate need of allies.

"But this all happened a few years later. Now, you know as much as possible about the Seven Eyes Alliance, especially whether Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands have intelligence and spy deployment in Tsarist Russia. You know, there is no most detailed, only More detail"