Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

Melbourne's Defense Square is located in the center of Melbourne, on the banks of the Yarra River in the south, Flinders Road in the north, and St. Kilda Road in the west. In the past, it was an open multi-functional square that was used for many social activities in Melbourne. It is open here, but it will be blocked in the past week, because this will be the place for talks between His Majesty William IV and King Chulalongkorn of the Kingdom of Siam, the most important ally of the Netherlands in the Far East.

The architectural complex of Defense Square is presented to the world with its abstract and surreal model, becoming a new symbol of the Kingdom of the Netherlands at the end of the 19th century.

The unique design of Melbourne's Defense Square won the Architectural Design Award from the Royal Academy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

In 1871, the Dutch government and the Melbourne City Government invested 30 million guilders (3 million pounds) to start construction. The main project was completed in 1873 and opened to the public in 1874. The entire project was put into use at the end of August 1875.

Defense Square has become one of the famous buildings in Melbourne, the new capital of the Netherlands, and even the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the world. It is also one of the most famous tourist attractions in the Netherlands.

“Defense Square is a project called the People’s Benefit Project that we are currently promoting in the Netherlands. Currently, in all administrative units above the town level in the Netherlands, we will use Defense Square as an example to build smaller citizen squares.

At present, you have more than 3,000 large and small parks with square themes in 39 provinces, 265 cities, and 2,985 towns in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with a total investment of 600 million Dutch guilders (60 million pounds). On average, each park contains a square. The investment in the park is guilders (around £20,000)”

"The Defense Square in front of us can accommodate 5,500 people in its open-air amphitheater. In addition, there are cultural and commercial buildings with a total of 14,000 square meters, including the new Far East Pavilion built for the Royal Netherlands Art Museum in Australia, and There are surrounding business office buildings, studios, galleries, etc., as well as many restaurants, cafes, and shops. All of these are concentrated by our architects on this piece of land of less than 5 square kilometers, which is equivalent to a new building for Melbourne. A new town.”

William IV listened quietly beside him, and the person who introduced the Defense Square was David Blanc, the Minister of the Interior of the Netherlands. The target was naturally Chulalongkorn, King of the Kingdom of Siam.

Chulalongkorn, a yellow man born in 1853, listened carefully to David Blanc's introduction with a smile on his face.

Also asked questions from time to time.

"Sir David, I have been observing this floor pattern for a long time. What pattern is it? It really looks very attractive."

David Blank smiled and said: "The base art pattern of National Defense Square was created by the famous Dutch artist Tyson-Paul using Italian red sandstone. It looks more beautiful."

"Italian?" Chulalongkorn exclaimed: "Sure enough, Roman architecture is the best feast in the world, His Majesty said, do you think so?"

Chulalongkorn actually used you to describe him?

William IV was not surprised by this.

The 29-year-old Eastern monarch in front of him is very smooth-talking and very good at pleasing people. However, William IV also understands that this is forced by the situation. You can imagine that if the Netherlands is weak, the Kingdom of Siam is the strong one. , then in turn, William IV would need to bow to the other party.

This is the law of the forest, survival of the fittest.

When he traveled to this world in 1857, he didn't want to lower his divulge, but in the end he had to accept that the Netherlands was only a second-tier power in Europe.

Not to mention the five major European countries at that time, Britain, Tsarist Russia, France, Austria, and the Kingdom of Prussia, even Spain and the Ottoman Empire were not something the Netherlands could fight against.

The Netherlands is only a little stronger than Portugal, Denmark, and Belgium, but it is still slightly inferior to Sweden, the Nordic powerhouse at the time.

Therefore, in 1857, the Netherlands needed to make concessions to the four powerful countries in order to get a buffer period to develop itself. Some people say that it was not advisable for the Netherlands to offend people everywhere at that time.

William IV gave this a sarcastic smile. Why, if the Netherlands does not do something that is in the interest of certain countries, will these countries grow up to support the Netherlands in poking a hornet's nest?

For example, in developing colonies in Africa, if the Netherlands had not promoted a secret alliance with Prussia and France in 1862 and quickly developed colonies in Africa behind the backs of other powerful countries such as Britain, then the Netherlands would not have had the opportunity to acquire so many African colonies, nor would it have Such a large depth, and finally used the Dutch to make up 90% of the Boers in South Africa to defeat the arrogant British. In the end, for the sake of face and the armistice, the British had to let the Dutch take over the then desolate Australian continent in exchange for the Boers leaving South Africa. .

Taking advantage of the British pressure, the Netherlands captured nearly 500,000 Dutch people in South Africa. This supplemented the shortcomings of the Netherlands, which had a population of only six to seven million at the time, not even comparable to Sweden.

Taking over a large territory to recuperate, and adding hundreds of thousands of Dutch people who are capable of fighting and producing, the development of the Far East has become the focus of the Netherlands.

The intimidation of hundreds of thousands of Boers to defeat Britain, the world's most powerful country, was that the Netherlands gained a strategic buffer.

Rapid development has made countries jealous.

Later, Prussia's three foreign wars were used to turn the attention of all countries away from the Netherlands. The result was naturally that the Netherlands became a world power in the next ten years. The successful development of the Far East made the Netherlands' international status more and more prosperous.

Therefore, the small actions of the Netherlands are not superfluous, only too little.

The military and economic prosperity brought by the Netherlands have made all countries envious. The increase in the number of allies is actually an increase in the attractiveness of the Netherlands.

In turn, the Dutch industrial goods market and arms market increased, and Dutch research funding began to be replenished.

The British model was badly used by the Netherlands, and William IV used various tricks used by later generations of the United States to promote hegemony to bind the relationship between various countries and the Netherlands.

In the end, the United Kingdom has developed so far that it is far behind the Netherlands in terms of allies, and there are even so many that the United Kingdom does not dare to act rashly.

Although William IV had to admit that the Netherlands was not a rival to Britain on the sea, and even including submarines, it was not a rival to the British navy. But don't forget that the Netherlands has a bicycle army, and the UK is also following suit, but the Netherlands still has Having a motorized = legion is one of the secret weapons.

The Netherlands also has a fleet of airships flying in the sky, which is also a secret.

Swimming in the water, cutting through the water, and flying in the sky. Land rapid reaction forces, etc., all constitute the Netherlands’ powerful military coordination system.

In this era, everyone fights wars independently. How could there be such a far-sighted and far-sighted army as William IV that transcends the limitations of the century.

The Kingdom of Siam where Chulalongkorn is located and its surrounding areas are, in William IV's plan, the future venue for collaborative cooperation between various military services. Yes, his visit this time is the beginning before the plan is implemented.

British troops, we shall see each other soon.