Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

Stephen Douglas, the former president of the United States, continued his anti-Dutch actions and did not stop after he stepped down.

This allows the Netherlands' diplomatic status in the United States to continue to simmer as an internal debate within the United States.

President Garfield directly denounced Stephen Douglas's abhorrent attempts to influence the new administration's foreign policy.

"It is incomprehensible that a person who has stepped down would try to interfere in our government. Is this what he wants to do as president after he steps down?"

The Republican media then vigorously reported that Stephen Douglas was unwilling to give up power and was greedy for power, which was disturbing.

In this regard, the Democratic Party media reported Stephen Douglas's counterattack, "The former president after stepping down was also an American citizen. As a citizen who loves America passionately, we are worried about the country's development path and are also worried about the country being destroyed by others. The country is bullying. Therefore, we will not easily care about the fate of the country because of our position. Although I have stepped down now, I will continue to fight for the future of America."

Thus, Garfield and Stephen Douglas began a long war of media and public opinion in the United States.

In 1847, Werner von Siemens founded the company based on his invention of telegraph technology that used a pointer to indicate the order of subtitles instead of Morse code.

The next year, the company established Europe's first long-distance telegraph line, spanning 500 kilometers from Berlin to Frankfurt.

In 1850, his brother Carl William Siemens established a representative office in London.

In the 1850s, the company participated in the construction of long-distance telegraph networks in the Russian Empire.

In 18555, his other brother Carl Heinrich Siemens established a new branch in St. Petersburg.

However, with the rise of the Netherlands, the two countries began to compete for telegraph construction projects in Europe.

However, with the backing of the German government, Siemens continued to grow, and continued to imitate the scientific and technological achievements of the Netherlands, and began to get involved in electric trains and light bulbs.

In short, Siemens has become a symbol of the strong rise of German industrial power.

However, the Netherlands will naturally not tolerate the other party's easy rise.

So he tried to suppress the other party.

Berlin also expressed dissatisfaction with the long-arm jurisdiction of the Netherlands and supported the support of the American opposition Democratic Party Stephen Douglas.

At a public hearing in the German National Assembly this year, former German Industry Minister Monteburg talked about the case of Siemens, which he handled during his tenure, being suppressed by the Netherlands. He claimed that this was the latest evidence of the Netherlands suppressing German technological development. typical case.

In 1880, the Netherlands banned all Dutch companies from conducting any transactions with Siemens on the grounds that Siemens violated the Dutch Foreign Corruption Act, and also prohibited the flow of Dutch technology to Siemens.

Not even allies’ factories.

Subsequently, the Netherlands' allies including Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Greece and other countries announced that they would not welcome Siemens' sales of products and construction of factories in the country.

In the end, Siemens was like this and could only open markets in countries such as Germany and Austria. It is even said that even Germany in the Far East responded to the call and put an end to Siemens' train construction projects.

This caused Siemens huge losses.

At the same time, this reduced Germany's industrial product sales market by nearly one-third.

Werner von Siemens, founder of Germany's emerging electrical revolution leader Siemens, spoke in the National Assembly about how his company had been repeatedly fined heavily by its Dutch allies, and was eventually forced to do so by local companies under pressure from these countries. Acquire businesses in these countries.

Both Monteburg and Werner von Siemens pointed out that in the Siemens case, the evidence submitted to various countries by the Dutch Ministry of Justice at the time included a large number of letters intercepted by the Dutch intelligence agency.

"How can we accept such long-arm jurisdiction? The Netherlands has not suffered any harm. The Siemens case does not involve any Dutch companies, nor does it involve the Netherlands itself. This is Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Greece, Latin American countries, and even the Qing Dynasty. , the Kingdom of Siam, etc., and the German Empire”

Monteburg and Werner von Siemens said: "This is an infringement of the sovereignty of our German Empire, an interference in our corporate activities, and illegal surveillance. In the face of these, the protest voice of our Berlin government is too weak. The political and diplomatic response is far from adequate and is a legitimate infringement on our country."

In addition, Monteborg also accused the Netherlands of manipulating political relations to seize British and German arms sales orders.

"The Netherlands also uses its allies' dependence on the Netherlands for key weapons and equipment as leverage to manipulate their allies,"

Monteborg mentioned such an incident, "In 1873, when Prime Minister Bismarck decided to use the International Court of Justice in The Hague to oppose the Dutch proposal to expand the Dutch training of local government law enforcement courses in South America, we opposed the expansion of the Dutch influence in South America. time. Because the Netherlands controls the supply of spare parts for Germany’s most advanced submarines, the Netherlands unilaterally announced a ban on the German government’s import of spare parts for strategically valuable weapons made in the Netherlands.”

"This is the behavior taken by a foreign country that was known as Germany's "good friend" at that time."

Monteborg said, “The German government said no to the Netherlands in the Council in accordance with the principles of multilateralism organized by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, so our German Empire was sanctioned in the field of defense. This is a political, legal, and economic impact on the sovereignty of our German Empire. interference."

"For the sake of profit, the Netherlands was merciless in stabbing its allies in the back. In 1870, the German Empire originally signed a huge firearms order with Sweden, exporting 10,000 semi-automatic rifles to Sweden, with a contract worth nearly 10 million pounds.

In February 1871, the Nordic Alliance established by the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark plus the Spanish Security Alliance announced that firearms purchases could only come from sleepwalking allies, so the Netherlands became the biggest beneficiary of their three countries' import sources.

Later, Sweden even directly announced that it would cancel the purchase of German goods and instead purchase Dutch products.

What is ridiculous is that when Prime Minister Linden of the Netherlands took office in 1878, he further demanded that allied countries purchase products from the Netherlands, which further suppressed the market share of German military product exports.

The agreement originally reached by the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Spain and other countries has now spread to the Netherlands' global allies.

Therefore, our German arms sales to strengthen global partnerships have been aborted and unsustainable. "

So when we protested against Sweden canceling the order and even recalling the ambassador, nearly 10 years have passed and Sweden has remained indifferent. Obviously our attitude was too low and we turned a blind eye to the Netherlands' seizure of our interests, which made the other side become more and more aggressive. . "

Monteburg, Werner, and von Siemens asked the German government at the Berlin National Assembly of the German Empire to deal more strongly with the threat from the Netherlands and safeguard the interests of the German government and enterprises.

The two men's report was welcomed by the MPs present.

As a result, Germany's desire to be tough on the Netherlands began to spread like wildfire, and the world paid attention.