Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

After sending these two people away, William IV looked at the anxious Hesbert Feng and the rock-solid Tolbeck.

"My Foreign Secretary, tell me about your worries. Every time you worry, don't you notice? You try to straighten your left hand as much as possible, but the middle, ring, and little fingers of your right hand are curled back, and the nails are inserted directly into your own. palm"

Looking at the deliberately weird expressions of the other people, Haysbet Feng smiled bitterly.

"Your Majesty is still so humorous"

So I explained my worries in full.

William IV pretended to think deeply for a moment, and then said: "So, are you worried that Napoleon III or Viscount Palmerston will be difficult to persuade?"

"Only His Majesty would say this. As far as I'm concerned, none of them are easy to get along with. They are both dangerous people," Haysbet Feng replied.

"My Prime Minister, do you also think they are difficult to deal with?"

"Of course it's hard to convince."

Tolbeck affirmed, looking at Hesbert Feng's relaxed look at being recognized.

And William IV looked like he was waiting to hear your explanation. He felt the helplessness of being a subordinate. Of course, he would never have the following thoughts. As a man with the glorious traditional spirit of knights in the Netherlands, Trust Erbeck has always believed that this is the self-evaluation of his proudest character.

Hesbert von looked at the Dutch Prime Minister with sympathetic eyes. He finally knew that the most talkative person in the Netherlands did not succeed in the election of Dutch Prime Minister Tolbeck with his mouth, nor did he rely on his mouth to talk to the world. He is the foreign minister who fights for every inch of territory for the sake of national interests, but his immediate boss is the King of the Netherlands, William IV. This is the person who hides deeply.

However, it is obvious that Prime Minister Tobelk has already had this awareness, but no one had informed him until just now.

So he looked at him with resentment and gloating.

"Actually, not to mention other territorial issues, the Kingdom of Greece is located in the eastern Mediterranean. Today's Ottoman Turkey is no longer the huge country that stretched across the Mediterranean coast. It has become a sick man among powerful countries. They even For the most basic battleships, orders were slowly transferred to Britain, France and other countries.

Since they had even the most basic gunpowder provided by European countries, and even many of their army's instructors came from these two countries, the weak had the characteristics of frightened birds.

Therefore, we had no choice but to agree to the separation of the Kingdom of Greece from Ottoman Turkey, and it was signed by Britain, France and Russia.

Naturally, the three countries would not sign casually. The reasons were all for the common goal of suppressing the influence and strength of the Ottomans in the eastern Mediterranean. Therefore, they finally chose Prince Otto, the second son of the King of Bavaria from the German Confederation and a supporter of the Austrian Empire. king. "

When William IV heard this, he suddenly sighed, that was the Ottoman Empire!

This was such a powerful country in the past. It has maintained its status as a powerful country in Europe and Asia for more than 500 years. This is such a powerful country, but now it has become a grasshopper in the autumn. It may be asked about the fate of being fried at any time. But now we are being cut off one territory after another like a human being, so what’s the difference?

He couldn't help but think of the words of Churchill, the later Prime Minister of the British Empire: Europe is waiting for the death of the Ottoman Empire, but year after year, the empire is unwilling to die, and its weak hands are still holding on to the huge family fortune. Let go!

In fact, he had discussed in detail with Crown Prince Mohammed of Ottoman Turkey before that the Netherlands' interests in Ottoman Turkey were protected by the other party, and the Netherlands would also introduce new technologies to the country, such as gunpowder and firearms.

The emergence of the latest Mauser guns in the Netherlands has caused hundreds of thousands of old guns in the hands of the Netherlands to be eliminated. The Ottoman Empire is a recycling bin that the Netherlands is preparing to use to eliminate these weapons, and will get a huge sum of money back for the Netherlands. The funds returned to the Philippines can be used by the national defense team to develop new weapons.

At that time, I started to take a long-term approach to fishing for big fish. Today’s good fortune is for tomorrow’s love. Therefore, the Ottoman Turks wanted them to support William III's rise to power, but he was very confident.

As for Napoleon III, he was an ambitious guy, but the sad thing was that in almost all of his diplomatic actions, except for the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Austrian War, where he bet correctly, he lost everything else, including Prussia later. He chose to sit back and watch the 1863 war with the Kingdom of Denmark and the 1866 German Confederation leadership war between Prussia and the Austrian Empire. Only in the end did he discover that the combat power of the Kingdom of Prussia had grown to be almost the same as that of France.

What was originally thought to be a win-win situation for France ended up being a bitter fruit. In 1870, Prussia sent its troops south, and Paris was trampled under the feet of William I within a few days.

"Try to put pressure on other countries, such as Württemberg, Saxony and the Kingdom of Hanover. At the same time, notify our embassies in each country and ask them to all enter a state of requiring countries to support His Majesty William III to take the throne of the Kingdom of Greece. At the same time, let France Dutch Embassy next door”

"Your Majesty, you have forgotten that Archduke Carl Alexander of the Grand Duchy of Saxony is your biological uncle; and the Duchy of Württemberg is the natal family of your mother, Queen Mother Sophie."

"And the Queen of Sweden Carl XV is our cousin. Of course I know. I'm just thinking about how to find reasons to get them to support more directly and automatically."

. . . . . .

North America, the United States, the White House.

President Lincoln, Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, Secretary of State William Henry Seward, Secretary of War Edwin McMasters Stanton, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Portland Chase and the Post Office Secretary Montgomery Blair and several others were preparing for the news that they had just received, which made everyone present extremely depressed. Someone had taken one step ahead of the United States and occupied the Hawaiian Islands in the center of the Pacific Ocean, which the United States had been thinking about for a long time.

"Look, you've pushed too hard, and now you've finally had the opposite effect.

Mr. President, I have said it before. We are currently fighting a civil war with the South. This is not the time for a real large-scale westward expansion. But now our beloved Secretary of State, Mr. Seward, is desperately trying to get there. In the past, this was a very demoralizing thing for the Northern Alliance fighting on the front line. If it was not handled well, the civil war in the United States would very likely have a poker-like effect in Europe, and the leader, Maybe it’s the Kingdom of the Netherlands that everyone now thinks stole the meat from our bowl.”

Lincoln's running mate in 1858, Hannibal Hamlin, the current Vice President of the United States, did not sound very friendly when he opened his mouth, and his target was directly pointed at the leader in charge of foreign relations, the current Secretary of State Seward of the United States.

The reason is that the Hawaiian Islands, which the United States has been thinking about for a long time, were actually launched on February 16, 1862 by the Pacific Fleet of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Hawaii. The fleet marched straight in and completed the 8 Hawaiian Islands in just a few hours. All the occupation was carried out, and the news of the blockade was implemented. It was not until the American merchant ship returned from the great merchant empire on the west coast of the Pacific that morning that it realized something was wrong, and after hard work, it finally got all of Hawaii. The Dutch used means to make the King of Hawaii agree to the Dutch decision. incorporated and became part of the Netherlands.

He also made use of the fast message delivery function of the sixth-level battleship without stopping, and completed the delivery to the West Coast within a few days. The news was delivered to Lincoln in the White House this morning by telegram.

William Henry Seward felt that he was really unjust. When President Lincoln asked the entire team to face other countries, they needed to speak harder and not lose our position. As a result, the United States had previously been in trouble with the Hawaii issue. He directly had bad relations with the British Empire and France, and also had fundamental conflicts with King Kamehamehe of the Hawaiian Islands many times, making the latter more wary and causing complications, which made things go beyond his expectations.

The Netherlands, Europe's second-tier power, actually reached out to Hawaii, which had to be a shock to him.

Seward has always been the central figure of expansionism in the White House of the United States. His expansionism is mainly divided into the idea of ​​building a Pacific Rice Empire. This so-called empire, to put it simply, is a business empire centered on Asia and the Pacific.

Seward also believes that although the civil war between the north and the south in the United States is currently going on like a fire, this is just a small disaster before the United States rises from the ashes.

As long as you get through it safely, the road ahead will be smooth.

"President, we cannot lose Hawaii. This is related to our future construction of a Pacific power and a business empire centered on Asia and the Pacific. As long as the United States' expansion is completed, the next goal is the Pacific and the Far East.

However, for these two places, the main method of expansion is commercial expansion rather than territorial expansion. The means of expansion are trade and not force. Warships are by no means capable of being used only as successful envoys abroad. "

When President Lincoln saw this, he didn't really follow Vice President Hannibal Hamlin's lead in criticizing Seward. He was just angry. Anyone else who encountered this would not be in a good mood. stand up.

Finance Minister Salmon Portland Chase and Postmaster General Montgomery Blair looked at each other, and then the former said: "Your Excellency, I think this matter is not just about the Netherlands wanting to take over Hawaii. This matter is very important to the United States." Look, we should think about the problem at a deeper level."

What's the meaning?

Seward suddenly felt bad, but couldn't find a place where he wanted to be.

So, he stared closely at Salmon Portland.

The latter glanced at him without fear, and then smiled at Hannibal Hamlin, expressing his goodwill. After the latter nodded in agreement, he said like a gentleman: "The whole of Europe has been watching us and The internal strife of the Confederacy, they were carrying out various actions, for example."

"When we tested the attitude of the international community on November 8, last year, it was at your request, Secretary of State, that the US warships intercepted the British Empire Mail Ship 'Trent' and imprisoned two people who were about to rush to the British Empire. Confederate envoy."

Salmon Portland's eloquence was so good that everyone, including Lincoln, listened with rapt attention.

Chapter 2, please continue to support me.