Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

"Australian Pravda" reported on October 2, 1878 that Dutch Prime Minister Gerrit de Vries announced in the capital Melbourne that day that the Cabinet Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands had launched a national military training plan for all territories of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in order to improve The level of defense in cities and villages everywhere.

The first to participate in the military training for half a month from October 1 to October 15 will be employees of the Dutch national administrative department, and from October 16 to October 31, all people will participate.

The main training subjects include design, emergency medical treatment, explosives handling procedures, how to provide protection under artillery fire and enemy attack environments, etc.

Gerrit de Vries emphasized that such courses are organized in every region of the Netherlands for a period of one month. This is based on the war preparations carried out under the current fact that the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have declared war on each other.

Gerrit de Vries' approach successfully aroused a reaction from the United Kingdom. Later, the United Kingdom also announced similar measures in its homeland and overseas territories, exaggerating the tense atmosphere and the British people did not oppose the Creston government. practice.

Obviously, compared with the British behavior in facing the Dutch challenge that made them unhappy, participating in safety training did not create resistance to them psychologically.

The international community could only be dumbfounded when faced with the actions of the British and Dutch, and secretly and nervously stepped up their defenses to prevent future wars from spilling over.

However, when war seems to be coming more and more, it does not hinder the technological development of the Netherlands and the world.

One day in 1873, a nearly 18-year-old medical student at the University of Sydney was doing experiments in a home laboratory on Pitt Street in Sydney, Australia's largest city. The newly grown child was named William. Henry Perkin wanted to refine a compound of quinine, a drug used to treat malaria. As a result, he accidentally obtained a new precipitate when using potassium dihydrogenate to dehydrogenate allitiamin. After dehydration and alcohol extraction, he saw a brilliant color that no one had ever seen before.

This was the world's first synthetic dye. William Henry Perkin, who was extremely excited, called it "Tyle Red Purple". When he reported his discovery to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, not only the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences was alarmed, but also the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. The three giants, including the Dutch East India Company, the Dutch Far East Group, and the Dutch United Industries Group, all took action upon hearing the news and competed to win over each other.

Obviously, they all saw the huge market value of the new things Perkin discovered.

But in the end, with the final decision of William IV, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences established William Henry Perkin as the youngest academician of the academy, and formed a team to continue to expand the new discovery business and seek more derivatives of the discovery. More development.

At the same time, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences also called this dye the familiar "aniline purple" based on the purple-red color of the mallow flower.

Unexpectedly, three years later, on October 3, 1876, William Henry Perkin's team began commercial production of aniline violet. His team has discovered through research in the past three years and analyzed the above surprising results. His analysis confirmed that treating major aromatic ammonia, such as aniline, with hydrochloric acid or sodium nitrite will produce diazo compounds. These diazo compounds react chemically with phenolic compounds or aromatic amines to produce various colorful products, which Perkin calls azo dyes.

For example, treating aniline with hydrochloric acid or sodium nitrite will produce diazobenzene chloride.

As with other dyes, a basic feature of this diazo reaction is that it produces molecules called chromophores, that is, beams of atoms that absorb light of a specific wavelength and make the final product With unique colors.

Under the demonstration effect of aniline violet discovered by William Henry Perkin, his team subsequently discovered a large number of artificial colors, such as magenta and violet (1873), Lyon color (which Perkin inspired in Lyon, France in 1874). Discovered at that time, so it is called Lyon color), aniline yellow and aniline black (1875). Also discovered in 1876 were dahlia pink, Perkin green, Manchester brown (inspired by Slow Chester in the UK, taken from Local name), Alizarin Red, London Purple, etc.

In January 1876, the team's discovery was commercialized in cooperation with the Dutch United Industries Group for the first time. When the Dutch Post Office used phenylamine purple to print the famous 1 Dutch guilder lilac stamp, it immediately became fashionable in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The beauty its color brings to people is very shocking. Even Britain, France and the German Empire are paying attention.

The Dutch United Industrial Group, which had been prepared for a long time, established two aniline dye companies and appointed Friedrich Bayer as the head of the two companies. This senior skilled immigrant from Germany finally ushered in his career in the Netherlands. At the highlight of his life, he named the two companies Bayer and BASF.

Therefore, in just over two years in 1878, the bright colors immediately captured people's hearts, and the Kingdom of the Netherlands soon became the world's chemical industry center.

By 1878, the scale of the Dutch chemical industry was 20 times that of the United Kingdom, and more than eight times that of the German Empire, a chemical powerhouse. Like the chemical industries of the United Kingdom and the German Empire,

Just like mushrooms springing up after rain, it was precisely because of the full support of the Netherlands after William IV crossed over in 1857 that the Netherlands completely surpassed the former out-of-control chemical industry powers, the German Empire and the United Kingdom, in the chemical industry in the 1860s, laying the foundation for the global The status of the most powerful country in the chemical industry.

Synthetic dyes were led by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences into areas unknown to Europe's previous master dyers, and these companies, part of the Dutch United Industries, refined the wide variety of synthetic and semi-synthetic substances that would later be invented. Modern chemistry breaks the inherent assumptions of various materials that only nature and God can predetermine.

Bayer Company, a subsidiary of the Dutch United Industries Group, first invented the semi-synthetic material celluloid (January 1877) and the semi-synthetic fiber viscose fiber (March 1877). After these two new inventions appeared, Bayer Company and BASF used them to develop acetyl paraben (June 1877), aspirin (September 1878), aspirin, acriflavine and hyacinase.

They announced that they have become a company integrating chemical industry and medical synthetic drugs.

These two companies under the Dutch United Industries Group suddenly became the most high-profile companies in the Netherlands and the world in 1878. Even the Dutch East India Company, which owned Edison, and the Dutch Far East Group, which owned the automobile giant formed by Karl Benz and Dailem, were suppressed a lot of the limelight.

Obviously under the leadership of the Dutch United Industries Group, especially in February 1878, among the new immigrant technicians under the Dutch United Industries Group, Baekeland, Lasch, and Ostrom Mislan invented phenolic plastics and amino acids respectively. After resin and polyurethane, chemistry is not only a science, but also an art and a medicine. Chemical products have become a basic component of material life. In 1877, William IV wore a triphenylmethane jacket. Green nightgown, this is enough to show that synthetic products not only have practicality, but also have aesthetic value.

And billiards (also called billiards) introduced to the world from the Dutch United Industries Group is even more popular all over the world. It is said that this has become a topic that nobles and big capitalists like to talk about when they meet.

William IV had naturally known this for a long time, so although his triphenyl-methane nightgown felt a bit dangerous due to chemical reactions, it also provided a huge free advertisement for the Dutch United Industries Group.

As the Dutch industry has entered the fast track, it has brought about a series of consequences. In the economic field, with the development of currency brokerage, self-sufficient farmers have transformed into farmers with various new needs and desires. Wage earners, consumers and taxpayers.

With the widespread circulation of banknotes, new skills and technologies have emerged in the fields of marketing, advertising and distribution. Breakthroughs in science and technology are coming one after another. Creation and invention are no longer a personal matter of the inventor, but have entered a stage of planned research and development.

People's needs for different levels of financial services have stimulated the emergence of a large number of credit unions, savings banks and insurance companies.

Commercial business also grew significantly, promoting the standardization of weights, measures, and currency.

In the social field of the Netherlands, especially in the Australian continent in the Far East, 90% of the people are new immigrants in the past 20 years or more. Therefore, large-scale urbanization has brought a lot of new problems, forming A series of new social classes were formed, so new public affairs began to be built in various parts of the Netherlands, led by the Australian mainland.

Emerging public affairs include paving roads, urban transportation, and street lighting. With the emergence of electric lights, urban firefighting in order to prevent fires, water supply problems that must be solved under a large population, and densely built new residences causing water blockage on rainy days. Drainage engineering, urban planning, hospitals, parks and police, etc., a series of new occupations or the need to add new positions, etc. In short, the Netherlands has become one of the most watched economies in the world.

There are many countries that imitate the development route of the Netherlands. Among them, the German Empire and the Commonwealth of America are the most serious. Others, Sweden and Denmark, are not far behind, and the United Kingdom, Austria-Hungary, etc. are also selectively learning.

Well, William IV himself felt a little carried away when he saw this.

Now the industrialization of the Netherlands has fueled waves of population migration to the Netherlands. After all, the employment demand gap in the Netherlands is too large. In European countries, the unemployment rate in each country is still generally above 20%. Even the powerful United Kingdom is still at 10%. % up and down, the German Empire may be at 12%

Around 9% for the Commonwealth of the United States, and 25% for the Russian Empire.

Moreover, the jobs in these countries are still low-paying and long-hours. The Netherlands’ 10-hour work day and the highest per capita income in the world have made it a place that the lower class of European society aspires to.

In particular, the Far East of the Netherlands is far away from the war, so it has become a "paradise" in people's imagination.

Perhaps, the American dream of later generations has already happened in the current Dutch dream.