Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

On December 18, 1878, Dutch Prime Minister Gerrit de Vries, a member of the Liberal Party, interacted with party workers and volunteers after giving a speech at the headquarters of the Liberal Party National Committee in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, on Monday.

Because Gerrit does not have the strong appeal of Tolibek, and because his governance has recently been blocked by the Socialist Party and the Christian Party in the country, his personal support rate continues to decline, which has also affected the Liberal Party's performance in the past week. Voting enthusiasm had a negative impact on the Liberal Party's chances of winning.

Although the Liberal Party currently controls both houses of Congress, if there is a Waterloo-like failure in the nine provinces and cities of mainland Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania in the future, then in the future mid-term elections of 1880, Elections for governors in the overseas provinces and for members of parliament throughout the Netherlands would have a chilling effect. There may be a one-sided bias towards the Christian and Socialist parties.

At that time, as long as the alliance used population as the standard number for the House of Representatives, after all, the population of the nine provinces and cities in mainland Australia accounted for most of the Dutch whites. Therefore, the House of Representatives was based on a unit of 100,000 and one representative. The representatives of these population areas would As the governor fell into their hands and followed into their pockets.

If this is true, it will make it impossible for the Liberal Party to block the legislative agenda of the coalition government of the Christian Party and the Socialist Party in the future. Checking and balancing them will bring the agenda to a standstill.

It is even less possible to force them to compromise with the Liberal Party on some policies.

In addition, the Liberals will almost certainly halt bills in the House Select Committee that favor the influence of the Liberal Party, and in turn introduce bills that strengthen the influence of the alliance.

The results of this election are currently unclear, but it will definitely split the Dutch Parliament. The Liberal Party, which currently barely controls the House of Representatives and the Senate with a slim majority, may even lose control of both houses with a high probability.

If the Senate is also won in the future, the Liberal Party will lose the possibility of blocking the Christian Party and the Socialist Party from appointing top Dutch judges and important cabinet officials, making this coalition government a lame duck.

Buckingham Palace, members of the royal family are discussing this.

In the royal living room, Queen Victoria, Prince Edward, Prince Alfred, and Princess Beatrice were sitting.

Prince Arthur is serving in South Africa, Prince Leopold is studying for a doctorate at the University of Edinburgh, and Princess Alice is not at the palace because she is married to Duke of Algae IX.

"This election will have more of an impact on Dutch domestic affairs than foreign policy."

Queen Victoria said to her second daughter and Princess Beatrice, who replaced several older sisters as the Queen's personal secretary: "If the Christian Party and the Socialist Party control nine provinces and cities, and the Prime Minister is lost, then the Liberal Party will be in the next four years. It will be difficult to turn around, and in the congressional election, he will be suppressed by the other party and unable to move."

Princess Beatrice nodded and said: "Yes, as long as the Christian Party and the Socialist Party don't make fatal mistakes, then the Liberal Party needs to stay dormant."

Crown Prince Edward said: "The Netherlands is currently in a mess, but it is time for us to launch more attacks in South America. Mother, I think this is the time to advance our relations with Argentina and send more correct warships to Puerto Montt in southern Chile. I even think that we should send more land soldiers from South Africa to support Chile. If we lose Chile, then although we will have the support of Argentina in the future, it will be difficult to ensure that we maintain control of the Strait of Magellan."

He sternly said: "We must ensure that Southern Chile is under our control, otherwise we may lose control of several key maritime straits that the UK depends on for survival. At present, the Netherlands has been eyeing the Strait of Malacca earlier, and now it is obvious that it has a deliberate intention. The Strait of Magellan shared by Chile and Argentina. Obviously, the Netherlands has launched an attack on our fundamental interests. We must fight back against them, otherwise they will think that we are soft on them."

"I do not agree with your statement, His Royal Highness, Prince Edward."

Unexpectedly, Prince Alfred interrupted at this time: "I have always been very vigilant in dealing with the Dutch helping Northern Chile to attack Southern Chile, and the anti-Dutch opposition in Argentina, especially President Miter of Argentina. , this person has been up and down in Argentine politics for decades, and finally succeeded with the help of the Netherlands. Now that Argentina has truly become a major country in South America, it has kicked the Netherlands away in one fell swoop. I don’t think we should invest in him with such character and morality. Too many, be careful we become the next Netherlands”

Upon hearing this, Crown Prince Edward showed an angry face and glared at the other party.

Prince Alfred, currently the Duke of Edinburgh, is second in line to the British throne after him and can be said to pose the greatest threat to his status.

What's more important is that his younger brother's wife has a good background.

On January 23, 1874, this younger brother married Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, the second daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia (the eldest daughter died young and was the only surviving daughter) at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. ,

On March 12, he and his wife returned to London.

This sister-in-law was somewhat arrogant. She was dissatisfied with her status being below that of Prince Edward's wife Princess Gisela and other princesses. Finally, she insisted that her status must be above that of Edward, the wife of Crown Prince Edward, the Princess of Wales, because she and his His father, Alexander II, believed that Princess Gisela, the second daughter of Franz Joseph I of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, whom Crown Prince Edward married in 1873 (the eldest daughter also died young, but had a younger daughter), was not as good as her family background. Queen Victoria herself declined the offer, but initially agreed to elevate her status to that of Princess Charlotte, Princess of Wales.

Crown Prince Edward was very dissatisfied at first, but he did not expect that later the Russian Emperor Alexander gave his daughter a huge dowry of 100,000 pounds, and also gave her an annual grand duchess allowance of 28,000 pounds, which can be said to make Prince Edward It's very uncomfortable. Because of this, the two brothers are currently at odds with their respective wives, so the brothers have reached the point of falling out.

No, the two started to quarrel again.

Of course, behind the two wives' backs, both the Russian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire cast spells to fight.

Seeing this, Princess Beatrice hurriedly said: "When dealing with the Netherlands, I think we should not only pay attention to South America, but also pay attention to other places, such as the Strait of Malacca just mentioned by Brother Edward, but Africa and Europe The edge should also be the object of our attention.”

Having said this, with Queen Victoria nodding in agreement, she said to Crown Prince Edward: "Brother, the Austro-Hungarian Empire is currently distanced from the Netherlands because of my sister-in-law's marriage to you. This was the original separation between the Netherlands and Austria in 1873. After Hungary approaches, our main purpose is."

After she finished speaking, she said to Prince Alfred: "The marriage of my brother and his second sister-in-law also made His Majesty Alexander choose not to fully support the Netherlands, which is very beneficial to us."

Finally, she said: "So, our current goal is to suppress the Netherlands. The two brothers should not cause more trouble."