Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

Chapter 828 Naval-Military Exercises Around the British Isles

The disputes between Britain and the Netherlands in the Far East and America, with the Dutch Prime Minister Linden choosing to hold naval warships and submarines in Amsterdam and Rotterdam for water-based military exercises, and hosting more than a division of 10,000 army coastal defense operations in the coastal zone.

In addition, the Dutch Ministry of Defense also announced that it would also dispatch the Southern Army to rehearse French and Belgian offensive and defensive exercises on the southern borders of the Netherlands with France and Belgium.

Obviously, the Anglo-Dutch conflict from outside Europe finally returned to Europe.

Nordic.

"The Netherlands is an ally of Denmark, and we support the Dutch approach. Therefore, Copenhagen will not watch its allies fall into the danger of war. Denmark will send more than 1,000 troops and three warships to participate in the Netherlands' North Sea exercises."

On October 27, 1880, when asked about Denmark's attitude towards the Dutch exercises, King Christian IX of Denmark directly announced the above news in Copenhagen.

On October 27, 1880, Sweden, another ally of the Netherlands, also announced that it would send troops and warships no smaller than Denmark to participate in the Dutch exercises.

King Oscar II of Sweden said directly in Stockholm: "Sweden, as a strong ally of the Netherlands, will not give up helping the Netherlands. Of course, I believe that William IV and the Dutch allies will also when Sweden faces an external invasion. Make the same decision"

In addition to the above military strength, Oscar II said that Sweden and Denmark have formed a joint mission and have sent senior foreign ministry officials to Australia to visit Melbourne, the capital of the Netherlands. Sweden will personally express to the Dutch allies that Sweden and Denmark will not give up on signing an alliance with the Netherlands. promise.

Meanwhile, Southern Europe.

The Spanish government, an ally of the Netherlands, said it would send troops to Amsterdam in Europe, the Netherlands, to participate in naval and army exercises.

Spain's response was concise, but it made Britain and France feel a sinking feeling.

If the participation of Denmark and Sweden in the Dutch joint exercises in Northern Europe made the UK somewhat unconcerned, or at best angry, then the participation of Spain will make the UK feel increased pressure on its shoulders.

The Swedish navy can't even make it into the top ten, and Denmark is slightly better, just making it into the top ten.

As for the army, Denmark now has only 3 million people, and Sweden has only 5 million people.

The total conventional armies of the two countries are only 300,000. Denmark 100,000 and Sweden 200,000. Of course, the military strength of all the people does not count.

The United Kingdom has a population of 3,500, which is more than four times that of these two countries, not to mention the 20 million people in France under Napoleon's rule and the 1.5 million people in Belgium. The Netherlands in Europe has a population of 2.4 million.

These are huge population base gaps.

But Spain is different. Spain currently has a population of 27 million and an army of 350,000. Its navy is still second only to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, and is tied for third in the world with the Napoleon III regime in northern France after the division.

The joining of Spain is definitely a threat to the British mainland that is serious enough to make the people worried.

Therefore, Spain's participation in the exercise immediately made the United Kingdom passive.

Just when London was worrying about this, a lot of news came again.

Greece in the eastern Mediterranean will send an observation team to Amsterdam, but the Greek government said it would like the Netherlands and Britain to resolve the conflict peacefully.

But what is obviously clear is that Greece still favors the Netherlands.

It seems that Greece is taking the lead.

After Greece, the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Serbia also stated that they would send observation teams to St. Petersburg to observe the exercises like Greece, and their positions were obviously biased.

The British hated this so much that British Foreign Minister Greville summoned the heads of the embassies of Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Greece, the Russian Empire, and Serbia in London to protest against the other country's participation in the joint exercise in the Netherlands. action.

“The British Empire is opposed to Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Greece, Tsarist Russia, Serbia and other countries participating in a series of anti-British actions. We have no ill will towards these countries, but we do not want them to harbor any ill will towards the British presence.

The UK will continue to support other countries in developing friendly relations with the UK, and will also be prepared to counterattack when countries take actions that harm the UK's interests. "

Just do what you say. On October 30, 1880, Britain announced that in addition to holding joint exercises with France in the English Channel, Britain would also conduct joint naval exercises with the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Bulgaria in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The United Kingdom claimed that this was created to safeguard British dignity, but the Ottoman Empire seemed unwilling to offend the Netherlands, so Constantinople stated that it would not act hostilely against any country. Constantinople had friendly relations with the Netherlands, and there was no Ottoman Empire. The theory that the empire was against the Dutch.

Although the Kingdom of Bulgaria received support from the United Kingdom to become independent from the Ottoman Empire, and even the royal family was in-laws from the United Kingdom, it was unwilling to directly confront the Netherlands. The Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs even summoned the Dutch ambassador to personally tell the Dutch ambassador about Bulgaria's attitude of not opposing the Netherlands.

The sudden softness of these countries put the UK on embarrassing alert.

At the same time, in Paris, Britain's loyal ally of the French Empire, many people took to the streets to express Napoleon III's endless support for the British approach.

"We are not British lackeys, let alone British slaves. The French Empire is a great nation. We should have our own foreign policy, instead of doing whatever the British do. So we are opposed to Paris getting too close to London."

"Yes, Britain's purpose is to maintain maritime hegemony. The Netherlands and France have been allies for a long time. In 1865, they even occupied colonies in Africa. However, they later became friendly with Britain and fell out with the Netherlands. From then on, France began to move towards Decline. What we need most now is to re-rise the French Empire, not to safeguard British hegemonic interests."

“Yes, Paris needs to start today on its own diplomatic path and not follow others”

The scene in Paris suddenly made Europe boil. Let there be a political earthquake in London and the people are shocked.

Britain is now almost alone, and its allies are unwilling to express strong support, which is bound to make the British, who have always been proud, feel frustrated.

After all, the Netherlands has allowed its allies to stand up one after another for firm support.

In the past, if the British navy was the dominant force, it could use battleship gunfire to change the attitudes of various countries in supporting the Netherlands. However, now that the Netherlands has risen, it has relied on submarines + battleships to confront the British battleship division at sea.

With the help of its minions and allies in Spain, Sweden, and Denmark, Britain was threatening.

At this moment, Amsterdam, the headquarters of this joint exercise in the Netherlands, suddenly leaked a piece of news for some unknown reason, which shocked Europe: the most important part of this exercise turned out to be a joint multinational naval exercise, which was scattered around the British Isles. .

How can the British tolerate this?