Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

April 29, 1881.

London, 10 Downing Street.

British Foreign Secretary Greville faced the righteous speculations of the then British Prime Minister Greville and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Childers: "The reason why Her Majesty did not stop Prince Edward from attacking William IV of the Netherlands.

I guess the main reason is that Britain needs to be multi-faceted in its diplomatic game with the Netherlands, and Crown Prince Edward represents the hawk.

Traditionally, the Conservative Party is also the most vocal about suppressing the Netherlands. Several maritime wars with the Netherlands all occurred during the Tory rule.

But we, the Liberal Whigs, like to appease the Netherlands.

At present, Crown Prince Edward is shouting happily, but the Queen has not instructed us to cooperate. It can be seen that the Queen is currently just using the Crown Prince's provocation as a bottom line to test William IV of the Netherlands.

The purpose is to take action after knowing the bottom line. "

When Gladstone heard this, he saw Childers' silence after hearing this, and Gravell's sigh.

He knew it was his turn to take action, so he said: "Greville is right. Since the dispute between Britain and the Netherlands in the Strait of Malacca in 1876, they have almost always been verbal, and at most they have extended to the economic field.

In the military field, the two countries have not really competed with each other. Even if they competed with each other, except for the incident in Chile, they were looking for proxies to start a war.

From here, it can be said that neither country currently has any intention of directly confronting each other militarily. The UK is concerned that if its navy suffers heavy losses, the ties between its homeland and overseas territories will be broken, resulting in ruling colonies and territories. cause great trouble;

As for the Netherlands, it is possible that the economic and military operations for many years may return to before liberation.

The status of a super-powerful country that it has finally climbed to may decline as a result.

Both Queen Victoria and William IV knew that peaceful confrontation between the two countries was possible, but military confrontation would definitely outweigh the gains and losses, because unlike army confrontation, Britain and the Netherlands were the two most powerful naval countries in the world, both in terms of tonnage and ship quality. Both countries pursue the most advanced technology. If the two countries directly start a war at sea, in the end at least one-third or even half of the ships at sea of ​​the two countries will be sunk and damaged.

After losing more than half of its naval ships, whether it is the United Kingdom or the Netherlands, they will be caught up by France, Germany and other countries behind them, and their status as the top two naval powers will suddenly no longer exist.

By then, with Germany's position as the strongest European army and a navy comparable to the tonnage of Britain and the Netherlands, not to mention technology, the international status of Britain and the Netherlands has dropped sharply. The populations of the two countries alone are not as good as those of the German Empire. Even if they are two The combined population of the country is only less than 10 million more than that of Germany. Such a result is unacceptable to both Britain and the Netherlands."

"Bismarck's show of goodwill to us this time is actually an act of stoking fire between the Anglo-Dutch struggle. The purpose is to allow the Anglo-Dutch war to continue so that Germany can take advantage of it."

The other two people suddenly fell silent after hearing this.

Suddenly, Greville's eyes flickered and said: "The reason why the American Confederacy dares to attack the Netherlands now is the result of Bismarck's efforts to win over Stephen Douglas in the past few years. Before President Lincoln, he began to use Germans to balance the Dutch, which was quite successful. , but in the end the Germans were very ambitious and tried to put the Germans in power, but unfortunately they were suppressed by the Dutch in the end.

Now Bismarck is repeating his old tricks and taking action directly among the Dutch. Obviously, the Germans have impure intentions.

No wonder Republican presidential elector Garfield quickly gained a large number of supporters from the Republican Party under the guise of opposing Stephen's suppression of Dutch people. "

"It has been almost 20 years since Bismarck came to power as Prime Minister of the German Empire in 1862. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Kingdom of Prussia rose to become the largest power in Europe. Bismarck's role is definitely comparable to that of William I.

They don’t think he is a kind person, so Bismarck is regarded by Viscount Palmerston as one of Britain’s biggest opponents.”

Childers was new to the topic, so he had no experience with the famous strong British prime minister of the time, Maurice Mauston, so he asked in confusion: "Is it just Bismarck? Why didn't he regard William IV as opponent?"

Greville was the secretary of the Prime Minister's Office at No. 10 Downing Street during the period of Viscount Palmerston, so he knew this very well. He said: "Viscount Palmerston said back then that although the Kingdom of the Netherlands has a competitive relationship with the United Kingdom, The United Kingdom is disadvantageous, but the Netherlands is naturally a sea-power country like the United Kingdom. One of the characteristics of that country is that it will never allow land-power countries to emerge as the most powerful country on the Eurasian continent, the largest island in the world. Overlord, in that case, the path of the Netherlands and Britain to become powerful countries will come to an end.

Therefore, the fundamental conflict of interests between the Netherlands and Britain is actually not the biggest compared to the German Empire and the Tsarist Russian Empire. The latter two are the common enemies between Britain and the Netherlands."

Gladstone: "German William I and Bismarck knew this. I am convinced that perhaps, William I and Her Majesty Queen Victoria also had a certain stop-loss point for the damage between the two countries. That's not sure."

Greville said: "Your Excellency Prime Minister, in the current secret war between Germany and the Netherlands within the United States, do we really support Germany?"

Gladstone: "Currently, many pro-Dutch officials and congressmen in the United States have criticized Stephen Douglas's anti-Dutch remarks and actions. We must first understand the background of the speaker.

In the Commonwealth of America, voices criticizing Stephen Douglas generally came from three aspects. One was the pro-Dutch capitalists within the Democratic Party and their workers or, more simply, the beneficiaries.

The second is the two-party immigrants who have good relations with the Kingdom of the Netherlands and immigrate to the country of the United States. The third is the supportive voice under the pro-Dutch momentum planned within the Republican Party.

With their support, Garfield can of course speak high-sounding words about the friendship between the United States and the Netherlands. In the struggle between the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, the Dutch side of these pro-Dutch factions within the United States is an open secret. There is definitely a political divide between anti-Dutch and pro-Dutch political stances in America right now in this country's parliamentary votes. But no matter what, no one will really antagonize the Netherlands after coming to power. They must look at the overall situation of the United States.

Look at the recent past year in the United States, more than two-thirds of the members of the House of Representatives and the Senate have visited Melbourne, the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is not because of Stephen Douglas’s anti-Dutch attitude and Galfield’s pro-Dutch attitude, but because they believe that this is in line with the republic. "made in the interests of the Party or the Democratic Party or even the United States."

At the end of the day, British Prime Minister Gladstone said astonishingly: "So, as the old saying goes in Britain, superficial enemies are not eternal enemies. Where our interests are, that is where our friends exist, including the Netherlands." kingdom""