Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

When the Dutch Foreign Minister Joseph Beit hosted the Balkan Summit in Tirana, the capital of Albania on the Balkan Peninsula, and the Speaker of the Dutch House of Commons, Baron Kaslen, hosted the South American Union Summit in Ecuador, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands announced that the Netherlands Industry Minister Joseph Lanka has already set off to visit the Kingdom of Siam, the Qing Dynasty and the Kingdom of Koryo.

It turned out that on May 22, 1881, Joseph Lanka held a meeting with King Rama V Chu Lalongkorn on behalf of William IV in the Kingdom of Siam. After the meeting, Chulalongkorn said, "Siam The Kingdom of Luo will continue to adhere to the alliance between the Netherlands and Siam, and we will support the policies of the Netherlands in diplomacy and military affairs. Yes, I studied at the University of Jakarta in the East Indies back then, and I have a natural affinity for the Netherlands. feel"

The Minister of Lanka announced that the Netherlands will increase investment in the Kingdom of Siam and promote the country's industrialization process.

Surrounded by the Second French Empire and the British Empire in the Southeast Asian peninsula, every move of the Kingdom of Siam, a besieged country, can attract the attention of all countries.

Therefore, the visit of the Minister of Industry of Lanka, the Netherlands, is definitely welcomed and paid attention to.

This also confirms one thing from the side, that is, the Kingdom of Siam is definitely at the forefront of the Netherlands' diplomatic status, and it does not even belong to allies such as Sweden and Denmark, which the Netherlands established long ago.

“Compared with powerful and independent European countries like Sweden and Denmark, the Kingdom of Siam’s geographical location and proximity to the Far East Netherlands make it absolutely the best ally for the Netherlands.

The Kingdom of Siam plays a role in monitoring and defending Britain and France on the Southeast Asian Peninsula for the Netherlands. It can advance, attack, retreat and defend. Therefore, the Kingdom of Siam is very important to the Netherlands."

These were the exact words that the Lankan minister heard from William IV when he was at the Royal Palace in Melbourne, Netherlands.

Therefore, the Lankan Minister did not overlook Chula Longkorn in Bangkok as an envoy of a major power, so the talks between the two were going on happily.

The Lankan Trade Union also agreed that they only stayed in Bangkok, Kingdom of Siam, for two days, and after 15 days of drifting at sea, they had already traveled north to the Qing Dynasty and would meet with Li Hongzhang, the Prime Minister of the Qing Dynasty. The dispute between Britain and the Netherlands Against this background, and because Japan and the UK had just formed an alliance not long ago, this summit attracted great attention from countries such as Britain and Japan, and even the United States on the east coast of the Pacific reported it.

The Times, a newspaper of the British ruling Whig party, published a commentary on June 1, criticizing the upcoming summit on the Balkans for failing to provoke confrontation between the anti-British camp and changing the Dutch way of suppressing British diplomacy. , cannot get rid of the very strong Dutch-style rise of hegemony in a small circle.

The newspaper, which supports the British ruling Whig cabinet government, quoted Greville, a senior official of the British Foreign Office, as saying, "The Netherlands sent the United Kingdom to participate in the Balkan Peninsula Summit. As an important force in the region, the United Kingdom has significant influence. The Netherlands did this. , It is meaningless to hold such a summit. If London does not participate, we will not recognize the results of any summit. Yes, the document results of the summit are not enforceable, and the UK will not agree with it.

Since the beginning of this year, senior Dutch officials have continued to propose weakening the British economy and de-risking the military. Minister Beit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands emphasized in St. Petersburg in May that the core of the Netherlands' British strategy in promoting the future of allies must be economic de-risking. This theme will also remain unchanged at the Balkan Peninsula Summit; the Speaker of the Dutch House of Commons at the South American Union Summit He also expressed the hope that trade transactions between the Dutch allies in South America and the United Kingdom will be reduced to a minimum, because this will help the United Kingdom not give in easily when it wants to put economic pressure on South American countries, and prevent the United Kingdom from attacking the Netherlands. These allies infiltrate and interfere in the domestic affairs of various countries.

Now, during his visits to the Kingdom of Siam, Qing Dynasty and Korea, Dutch Industry Minister Lanka will discuss with senior officials of the three countries to broadly support the adjustment of policy towards Britain and reduce dependence on British economic and industrial technology.

The statements made by high-ranking officials from the Netherlands dealt a comprehensive diplomatic and economic blow to the UK.

On the eve of the Balkans summit, Britain began to fight back.

British Deputy Prime Minister Munger visited Belgium and met with Belgian Leopold II. The two publicly stated that Belgium would not support the United Kingdom and would not make any changes to the Netherlands' win over.

Belgium's statement made the UK feel relieved.

At the same time, later, Munger visited Paris, the capital of the Second French Empire. Munger was received by Napoleon III III, and the two met later. Napoleon III stated that he would not alienate relations with Britain. "Our alliances on both sides of the English Channel will not change. Europe needs harmonious British-French relations."

Napoleon III may have known that France was different from the past, and later stated at a separate press conference, "The Second Empire of France does not oppose the foreign policy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and we will not carry out any attacks on the Netherlands, even though the political center of gravity of the Netherlands has changed." Moving to the Far East, our attitude toward the Netherlands as France’s northern neighbor remains unchanged.”

Obviously, although Napoleon III was not opposed to an alliance with Britain, he was still unwilling to offend the emerging superpower of the Netherlands.

The 73-year-old French emperor is already old. The older he gets, the more afraid of death he is. This is absolutely true. Faced with reality, he compromised.

Although British Deputy Prime Minister Munger was dissatisfied with this, he was helpless.

At the same time, British Foreign Secretary Greville visited Portugal and Italy.

British Prime Minister Gladstone visited the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In addition to the caretaker government of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the three most powerful people in the British cabinet government made a rare trip to the European continent at the same time, which aroused the attention of various countries.

According to the interview with an expert on the British Empire project of the Netherlands Center for Strategic and International Studies, Miedstedt analyzed that in the same year Congo was seeking to normalize relations between the United Kingdom and other European countries through the fulcrum country of the hospital.

When British Foreign Secretary Greville met with King Louis I in Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, he pointed out that the United Kingdom is Europe's partner in facing risks and challenges, and the United Kingdom exports insurance rather than risks to Europe and the world. He called on Portugal and the United Kingdom to stand together and oppose the Dutch slander of de-risking the United Kingdom. Instead, they should strengthen economic relations and political cooperation with the United Kingdom, jointly adhere to the right direction of economic prosperity, and strengthen maritime cooperation between the two countries in the Atlantic. , deeply tap the potential for cooperation, properly resolve each other's important concerns, and jointly maintain the stable semi-ally relationship between Britain and Portugal.

King Louis I of Portugal agreed with this, saying, “Portugal supports many of the British ideas, and also hopes that the British will support Portugal’s right to rule the African colonies and oppose the Dutch penetration of Portuguese colonies in Africa. We have always been against Portugal. Regarding the sovereignty of northern Mozambique, which the Netherlands lost after the African war, we do not believe that the territory allocated to the Netherlands in northern Angola is legitimate and legal. We hope that the Netherlands will return our territory."