Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

On April 30, 1862, Napoleon III of the French Empire stood up and accused the Leopold family: "The people in the French-speaking and Dutch-speaking areas of Belgium have legitimate demands for chaos. For example, Leopold I's long-term The pursuit of self-rule, Prime Minister Orban's political corruption, and the inability to improve the economy and people's livelihood, etc., but these demands pale in comparison to the cold reality of politics.

As long as the British Empire steps in to endorse the Belgian royal family and cabinet, this riot will be difficult to sustain. Although the Belgian government may make certain changes after the riot, on the whole, it is difficult to be dissatisfied with the current demonstrators. dianfu. "

Following him, Herman Van Peyron instantly became the world's top current affairs commentator once an opinion piece was published in the European Times, and became the highest-paid person for articles invited by top newspapers around the world.

He said that it was not just His Majesty Napoleon III who made such negative comments about Great Britain and Belgium. Comments from the international community also mostly pointed to the toughness and bellicosity of the British Empire, the confrontation between the British Empire and the Three Kingdoms Alliance, and even the confrontation with the public opinion of the entire Europe. However, they have ignored an important issue reflected in this crisis, that is, British expansionism is not only overseas, but also in Europe. The British Empire is also quietly rising and gaining more and more power in Europe.

Recently, the situation in northern and southern Belgium has heated up again. On the one hand, the Netherlands and France are amassing large-scale forces on the border between the two countries and Belgium, and are supporting the pro-Dutch local governments and armed forces in the north and the pro-French forces in the south.

On the other hand, France, the Netherlands, Prussia and other countries that were dissatisfied with Great Britain issued a strong warning to the British Empire's intention to send troops to Belgium, and the previous Leopold I was also actively preparing for war.

The situation became tighter and tighter. For a time, Belgium was covered with war clouds, and a large-scale war was likely to break out, which attracted great attention from European countries and even the Americas and other continents.

Communities in various countries are commenting on the toughness and expansion of maritime hegemony of Great Britain, and the staged confrontation between the three countries of France, the Netherlands and Great Britain, but they have ignored an important issue reflected in this crisis.

The expansionism of the British Empire is an important and rising political force in the United Kingdom today. They are called ultranationalists in the British Isles, and are also commonly known as the "Emperor". They advocate the expansion of the British Empire. The United Kingdom should establish a jurisdiction on the European continent to limit the invasion of the British Isles by European countries. In other parts of the world, we should try our best to prevent European powers from participating in carving up colonies and regain the superimposed glory of Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands.

Important members of the current establishment of the British Empire, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gladstone and Deputy Leader of the Opposition Tory Party Disraeli, are both representatives of the Imperial British Organization.

Disraeli claimed that Great Britain should go all the way westward and stop where the native Americans spontaneously opposed us. The remaining land would not be ours.

Creston believes that we should go all the way east and attack all countries until our feet tremble when we see the Union Jack flag. This will prove that we can now dominate the world and that Great Britain has become the greatest global power.

This is not just a slogan, but a goal that is already being achieved. It was under the instigation of the two-party administrations of Creston and Disraeli that the older generation of "royals" in Great Britain initiated actions to support the independence of Belgium and Italy in order to weaken Great Britain's opponents. Strength, in preparation for a certain period in the future when Great Britain can invade these weak countries with minimal cost. These actions were implemented and achieved considerable success.

However, it also seriously worsened the relations between Britain, the Netherlands, Britain, Russia, and Britain. In the past few years, Great Britain's actions in Norway even angered Sweden. These actions of Great Britain and Britain intensified the confrontation between Great Britain and the Eastern European powers, leading to the further expansion of the British Empire in Europe. The mainland power is isolated.

The rise of the imperial power, represented by Creston and Disraeli, who have now begun to take over from the older generation of "imperial", is the reason why Great Britain has experienced rapid economic development, highly centralized politics, and the pride of the people and the royal family. A chemical created by synchronizing with the cabinet.

As the Netherlands was defeated by the British Empire in the 17th and 18th centuries, Great Britain gained hegemony over the North Atlantic, including the North Sea in Northern Europe. Then it invaded North America, driving away the Netherlands and France in southern Europe, which had already established a sphere of influence there, and finally occupied it alone. The entire North American continent.

At this time, they were facing the Spanish Empire, the largest maritime overlord in the South Atlantic, because Spain also occupied Latin America in the South Atlantic.

Because the two countries had won and lost many wars in the 17th century, they were secretly going back and forth to weaken each other's strength.

Spain's strength made Britain wary and stopped in North America. However, Spain and France's hatred of Great Britain was only supported by the United States during the period of independence. The strategic intention was also realized by the United States, because the establishment of the United States cut across Great Britain. The dream of going south to Latin America, an American country that hates Great Britain, has caused the British Empire to stop in Canada.

It was under such circumstances that the emperors and heroes urgently needed comfort and spiritual sustenance. The setbacks in North America also made them full of hostility.

As a result, the British Empire expanded eastward, and the Indian subcontinent became Great Britain's target.

In the end, it drove away the forces of Portugal, Spain and even the Netherlands, and dominated the Indian subcontinent by itself, becoming the crown jewel of Great Britain.

However, because of this, as Great Britain's offshore balancing hand has been successful many times, it has benefited more and more. However, the European countries are not fools, so as the situation in Belgium becomes more and more troubled, the European countries generally turn to open up. The distance between it and the British Empire felt like a thorn in its back.

In this context, the cabinets of the leaders of the two parties who were in power with stronger policies both aimed at the glory of the empire and began to use the rising national minzu as a source of votes. They tried to gain domestic influence through external expansion and use it to influence domestic elections. A national shot in the arm to heal those at the bottom of society in lost Great Britain.

There are many well-known supporters of Huang Ying's thought. The famous writer Dickens is one of them, and there are many other celebrities.

It is worth noting that the British Prime Minister, Viscount Palmerston, is not a 100% "royal", but an iron man with a strong pragmatist style.

Viscount Palmerston in Paris. Now, his heart is full of anger. He is angry about what happened in Belgium and everything happened too suddenly. Did King Leopold I die like this?

Queen Victoria must have been furious, right?

Also, what does France mean?

He actually chose to add fuel to the fire to Belgium during the negotiations, while he was still negotiating with the heads of government of several of their countries in Paris. This was obviously to increase the bargaining chip.

What puzzles Viscount Palmerston the most is that the Netherlands has actually formed an alliance with Sweden. Is this really what the newspaper reports said, is the Netherlands just to embolden themselves in negotiations?

These revealed too many things that he couldn't understand, so that now he was somewhat confused about the purposes of various countries and where the bottom lines were.

"This negotiation has been the most difficult negotiation I have ever had in the diplomatic community."

When he thought of the domestic situation, he couldn't help but think of the 'Huangying' organization that was giving him a headache.

Palmerston was not in favor of waging war; he preferred to defend Great Britain's existing territories and counter the growing influence of the European continent. But he also had to accept some of the propositions of 'Huang Ying' in order to gain support from the 'Huang Ying' forces.

With the two parties now confirmed to be overtime workers Creston and Disraeli as core members of the 'Royal British' organization, the power of the 'Royal British' will further rise, and Palmerston is sometimes unable to control it. , even Russell privately complained to others that 'Huang Ying' was too powerful.

Just like the evolution of the situation in Belgium this time, if he were to handle it with full power, he would definitely jump out of this circle first and then disrupt the situation as a neutral. Only in this way can he intervene in the situation in Belgium legitimately, instead of like now. , was actually forced to stand with Belgium and became the target of condemnation from various European countries.

In particular, sending troops to land on the European continent is a bad move. Doing it without talking and talking without doing it will lead to very different results.

To a certain extent, Huangying disobeyed Viscount Palmerston's policy of slowing down peace in Belgium and not expanding the policy. The right thing to do is to take things slowly. They forced Viscount Palmerston to finally admit during the negotiations that his policy of supporting Belgium made him passive in the negotiations.

In order to avoid further pushing the situation into an irreversible situation, he did not want to further confront the Western European countries. It seemed that when he returned to the country this time, he would tighten the power of the imperialists.

"It's time to end the negotiations," Viscount Palmerston murmured eagerly.

On May 1, 1862, the French Empire officially sent troops to the three southern provinces. The United Kingdom protested, Brussels condemned, the Netherlands welcomed it, Prussia was silent, and other European countries were also silent.

On May 2, the Netherlands also sent troops to the northern provinces of Limburg and Antwerp. This time, the United Kingdom even summoned the Dutch ambassador, protesting in person at Downing Street and stating that the British Empire would take action against the Netherlands at any time to show support. Belgian move.

On May 3, 1862, Gorchakov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire, visited the Netherlands. The two countries announced that they would hold more naval exercises between the two countries in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, and invited Sweden, Prussia, and France and Austria as the Observing as an observer, the naval exercise is codenamed Cobra Naval Exercise.

The two countries also announced.