Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

German Empire, Berlin Palace.

"Britain's aggressive posture made the Netherlands and Tsarist Russia realize that they must give up their previous reservations and concerns and jointly deal with threats and challenges from Britain and other allies. This was originally the situation that the UK least wanted to see, but the Gladstone government and the former The Disraeli government did it half-heartedly."

Bismarck hated the way that iron cannot become steel.

William I was also extremely helpless. "Today, the Netherlands and Tsarist Russia are basically on equal terms. The Tsarist Russian Empire has experienced many defeats in the Crimean War and was defeated by Britain, France, Ottoman Italy, etc., and its scenery is no longer what it was in the early 1850s, while the Netherlands in the 18th and 19th centuries At the beginning of the century, after four naval wars with Britain, the first two were won, the third was tied, and the fourth was lost, and the country was almost destroyed.

The country was founded again in 1815. Now, after four generations of Dutch kings and more than 60 years of struggle, it has fully risen and is fully qualified to be on an equal footing with the Tsarist Russian Empire. This has provided an unprecedented foundation for the Dutch-Russian unity. . "

Old Moltke nodded and said: "Yes, William IV is not his great-grandfather William I and great-grandfather William II. Without their gratitude to the Russian Empire for supporting the restoration of the Netherlands, he also lacked William I's dissatisfaction with the Russian Empire's support during the period. British resentment for splitting Belgium from the Netherlands.

William IV was a very pragmatic person. This time the Netherlands and Tsarist Russia faced British oppression and would definitely strengthen mutual trust and mutual assistance. The prospects for them to be more than allies are limitless, and will have a huge and immeasurable impact on future international relations and the global power structure. "

Looking at the history of more than 300 years of exchanges between the Netherlands and the Russian Empire, it can be said that the two countries are natural allies. Whenever they encounter external challenges, they will naturally join forces to provide warmth.

The Netherlands would keep a backup of its capital in the Tsarist Empire, and the Tsarist Empire acquired advanced European technology in the Netherlands under the British blockade. The Netherlands became Tsarist Russia's base for contact with Western Europe, and the Tsarist Russian Empire was the Dutch financial and technological market. complement each other.

But every time they formed an alliance, they almost broke up on bad terms. From this point on, the Netherlands and Russia were trying to protect whether there was any way to truly unite, and the culture of the two countries was seized. There are too many grievances in history. Historically, the Tsarist Empire took away a lot of capital invested in Russia from the Netherlands and took it back to the country. Moreover, every time the Netherlands appeared in Western Europe and other countries went to war with the Netherlands, the Netherlands became the target of the Tsarist Russian Empire. For example, the Netherlands had to agree to various demands of the Tsarist Russia, such as secretly giving money to Tsarist Russia to support the founding of the Netherlands, and for example, the Netherlands was required to bring its domestic technological integrity to St. Petersburg.

So many Dutch people still feel bad about it.

There are also many Tsarist Russians who have a lot of complaints against the Netherlands. They believe that the Netherlands has received political help from the Tsarist Russian Empire many times in history, which allowed the Netherlands to recover after the victory of the Napoleonic War. This is a huge favor, but the Netherlands is based on this. Cimo ignored the risk that the Russian Empire was surrounded by many countries in the Crimean War, and did not know how to stand up and support Tsarist Russia gratefully.

These grievances and resentments hinder the establishment of deeper mutual trust between the Netherlands and Russia. "

Old Mao Qi said: "The relationship between the Netherlands and the Russian Empire is much older than the founding of our country in 1701, so we cannot underestimate the friendship between the other two countries."

Bismarck nodded and sighed: "It was the British government's two-pronged suppression of the Netherlands and the Tsarist Russian Empire for more than a hundred years that made the Netherlands and Russia feel an unprecedented sense of oppression. A sea coachman The Netherlands almost perished after being defeated in a naval battle. Amsterdam, the Tulip Financial The capital was replaced by London as the largest European financial city.

Tsarist Russia is besieged by the British from many sides, and its outlet to the sea is almost completely blocked. It can only build its navy in the northernmost ports of the Eurasian continent. Even the ice-free port of St. Petersburg is around us and Sweden, using us to check and balance Tsarist Russia was able to suppress everything to the extreme.

In order to weaken the Netherlands, Britain induced, induced and coerced allies of other major European powers to support anti-Dutch actions, froze the ideas of the Tsarist Russian Empire’s allies in Europe, and even guided the situation to lower the relationship between the Tsarist Russian Empire and Austria-Hungary and the German Empire.” In this way, Tsarist Russia, a land power, was forced to stay on the land. At present, the Netherlands can only move its capital to the Far East. It maintains a small European territory and is destroyed by other countries, including Britain, France, and Germany. After all, in 1830, the British navy lined up in a row along the coast of the Netherlands' European mainland. The attack on the coast shocked Europe at that time, and successfully forced King William I of the Netherlands to submit. The Netherlands felt the crisis of life and death.

This is why after William IV of the Netherlands came to power, in order to change the recurrence of this crisis, he resolutely chose to move the capital to the Far East, avoiding big countries such as Britain, France, and Germany. He was no longer willing to live under dangerous walls and depend on the faces of other countries to maintain homeland security. "

Bismarck took a deep breath, and then said: "The real reasons that hindered the further establishment of mutual trust between the Netherlands and Russia were in the past the unequal relationship between the Netherlands and Russia. In addition to the fact that the Netherlands has the upper hand, every alliance since the establishment of the Tsarist Empire has always put the Netherlands in a weak position. The Tsarist Russian Empire has never regarded the Netherlands as an equal partner. Even in the eyes of the Tsarist Russian Empire, the Netherlands is just a younger brother. The Netherlands As one of the driving forces behind the rise of the Muscovy Principality, he was naturally not willing to continue to be the younger brother. He always wanted to be on an equal footing, which made the Tsarist Russian Empire always uncomfortable.

So many times the Tsarist Empire was willing to stand by and watch Britain, France and Germany oppress the Netherlands. This was a disguised attack on the Netherlands, which forced the Netherlands to recognize that it was just the younger brother of the Tsarist Empire."

Bismarck's statement was recognized by William I and Moltke Sr.

Naturally, the military minister Ron next to him would not object, but his face looked strange and hesitant. Seeing this, the sharp-eyed Kaiser Wilhelm I asked: "Your Excellency Ron, what do you want to say?"

Ron saw several people looking over and said, "I very much agree with what you just said. I just want to say that the status of the Netherlands has reached the point where it is on par with the Russian Empire?

No, I think the Tsarist Russian Empire has no advantage over the Netherlands now. Instead, it should be said that the Tsarist Russian Empire relies on the Netherlands to open up a situation in Europe. This is why Gorchakov, the Tsarist Russian Empire, traveled thousands of miles to go there in person. The reason for participating in the summit on the Balkan Peninsula was not to hesitate to offend the United Kingdom and our German-Austrian alliance, which was just established and had a bad relationship with the Netherlands. It chose to directly sign a local contract last month to agree to the Dutch defense cooperation.

I think this is supporting the Netherlands and also showing goodwill to the Netherlands. This time, the Russian Empire finally bowed its head for a while."