Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

"Britain and the Netherlands need peacemakers, not war"

On August 28, 1881, six presidents of the top universities in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, including the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of Edinburgh, and the University of Sydney, University of Melbourne, and University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, held an academic meeting in Amsterdam. People publicly expressed their opposition to the current Malacca Strait dispute between Britain and the Netherlands, which should not become a factor in the overall hostility between the two countries, and six people said they would use academic forums to promote the easing of tensions between the two countries.

The meeting concluded:

The relationship between the UK and the Netherlands has fallen into a typical security dilemma, with each other regarded as the biggest security threat.

Civil war conflicts related to global depowerment make it extremely difficult to manage Anglo-Dutch relations, unless London graciously cedes part of its global leadership to the Netherlands, or the Netherlands is willing to play a secondary role and give up its "core rising interests." .

“What impact will it have on the Strait of Malacca?”

Perhaps Dutch Melbourne has given up on improving relations with London, England. The Netherlands shows little interest in improving relations with the UK. On the contrary, it welcomed the anti-British policies of powerful countries in the anti-British camp, such as the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Spain.

At the same time, the Netherlands also welcomed the leaders of the French Second Empire and the Ottoman Empire, which had good relations with the United Kingdom, to visit Melbourne, the Netherlands, in an attempt to create a rift between the United Kingdom and its allies and prevent the United Kingdom from forming a united front against the Netherlands.

Since the Netherlands and Britain openly competed in the Strait of Malacca in 1876, and the Netherlands occupied the Great Nicobar Islands at the western outlet of the Strait of Malacca, which was originally under British jurisdiction, the two countries have almost been at war with each other in the Strait of Malacca.

Over the past five years, relations between the two countries have taken a turn for the worse, and both countries have now severed diplomatic relations with each other.

War between Britain and the Netherlands is not inevitable, and the world should make every effort to remove war from the policy menus of both sides. The routine force to promote peace and cooperation must become the main idea in driving this important relationship forward.

The two sides can also start to rebuild trust from less contentious issues, such as immediately resuming diplomatic relations between the two countries that were suspended by the Malacca Strait dispute, and significantly increasing trade routes between the two countries to cope with the self-inflicted harm caused by the current economic indifference between the two countries. .

Currently, there is very little trade between the two countries. Even as the world's most powerful trading countries, the trade volume between the two countries is not as high as that of the Netherlands and Denmark, or the United Kingdom and Portugal. This shows from the side that British and Dutch trade restrictions have become an obstacle to the expansion of trade between the two countries.

Both London and Melbourne are filled with pessimistic and bellicose sentiments, which provides fertile ground for various hawks, opponents, nationalists and warmongers to clamor against each other and push bilateral relations into the abyss.

British policy towards the Netherlands was dominated by hardliners and militants.

The Dutch military has been busy predicting when war with Britain will break out. One of them even claimed that it may be as early as 1885. Surprisingly, as the world's most powerful naval warship country, Britain officially Before the Netherlands was listed as the number one threat, there was no public debate or discussion in London on Anglo-Dutch relations.

At present, the University of Oxford in the UK and the University of Sydney in the Netherlands, together with the University of Edinburgh, the University of Melbourne, the University of Amsterdam, and the University of Oxford, have conducted a British private opinion poll showing that the British favorability towards the Netherlands has dropped to 15%, a record high in 1815. After the Congress of Vienna and the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and the Netherlands, it reached a new low.

Similarly, the Netherlands' favorable opinion of the United Kingdom has dropped to its lowest point since 1815, with only 9% of people still having a favorable opinion of the United Kingdom.

Relations between Britain and the Netherlands are so bad that high-level contacts between the two sides have been largely put on hold, and "war rhetoric" has become commonplace in London and Melbourne.

In 1870, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and William IV of the Netherlands interacted frequently when attending the wedding of the Greek Crown Prince and the British Princess in Athens, which attracted worldwide attention. The two had a relatively friendly meeting. The people of the two countries had high hopes for this, and hoped that Under the guidance of these two kings, the foreign policy teams of the two countries were able to implement the consensus. Steadily improving bilateral relations, in fact, the two countries originally planned to hold a conference on the sovereignty issue of the Strait of Malacca in 1876 to discuss a peaceful solution between the two countries, and to implement the peaceful and stable bilateral relations between the two kings in 1870 for twenty years.

In the latest global university rankings, the University of Cambridge ranked first, the University of Oxford ranked fourth, and the University of Edinburgh ranked fifth.

The University of Sydney in the Netherlands is ranked second, the University of Melbourne is third, and the University of Amsterdam is sixth.

The gathering of the presidents of these six universities represents a gathering of the top education representatives in the global education community, and also represents a kind of public opinion in the global university community.

Therefore, the remarks of the six people, with the expectations of the academic community, have great influence.

All six agreed that it was possible to rebuild trust between Britain and the Netherlands.

Although the United Kingdom claimed that it would not give up its sovereignty over the Great Nicobar Islands, their response to the Dutch provocation in occupying the Nicobar Islands was more forceful. British military maneuvers in the Mediterranean and the northern Indian Ocean increasingly resemble an invasion or blockade, exacerbating tensions in the Strait of Malacca and the Eastern Mediterranean.

On the contrary, the Netherlands' army and navy exercises in Latin America with other members of the Group of Thirteen also had the appearance of forcing other countries to bow. Obviously, the Netherlands also used a hard-on approach to fight back against the United Kingdom.

Six people publicly stated that the UK and the Netherlands are trapped in a typical security dilemma, and both regard the other as the biggest security threat. They worry that the more a big country tries to strengthen the security of one side, the more the other side will feel insecure and then strengthen its own security forces and strength. leading to a vicious cycle that brings them closer to the brink of direct conflict.

University of Sydney in the Netherlands. Three presidents of the University of Melbourne and the University of Amsterdam said that the rise of the Netherlands will intentionally or unintentionally challenge British hegemony. British political makers have never and will not accept a new power forming a bipolar world order. -sequence.

London continues to drum up support from allies and partners to contain the Netherlands, despite its denials.

However, three presidents of the University of Cambridge, University of Oxford and University of Edinburgh in the UK pointed out that the UK's approach was a natural reaction. When the Netherlands rises too fast, the UK will naturally safeguard its own interests and become vigilant. At the same time, the Netherlands' global allies Their number ranks first in the world and spread across several continents, posing a systemic threat to British hegemony.

The UK naturally needs to develop countermeasures to deal with the Dutch challenge.

However, although the six people had differences on this matter, they all agreed that if the Anglo-Dutch dispute was not stopped from continuing, a war between the two countries would inevitably occur.