Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

On December 25, 1863, Frederick VII, the last monarch of the Oldenburg branch of Denmark, passed away in the Royal Palace of Denmark. This was a full 40 days longer than William IV knew in history, but in the end he still lived. Couldn't survive 1863.

And as his father-in-law Christian IX succeeded to the throne of Denmark, the Schleswig and Holstein disputes between Denmark and Prussia became the first of Bismarck's planned Prussian attacks on the German Empire. Ring, William IV had a headache because of this.

Fortunately, there are still a few months left, and due to the relationship between the Netherlands and Denmark, Bismarck may have some scruples about coming.

January 2, 1864.

Dutch Prime Minister Tolbeck held a press conference and expressed that he was very sad about the riots around Lake Victoria and felt sorry for the Tutsi.

To this end, he said that in order to prevent such a tragedy from happening again and to check and balance the escalation of hatred between the two ethnic groups, the Netherlands said that it would re-plan the three places. Burundi would become a gathering place for the Tutsi, and Rwanda would be a gathering place for the Hus. A gathering place for the Tu clan.

As for Uganda, the Netherlands will mobilize 1 million people from the indigenous people in the East Indies to come to Uganda and become a new nation besides the two ethnic groups.

However, the three places were combined to form a new province, called Ulubu Province, and the Governor's Palace is in Kampala, a port city along Lake Victoria in Uganda.

Many people have made many speculations about the meaning of this move by the Netherlands.

But one thing everyone knows is that at this time, Lake Victoria had been re-divided by the three places, and the Netherlands had completely gained solid rule. At the same time, the three places became a province, but they had checks and balances on each other, especially the map. Due to this incident, there is no real possibility of reconciliation between the Hispanic and Hutu tribes. This will give the Netherlands a handle to make the two tribes obedient. The participation of the natives of the Dutch East Indies was a plan for the Netherlands to kill two birds with one stone.

The first is to reduce the population ratio between the East Indian Dutch and the local indigenous people. If millions of people migrate here, the proportion of the East Indian Dutch will quickly reach 30%.

Second, as the East Indian natives arrive in Uganda, the ethnic ecological balance here will be broken. Countries will have doubts about the fact that East Indians will love Yunovi more. If this nation cannot integrate into the surrounding situation, it needs the Dutch government's help. In order to check and balance the surrounding ethnic groups, it became more dependent on the Netherlands.

After these two moves, the Netherlands has firmly grasped the fault zone between Tanzania, Kenya in East Africa and Congo in West Africa, completely stabilizing the rule of this Dutch colony.

It also intimidated the surrounding ethnic groups.

As the first batch of 10,000 people arrived in the Dutch East Indians on January 20, they passed through Kenya's repaired road and reached Kampala, and then the pace became even faster.

By the way, with the increase in immigrants in the Netherlands in recent years, the Dutch government has restored an old super industry in the country, which was the transportation industry of sea coachmen.

The Netherlands currently has more than 1,000 transport ships of various sizes and tonnage between the mainland and the Far East, forming a transport and shipping industry that separates people and cargo. As a result, Amsterdam has become the largest port in Europe after London.

Although the size of Jakarta, the largest seaport in the Dutch East Indies in the Far East, is much smaller, it is currently ranked first in the Far East. There are dozens of ships coming and going here every day, even with the Dutch The number of immigrants increased by one foot, and there were many hundreds.

The native transport ships immigrated the native Dutch to the islands of Australia and New Guinea. Then, as the transport ships sailed to East India, they carried the indigenous people across the Indian Ocean and arrived in Kenya and Tanzania.

Then go north to the Suez Canal and return to the mainland via the Mediterranean Sea, or go south to the Cape of Good Hope and return north from the Atlantic Ocean to the mainland.

These two routes are vital to the Netherlands.

On January 5, 1864, when William IV and his wife, Queen Alexandra of the Netherlands, were attending the coronation ceremony of Christian IX at the Royal Palace of Denmark, a piece of news made everyone who attended the event look weird. Look at him.

Because on this day, Africa brought bad news to the Netherlands.

The garrison in Angola, the Portuguese African colony, unexpectedly attacked Congo and the estuary port of Banana, and then went north to occupy Cabinda, the Netherlands' largest port city in the South Atlantic.

When the news came back, Portugal was attacking the Atlantic port city of Pointe Noire in the North Congo.

William IV's face was very gloomy when he heard the news.

He also directly expressed his dissatisfaction to Portuguese Prime Minister Barreto, who came to attend the ceremony on behalf of King Louis I of Portugal, and demanded that Portugal immediately withdraw from all Congolese territories and compensate the 3,000 Dutch casualties who died in another invasion. The Netherlands reserves the right to counterattack.

Hesbert von, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Dutch Cabinet Government, held a press conference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Amsterdam.

"We are extremely satisfied with Portugal's sneak attack. For this reason, we have sent a letter of protest to Lisbon. We don't understand the purpose of the Portuguese government, but the Kingdom of the Netherlands has prepared corresponding measures in the face of all attacks. Prepare"

When asked if the Netherlands was about to strike back,

Hesbert Feng said firmly: "Also in the face of the surprise attack on the Kingdom of the Netherlands, we will use all means to protect all our interests, including the safety of life and property. We will not deal with the attackers. Bringing justice to justice will not quell the anger of the Dutch people."

When asked what the Netherlands was specifically prepared to do.

Haysbet Fengdao: "Let's wait and see."

After the press conference of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs ended, European countries came forward to take action.

Among them, Denmark was the most dissatisfied. After all, when King Christian IX had just ascended the throne, Portugal came to do this. Obviously, it was to give William IV a showdown, but don't forget, this William IV is The new king's son-in-law.

"We call on Portugal to withdraw from the Dutch Congo as soon as possible, and we also call on the two countries to sit down and negotiate and resolve disputes peacefully."

The Russian Empire also stood up and endorsed the Netherlands.

Asking Portugal not to provoke the Netherlands is a dangerous move.

Although the United Kingdom wanted to see a good show, it still expressed its concerns in a pretentious manner and asked the two countries to engage in direct dialogue to reduce tensions.

However, Portugal, as the country involved, expressed that Portugal positioned this action as a recovery.

"Both sides of the Congo River have been areas for Portugal's overseas development since the 16th century. Although Portugal has neglected its control over the years, this is something that all European countries know, but the Netherlands actually took advantage of Portugal's unpreparedness. , secretly landed last year and claimed that the area became a Dutch colony. This is very ridiculous for Portugal. We do not recognize the Dutch dominance in Congo."

With the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs' statement and direct denial that Congo is Dutch territory, the conflict between the Netherlands and Portugal will become more intense. This is what everyone is guessing.

Many people disagree with the historical facts spoken by Portugal. If so, then almost no European country is qualified to establish a country, because the Netherlands was once a territory ruled by Spain, and France was not immune. Even the coastal areas of Prussia were still Sweden, etc., the Principality of Finland in Tsarist Russia also belonged to Sweden.

According to Portugal, these places can be overthrown and rebuilt.

However, Portugal's statement was supported by the Kingdom of Italy and the Empire of Brazil, and even Austria expressed no objection.

This made European countries obviously realize that the selfish motives of European countries have formed a situation of forming cliques.

Prussia, Sweden, Denmark and even Tsarist Russia all sided with the Netherlands.

France and Spain are neutral.

The UK is watching the show.

The Netherlands is naturally unwilling to be bullied and does not fight back.

January 17, 1864.

The Dutch Ministry of Defense announced that it will dispatch 30,000 troops to the mainland and send a fleet south to support Congo.

But less than 8 hours after the Dutch Ministry of Defense announced the news, the Portuguese Ministry of Defense also announced that it would respond to the Netherlands. Portugal also sent 20,000 army troops to land in Cabinda.

At the same time a fleet will be sent there to fight against the Dutch fleet.

What shocked European countries even more was that the Brazilian Empire Pedro II announced that Brazil would send 10,000 soldiers to Luanda, Angola, to support Portugal's actions.

Brazil actually followed Portugal and declared war on the Netherlands in disguise?

This is something that European countries have never thought of. South America has always been a colony of European countries. Now with Brazil's actions, people feel it. This former colony actually resisted to the point of backlash against Europe.

But the Netherlands was undeterred.

On January 20, 1864, the Dutch Ministry of Defense announced that in view of Brazil's unfriendly actions, the Netherlands would send 3,000 additional troops to Dutch Guiana.

And sold 50,000 Dutch firearms and 500 cannons to Argentina, which was friendly to the Netherlands.

On 23rd, 1864, the Dutch Ministry of Defense agreed to Venezuela's request and sold 20,000 Dutch firearms and 100 cannons to Venezuela.

Although the United States, which has always used the Monroe Doctrine to require major European powers not to interfere in American affairs, this time both the Confederate States of America in the south and the United States of America in the north chose to remain silent.

Because this provocation was made by Brazil, the United States could not overreact to the Netherlands. On the contrary, neither the north nor the south wanted to confront the Netherlands, especially in the north. Dutch people in the United States even began to ask the United States to ask Brazil to Put pressure on Brazil to withdraw from Portugal's provocative actions.