Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

In the first quarter of 1867, if there were major events that attracted the most attention from the world, there were actually many.

Among them, on January 8, the Dutch royal family announced that Queen Alexandra of the Netherlands was pregnant again.

This allowed dignitaries and royal family members from all over the world to once again send their blessings to the new member of the Dutch royal family.

After that, the Netherlands held the Spring Cycling Open, with more than 5,000 people from the Netherlands and the Far East participating in the Sydney, Australia. Finally, on January 17, William IV personally went to Sydney, Australia to participate in the finals and personally handed over the championship trophy. Championship winner.

Moreover, William IV also announced that an open cycling competition will be held in the Far East every spring in the future, while the autumn competition will be held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

For a time, there was a bicycle craze all over the Netherlands.

At the same time, the bicycle manufacturer under the Wilhelm Group is working overtime to popularize bicycles across the country, and uses Dutch financial subsidies to reduce the purchase price of bicycles in the Netherlands.

According to what William IV said, the people should be able to afford bicycles and use bicycles, and the national life should not be affected by using bicycles for transportation and shopping.

In 1866, the per capita income of the Dutch people was 100 pounds, an increase of more than 11% from the previous year's 90 pounds.

The bicycles owned by the William Group only cost 10 pounds in the Netherlands, while they cost 20 pounds abroad. In other words, an adult worker can buy a bicycle in the Netherlands with one month's income. With the hype, this It is already a tool comparable to a horse, and it does not need to be raised. For the Dutch people, it is also a symbol of dignity. If you don’t have a bicycle at home, you are too embarrassed to go out.

So in just a few years, bicycles have become very popular in the Netherlands. Now, as roads have become a supporting infrastructure policy for bicycles, bicycles in the Netherlands have become one of the necessary tools.

The Dutch cabinet government even passed a proposal in the Dutch House of Commons and Senate to establish a new cabinet position of Dutch Transport Minister to specifically manage transport matters in the Netherlands.

When the two parliaments passed it, William IV also signed his name.

As the proposal was passed quickly and the appointments were made quickly, the transportation development in the Netherlands entered a new fast channel. Unlike the previous transportation announcements, which only included trains, carriages, horses, and pedestrian walkways, this time the Netherlands has a nationwide Within the scope, now that a new bicycle groomed lane has been added, it is officially named after a highway.

This puzzled many parts of the world, but after the emergence of new structures such as the William Group's Confidence Bicycle and the front basket and rear seats that can carry cargo and applied for patents around the world, many parts of the world began to realize that the Netherlands actually planned to , use this pedal bicycle to complete things that used to require carriages and horse tools.

As a result, European and American governments also began to study and judge in their respective countries whether they should learn from the Dutch bicycle trend and reform national transportation policies. However, many small countries balked at the thought of purchasing Dutch bicycles.

Even in industrial powers such as the United Kingdom, Disraeli's cabinet faced obstruction from the Whig Party, the current opposition party. The reason was that it was a major investment that, if implemented, would cost hundreds of millions of pounds. British parliamentarians seem unwilling to pass large sums of money to build roads for this purpose. After all, these are all taxed domestically. In this way, the bottom class of society benefits, but most of the upper class people pay taxes. Therefore, , this was harmful to their interests, which naturally made the Whigs object, and even the majority of Tory MPs did not agree, so Disraeli stopped before he could start the discussion.

The United Kingdom is like this, and even France is almost the same. The Tsarist Empire cannot keep up economically, so naturally it cannot be implemented. It is not enough for Prussia. However, with the joint efforts of Bismarck and William I, it seems to be advancing, but William IV should know that Prussia After advancing the policy, I have to sigh, what a talented person.

It turns out that in the Kingdom of Prussia, each locality actually implemented a policy of self-promotion. Prime Minister Bismarck actually adopted the implementation of easy things first and then difficult ones, allowing the principalities that wanted to implement bicycles as a means of transportation to make their own decisions. This reduced the intensity of opposition and then slowly implemented it. It also made William IV admire him with admiration. He was indeed an old fox.

Not as tactful as Olivier and Disraeli.

However, what surprised William IV was that the Lincoln government also announced that the American Confederation would follow the Dutch policy. This made William IV feel as if he had just swallowed a fly.

Alas, Millinuts are really a competitor for the future interests of the Netherlands, and they can’t get rid of them.

On February 15, 1867, the American Civil War in North America was officially declared over.

However, the price was that the United States was divided into two. The Federal State of America controlled the north and occupied about two-thirds of the original territory of the United States of America.

The Confederate States of America, led by Davis, made up the remaining one-third.

The two countries formally demarcated their borders.

Seemingly influenced by both parties, Britain and the Commonwealth of America officially announced on February 25, 1867 that the armistice agreement between the two countries in North America had been completed.

The Confederate States of America will secede from all Ontario territories occupied by the Confederate States of Eastern Millennium. As compensation, the United Kingdom is willing to sell British Columbia to the United States for 5 million pounds after the Confederate States of America agree to withdraw from Alberta. Federal State.

Since then, the Commonwealth of America has officially blocked Britain's access to the sea in western Canada. In other words, in the North Pacific, Britain will have no foothold in the East-North Pacific.

This will be very beneficial to the Commonwealth of America's subsequent development in the west, and it is also very important to reduce British intrusion.

The United Kingdom has gained the opportunity to escape from North America and launch new strategic deployments in the Far East and Europe to deal with France and the Russian Empire. It would not be a pity to sell British Columbia.

Of course, the new Disraeli government also complied with public opinion and reduced the war in the North. It reduced the instability of Britain's rear with Canada and gave it a breather to face the challenge of Europe with all its strength. It can be said that it won in one fell swoop.

Therefore, the domestic public opinion of the Tory Party is also rising steadily. In addition, Crown Prince Edward has attended many occasions with Disraeli, which makes the entire Tory cabinet government and the British royal family seem to have a little more relaxation. It contained rumors of discord between the royal family and the Tories in the past 28 years since Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1839.

Many people speculate that the British royal family is rebalancing the previous pattern in which the Whigs had the upper hand due to royal support. The Crown Prince obviously favors the Tory position, which makes Queen Victoria have a different attitude towards the Whigs and Tories. No more clear.

Because of this, Disraeli actually chose to ease relations with the Russian Empire.

Alexander II seemed to have given Disraeli enough face. After taking over northern Georgia and northern Azerbaijan in the Caucasus, he was willing to negotiate peace with Britain again in Belgium.

So Britain Disraeli pressured the Ottoman Empire to participate, and eventually the three parties seemed to spread the news that negotiations would soon be concluded.

The Tories and the Whigs had different views on Europe and different friendships with other countries.

In addition to being friendly with the Commonwealth of America and the Russian Empire, the Tories have the strongest relationship with Portugal.