Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

Riyadh is located in the eastern part of the Kingdom of Najd in the Arabian Peninsula, close to the British colony of Qatar to the east and the Dutch colony of the United Arab Emirates to the southeast.

To the south is the Oman region occupied by the French Empire, Spain, and Portugal.

The southwest was Yemen, the east was sold to Italy by Constantinople, and the west was taken by the British.

To the west is the Ottoman Empire in the Red Sea region, and to the north is Iraq, which also belongs to the Ottoman Empire.

Therefore, the Kingdom of Najd was surrounded by these countries.

Mohammed bin Rashid looked at the Arabian Peninsula on the map, his eyes full of fiery anger.

As the chief of the Sharma tribe and the ruler of the Najd Kingdom, he thought of more.

In 1750, Mohammed Saud, the pioneer chief of the Najd Kingdom, declared his independence from the Ottoman Empire and established an emirate. After that, the heads of the Saudi family conquered Najd, occupied Riyadh, and conquered Kuwait and Karbala, which were ruled by the Ottoman Empire. Al-Hasa, conquering the Buyers and Medina, seized the entire Hijaz region from the Ottomans and established the first Wahhabi dynasty ruled by the Saud family in 1811.

However, seven years later, the Egyptian provincial army sent by the Ottoman Sultan razed Deiriya, the capital of the Russian emirate.

The Saudi family was forced to flee to Kuwait and coastal towns on the Persian Gulf.

In 1824, the Saud family made a comeback, and Turki, the grandson of Mohammed Saud, seized Riyadh and established the second Saudi emirate. Shortly after Turki's eldest son succeeded to the throne in 1834, the Ottoman Empire took advantage of his weakness in succeeding to the throne and took the opportunity to start a war. The king was captured and exiled to Egypt, and the country was destroyed.

In 1843, the Ottoman Empire was experiencing serious internal conflicts and had no time to look elsewhere.

King Faisal fled back to Riyadh from Egypt, regrouped, and resumed rule over the central Arabian Peninsula in 1845. By this time, the Ottoman Empire was already weak, especially the Tsarist Empire in the north of the Ottoman Empire in the north was rising rapidly. Repeated attacks southward from the Caucasus and the Balkans caused great trouble to the Ottoman Empire.

Among them, the Crimean War from 1853 to 1856 reached its peak. The Ottoman Empire was unable to deal with the powerful Russian Empire on its own, and actually chose to support the British colonial position in Egypt. At the same time, in order to cause chaos between the north and the south, Constantine Fort also negotiated with Faisal for the first time and finally recognized Faisal's status as the Saudi emirate.

However, the Saudi emirate was also required to recognize that they were surrounded by Ottoman territory, and the two sides eventually reached an agreement for this purpose.

After Faisal's death in 1865, his many sons fought for power, leading to continuous civil war.

So Muhammad bin Rashid, the chief of the Shamar tribe in the eastern region, took the opportunity to invade. Although he was repelled, he also occupied many places, including Riyadh. The second Saudi emirate fell.

Faisal's youngest son, Abdul Rahman, led the remnants of Saudi Arabia to flee to Kuwait, sought asylum from the Ottoman Empire, and restored the country's name to the Kingdom of Najd.

It was originally planned to gradually erode the dominance of various princes in the Saudi Emirate, and then slowly erode more areas of the Ottoman Empire on the Arabian Peninsula. However, some time ago, under the coercion of various countries, the Ottoman Empire actually eliminated all the areas in the south, southeast and southeast. The area was sold to major European countries, which made Muhammad bin Rashid very angry and helpless at the same time.

His ability is unable to launch an attack on a major European country, not even the Ottoman Empire. What's more, the Kingdom of Najd has not yet been unified, and it is even harder to talk about others.

In his heart, he felt even more uneasy. He suspected that the Ottoman Empire was adopting a slow-down policy in order to wait for the success of the armistice negotiations with the Russian Empire in the Balkans and the cessation of the war in the Caucasus, so that it might help the Afghans. In the name of Abdul Rahman, he came to carry out encirclement and annihilation operations against him. He was even vaguely uneasy, fearing that the Ottoman Empire would sell so much territory to European countries in order to let them help jointly annihilate them in the south and east. After all, speaking of , on the Arabian Peninsula, his Sharma tribe has occupied the entire southern part of the Najd Kingdom, while the Saudi Emirate has shrunk to the north.

Under the confrontation between the north and the south, Sharma could originally use this to expand to the surrounding areas and even occupy the Ottoman Empire's Qatar Peninsula, Yemen and Oman, thereby opening up their sea access. However, except for the north and south divisions of the Hasa region, other The Kalma tribe has no territory near the sea. Therefore, Nanhasa became the largest port of the Kalma clan and the city of Damman became the largest city of the Kalma clan besides Riyadh.

"The eastern part of Daman and Riyadh used to be the Qatar Peninsula, which was weakly guarded by the Ottoman Empire. Our Kalma tribe had a chance to capture it, as did the UAE region in the south, but now it has become a colony of the emerging European powers, the Kingdom of Prussia and the Netherlands. .Daoud, now it’s difficult for us to follow the previous plan, what should we do?”

It was Chief Rashid who spoke.

Next to him was his only subordinate and right-hand man, Daoud.

This person accompanied Rashid to lead the Kalma tribe to rise step by step, and even saved Rashid at the beginning. So Rashid held him in high esteem. At the same time, Daoud was also his important think tank.

Over the years, every time Daoud offered advice, he was inexplicably shocked. Every time he followed the instructions, he reaped certain rewards. It can be said that if he contributed the most to the expansion of the Kalma tribe, then Daoud was the second greatest contributor.

Although sometimes Rashid is afraid that the other party's achievements will shock the master, but Daoud knows how to advance and retreat, and seems to understand that success will wait until success. It seems that she tries to avoid being in the limelight every time, which makes Rashid The Kalma chief was very satisfied.

Therefore, he paid more attention to him.

Just like now, he only has Daoud by his side to analyze the situation in the Arabian Peninsula and seek to expand his interests.

Ask him for advice.

Daoud wore an Arab hat and the same clothes, but his status was different and his clothes were different from Rashid's.

However, this man's eyes are very bright, which gives the impression that he is a wise person.

Between the ages of 35 and 40, it is the prime of life.

Daoud seemed to have guessed that he would be questioned, so he said unhurriedly: "Chief, for this plan, we only have two choices."

Rashid looked at Daoud, waiting for his explanation.

Daoud said, "The first one is to stay still and watch what happens. We sit back and wait for their actions to find a way out. However, the disadvantage of this choice is that it seems to feel like sitting still and waiting for death, which is very uncomfortable."

Daoud knew in his heart that this was rejected because it was incompatible with the character of the patriarch Rashid. This patriarch was famous for being a man who could not control his destiny. He would not wait for others to give him alms to survive. space, otherwise they would not have chosen to attack when they saw the weakness of the Saudi Emirate, their ally against the Ottoman Empire, and successfully occupied the southern part of the Kingdom of Najd.

Sure enough, Rashid shook his head and said: "We will not choose this, because instead of waiting for death quietly, it is better to die on the battlefield more vigorously. At least then we will all fight hard and die in vain. Regret. Please tell me about the second one, I’m a little curious about it.”

Daoud nodded in agreement, and saw Daoud say something astonishing: "Since the patriarch doesn't want to wait, then he can only struggle. The Kalma tribe has developed to a bottleneck, and it is necessary to lift the shackles at the top.

It took decades and hundreds of years for the Saudi Emirate to gain recognition from the Ottoman Empire due to the right time and place. However, the rise of the Kalma tribe was too short. I think if we want to achieve the status of the Saudi Emirate quickly, the patriarch will become King, then the Ottoman Empire needs to feel the pressure”

King, emirate?

Rashid's whole body was shaken, his eyes glowed fiercely, and his ambition was revealed.

Daoud seemed not to notice Rashid's gaffe, and nodded: "Yes, I think the Kalma tribe is no worse than the Saudi Emirate in the Najd region in terms of territory and army, and the Saudi Emirate in the north is already If it weakens, it will require a new king to lead everyone to rise and complete the unification of the Kingdom of Nejd, and the patriarch is such a being."

"But in our surrounding areas, you know, the European countries are so powerful that even the Ottoman Empire is helpless."

There was no reason for Rashid to hesitate. In fact, news of the powerful wars involving various European countries in recent years made him very frightened. Especially the Ottoman Empire, which he regarded as looking up to exist, was actually defeated by the Tsarist Empire on the Balkan Peninsula. Defeated.

It is said that the Kingdom of Prussia in the east is an existence that even the Russian Empire is very afraid of. Moreover, last year Prussia defeated the Austrian Empire, which was more powerful than the Ottoman Empire, occupied the territory of the small country Denmark, and agreed to the German Confederation. How could he dare to provoke Qatar? Isn't that asking for death?

Therefore, he has ordered the people of his Kalma tribe not to touch the Qatar Peninsula, and the Netherlands in the UAE region in the south seems to be a little worse, but it depends on who is compared. Compared with Prussia and the Tsarist Russian Empire, it is naturally inferior. But you must know that in the past few years, the Dutch proxy war in South Africa has made the UK miserable.

You must know that Britain just took Egypt from the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire didn't dare to say anything to Britain. The Netherlands dared to fight against the United Kingdom. Does Rashid dare to provoke the Dutch United Arab Emirates? Moreover, the Netherlands has a huge power in the southern Indian Ocean. During this period, the Dutch warships were as frequent as Prussian in the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. Transport ships came in and out, which put them under great pressure. It is said that the Persian Gulf The Persian Empire on the opposite side even responded to this and tightened military discipline on the coastline, fearing that it would accidentally trigger a war and cause conflicts between the two countries.

Daoud said enigmatically: "Since the patriarch knows that the European countries are powerful, and also knows that the Ottoman Empire is afraid of the European countries, can't we use this to leverage our strength?"

Rashid's eyes lit up and he looked at Daoud hurriedly: "What are you talking about?"

Daoud said: "Join vertical and horizontal, Kalma tribe, it's time to build relations with Europe."

"Then which country do you think is better?"

"Prussia and the Netherlands are both fine"

Rashid nodded and said: "If you bet on both sides, one side will dominate. You should be responsible for this."

"yes"

Daoud lowered his head in agreement, but at the moment he lowered his head, he revealed a mysterious smile.