Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

Although there are always victorious generals in the world, there has never been an empire that was undefeated for ten thousand years.

Countries in the world are divided into global superpowers, regional powers, medium powers and small countries. There are even many city-states in Europe. Each country covets its own status improvement, but often, the final result is like a wild cloud. Falling apart.

The current situation in Europe is generally stable, especially after the Kingdom of Prussia annexed the German Confederation and neighboring countries became wary of it.

On June 25, 1868, just as the Netherlands was establishing its presence in America, an unexpected news came, which made some people happy and others sad.

It turned out that as early as a month ago, the Ottoman Empire sent a delegation to St. Petersburg. After many rounds of discussions, the two countries finally agreed to an armistice. The eastern border between the two countries between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea was determined to be based on the Greater Caucasus. The mountains serve as the border. In fact, the Ottoman Empire was equivalent to withdrawing to the south and making concessions to the Tsarist Empire.

In the west, the Tsarist Empire originally occupied the northern part of Bulgaria. After the Ottoman Empire expressed its toughness in St. Petersburg and would not back down, the Ottoman Empire finally expressed its position in exchange for the northern territory of the Greater Caucasus Mountains in the east. The Tsarist Empire finally agreed to withdraw from Bulgaria's occupation. In the northern territory, the Ottoman Empire recognized the status of the Russian Empire in Romania.

So far, the two countries have secretly completed peace negotiations, and it was not until the results came out that people around them knew that this confidentiality agreement was in place. So much so that the British Empire, which had the largest stakeholder, immediately stood up to oppose the agreement.

“I don’t know why Constantinople signed such an agreement with St. Petersburg without the participation of our British Empire, but one thing I declare in advance is that the British government will not give up our vested interests easily, let alone us. On the basis of principle, I hope that the interests of the British Empire should not be harmed by all parties, especially without the knowledge of the British Empire."

Russell, the Foreign Secretary of the British Empire, solemnly expressed Britain's views to the outside world in London. From a literal point of view, it is obvious that the veteran British diplomatic helmsman is obviously dissatisfied.

Many people secretly shook their heads.

The Russian Empire has always been considered Britain's number one balancer, and has been so for decades or hundreds of years. Although the Ottoman Empire is not weak at present, it has always been exaggerating the threat of the Tsarist Russian Empire. Therefore, it bound the Ottoman Empire to the southeast of Europe to help Britain guard the southward passage of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Tsarist Russian Empire.

Especially the latter, the UK is on strict guard against this. Austria-Hungary is currently suppressed by Prussia, but the Tsarist Russian Empire has no such means of containment. Therefore, the Ottoman Empire has a very special status. Even in recent years, the UK has In order to win over the Ottoman Empire, a lot of price was paid. The supply of guns alone exceeded 200,000 pairs of guns and ammunition.

At this time, the Ottoman Empire secretly "dated" the Russian Empire behind the British back. The problem was that it also had a "love" effect, which was unacceptable to the British.

So they immediately put pressure on the Ottoman Empire, intending to make the Ottoman Empire retreat on this issue.

However, no one takes it lightly. The Ottoman Empire would thus "fulfill" Britain.

Sure enough, soon after, Constantinople stood up and accused the British of being wrong and that the Ottoman Empire was a great power. There is no such thing as doing diplomacy behind anyone's back. They are sovereign countries and have the task of improving the surrounding environment of the Ottoman Empire to develop the economy, rather than becoming a source of crisis.

“We are grateful to the UK for its help over the years and sincerely hope that the two countries can continue the previous relevant relations. However, we hope that in the UK at the same time, in this atmosphere, we can freely and frankly say and do things that are in the interests of our country. Of course, our agreement with the Russian Empire clearly had no intention of harming our ally Britain, it really didn’t."

Following Constantinople, St. Petersburg also refuted the words of British Foreign Secretary Russell. ‘And because the relationship between the two countries is not considered friendly, the attitude of the Russian Empire is not as friendly as that of Constantinople.

"The British Empire can be said to be the most domineering country in the world. This country seems to want all countries in the world to become her slaves just through its sea warships. What we don't understand is where the British confidence comes from, although recently they have We have suffered a lot of defeats in many places, but our style remains the same. We still go our own way and meddle in the politics of other countries. We even conduct so-called 'negotiations' on the independent foreign policies of various countries. How grand is this? What makes us dissatisfied is that the target of Britain's "negotiations" this time is the Tsarist Russian Empire. In this regard, we will not agree with the British point of view, especially in front of the two powerful powers of the Tsarist Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire. It’s not worth mentioning.”

Although the British Empire was annoyed by the attitude of the Tsarist Russia, it could not complain about Tsarist Russia. It was a naval power and a land power, and it was still the kind of country where half of the territory was bordered by the border, and the coastal part was more than half. The above are all on the Arctic coast. No matter how good the British warships are, it will be difficult to cause trouble to the Russian Empire there. Moreover, don’t forget that although the Russian Empire’s navy is currently one place behind, William IV announced that the Far East Navy is not weaker than the mainland. The "inside information" ranked fourth after the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands, but it was only less than three-fifths of the United Kingdom. However, the United Kingdom was not willing to have a head-on naval Arctic war with the Tsarist Empire. In that way, the United Kingdom's international superpower The naval empire position may be removed as a result.

If countries such as the Netherlands and France, which are watching eagerly from behind, will take the opportunity to rise, it will be even worse than the gain.

Therefore, in the end, the United Kingdom just calmly summoned the person in charge of the Russian Embassy in London to negotiate, and settled the matter.

William IV laughed at this.

This is the confidence of a big country with a large population and depth. Britain has nothing to do with the Russian Empire. In fact, Britain has always had nothing to do with Russia. Both countries began to rise slowly in the 17th century, and almost in the 18th century. The transformation from a middle country to a great power was completed within a century. By the 19th century, the two countries had become a maritime superpower and a land superpower after super expansion on land.

From the previous non-intervention to the current mutual wariness, the two countries seem to have been engaged in a tug-of-war. Even in the 21st century, almost Britain hates Russia the most. Britain almost always rebels against Russia, and it is the one at the forefront.