Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

Chapter 548 Decomposing the Nassau-Orange family?

British Empire, London, Buckingham Palace.

Prime Minister Disraeli said: "The Netherlands has completely occupied the southern advantage in the Indian Ocean. The challenge to British hegemony in the Indian Ocean is real. Therefore, I think the British Empire has to guard against it. So in this regard, Crown Prince Edward His Highness’ concerns are worthy of attention.”

Queen Victoria said angrily: "He is more worried about how to deal with William IV, his love rival. I don't understand what is so good about Alexandra. So many men are surrounding her. Now Five or six years later, Edward still hasn't forgotten her and is still jealous of her."

After a moment of embarrassment, Disraeli said: "Currently, Queen Alexandra is said to have been pregnant for another two months. She has been married to William IV for 6 years and has given birth to a prince and a princess. Now the third child has become the focus of the Dutch nation."

Queen Victoria: "It is normal to marry and have children."

Disraeli: "The strange thing is that William IV's trust in her has reached an extremely high level."

Queen Victoria: "?"

Disraeli: "The International Women's League, which was founded a few years ago and is world-famous, His Majesty William IV directly has Alexandra manage this international organization. This is a sensation around the world, and the strange thing is that Alexandra Queen La actually manages things in an orderly manner, and women from all over the world even love this queen more than female celebrities in their own countries."

Taking a deep breath, Disraeli sighed to Queen Victoria, who had a somewhat darkened face: "Now in the British Empire. Many women admire Queen Alexandra. It is said that even the co-owner of Alice, now Agues, The Duchess of France is also a follower of Queen Alexandra."

He raised his head and said, "It was rumored that Princess Alice and Alexandra were both lovers of William IV. They were jealous of each other. In the end, after Queen Alexandra won, Princess Alice was still so admired. It shows how charming Queen Alexandra is, and I think this is worthy of Her Majesty’s attention.”

Queen Victoria was in a very bad mood when she heard this, but she did not refute it.

The second daughter Alice was full of emotions for William IV. At first, she was optimistic about using Alice to form an Anglo-Dutch marriage with William IV. She even planned to use Alice to win over the Netherlands and become the home of her uncle Leopold I. Belgium formed the British satellite state in Western Europe to safeguard British interests on the European continent.

However, things went against his wishes, and the marriage failed in the end. William IV actually chose the daughter of Christian IX of the small country of Denmark. Even she, who has always been smart, was puzzled by this choice.

Afterwards, the Netherlands began to form the Triple Alliance with France and Prussia, which greatly disappointed her. The alliance of the three colonial powers in Africa was even more shocking to Britain, and even the voices of protest had to be muted.

She watched helplessly as the colonies that Britain was originally optimistic about were plundered by the three countries in a short period of time, which instantly led the European countries to colonize Africa. This made her original plan for Britain to slowly encroach on them come to naught.

Facing the three countries, Britain finally chose to follow the trend, and Africa was divided up.

Later, on the South African issue, the three countries jointly secretly supported the Boers, causing Britain to suffer heavy losses and lose its face at the same time. British maritime hegemony seems to be unaffected, but in fact its influence has declined a lot.

In the end, in order to reduce losses and keep South Africa, Queen Victoria had to sell the Australian continent at a high price with the lowest loss method in exchange for the Boers to leave South Africa completely, which successfully ended the British challenge in South Africa.

Everyone knows that Britain is currently the most powerful country in the world. She, the queen, is the most powerful and influential king and is envied by the world. But who knows that she is just a middle-aged widow with seven or eight children? She was just the daughter of her dead husband who was struggling to maintain British rule. She didn't want to quarrel every day, and she just wanted to play with her children and grandchildren, but God had no control over her.

She couldn't help but feel a headache when she thought that her eldest son, Crown Prince Edward, was setting up a potentially powerful enemy for a woman every day.

She actually had a plan for William IV of the Netherlands. After the original marriage alliance failed, she even thought of supporting the Netherlands to squeeze the strategic space of France and Prussia, which she had previously supported.

Edward and even Disraeli would not know that she and former Prime Minister Viscount Palmerston had already decided that Britain would support the Netherlands in building a wall between Prussia and France in Western Europe. Britain was weak some time ago, and many people thought that Britain was being In fact, only Russell, the former leader of the Tory Party and the current British Foreign Secretary, knows that this is her way of retreating in order to advance.

Making the Netherlands stronger will break the Triple Alliance between France and Prussia, and Prussia, France, and the Netherlands will have a gap in their hearts. It would be better if the three countries fight for hegemony in Central and Western Europe. The Netherlands and Belgium serve as the first guardrail for Britain against France and Prussia. France and Prussia are planned to serve as the second layer of the guardrail, and Austria-Hungary and Italy serve as the third layer of guardrail for Britain. Even counting Greece, the Ottoman Empire, and the Persian Empire, the Russian Empire, the largest power in Eurasia, was completely surrounded.

Coupled with the fact that Britain is currently opening its doors to Japan, the Tsarist Russian Empire, the country with the most potential, is surrounded.

However, she and Viscount Palmerston had calculated everything, but they never expected that the Netherlands would develop so rapidly, challenge the British industrial and technological hegemony economically, become a strong rival to the British in scale, and compete for arms sales. international market. Arms sales are never just a transaction. It also derives political and military dependence, deepening the reliance and dependence of the purchasing country on the selling country.

With the high quality of various weapons comparable to those of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands has actually led a large number of emerging powers and small and medium-sized countries to become dependent on the Netherlands. Small and medium-sized countries that are wary of large countries such as Britain and France have frequently expressed the desire to purchase weapons from the Netherlands - Hope, the Netherlands also responded to every request. In the early days, the Netherlands even asked Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador in South America to form an alliance with it.

After the French Empire reduced its support and the Netherlands hoped to develop the Australian continent and New Guinea, Peru in the southeastern Pacific also turned to the Netherlands, and almost half of South America formed an alliance with the Netherlands.

During the American Civil War, ethnic groups within the Confederate States fought for power. The British, who had the largest population, chose to go to the south of the United States to form the Confederate States of America. The Germans, who formed the German Confederacy, which had the second largest population, moved out of Austria because Prussia launched the annexation of the German Confederacy. Other countries abroad made other German immigrants in the German Confederation feel disgusted with the Prussians. Other ethnic groups were wary of the ambitions of the Prussians. Finally, in the general election of the American Confederation, it became everyone's consensus to oppose the Prussians. .

Originally, the third largest common denominator was the Irish, but Lincoln was assassinated and Lincoln's cabinet government chose to get too close to Prussia because of its resistance to the Dutch, who were the majority of big capital in the United States. In the end, the Irish In order to ease relations with the Dutch, the Irish could only support the Dutch, who ranked fourth in population.

Immigrants to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, etc. also have a favorable impression of the Netherlands. Coupled with the Nordic Alliance composed of the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden in Europe, votes flowed to Dutch people.

This constitutes the largest force in the American political arena where the Dutch are currently under the careful calculations of big capitalists and these ethnic groups.

If William IV were here, he might have told Queen Victoria that the Dutch people he supported were later developed by the various means used by the Jews in the United States. The current status of the Dutch people, in William IV's view, was not Far from reaching the end, it is just the beginning.

Queen Victoria was speechless when she thought about the situation in North America.

"Your Excellency, Prime Minister, do you think it would be too abrupt for the UK and the Netherlands to ease their relations at this time?" Queen Victoria said: "Let's not talk about Alice for now, this is fate. And in fact, Alice married in the UK, which is very important to the royal family. , is also a good choice. You know, in fact, I also planned to have a princess marry in the mainland to increase the localization of the royal family. Alice is so kind, and Louis is more suitable because she is enterprising enough."

Aggressive enough?

Disraeli suddenly realized that Alice also understood that her character might not be effective in fighting for the right to speak in foreign royal families if she married, just like Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, who married to the Kingdom of Prussia and became the crown prince of Crown Prince Frederick. Like Princess Victoria, in Prussia she is currently being crushed to death by Bismarck and William I, unable to move.

Queen Victoria said: "Crown Prince Frederick has been living in the shadow of Crown Prince William IV all year round. It is said that he has some opinions against William IV, but he is favored by William III. Therefore, William III and Tolbeck were not on the same page at first. At that time, he resolutely took Prince Frederic to Luxembourg and prepared to become the Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Prince Frederic will inherit this title in the future."

Disraeli nodded and said: ""The vacancies in the Kingdom of Greece later made William III and William IV, the father and son, see an opportunity. It is said that William IV wanted to take Luxembourg under his banner and increase his power, while William III wanted to find a bigger position for his younger son to inherit. Hey, the two father and son actually reached an agreement to jointly fight for the position of King of Greece. Finally, after many efforts by the two of them, they got what they wanted. "

Disraeli said to Queen Victoria: "I have also heard about Princess Louise's strength and intelligence. Princess Louise is the clearest choice to marry to Greece. If she can win over William IV, she will have a problem with him." The future king of Greece, Crown Prince Frederik, is also a good thing for the British Empire.”

Queen Victoria shook her head, "This is just one of them."

Disraeli's eyes narrowed and he asked: "The Queen has other ideas?"

Queen Victoria said ruthlessly: "The Netherlands is currently too powerful. Don't you think the Nassau-Orange family is too powerful? I think it's time to separate the families?"

Disraeli was surprised and nodded sharply: "The Queen is right, but the family has gone too far."