Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

On May 27, 1869, President Johnson Andrew of the Confederate States of America, following Secretary of State Blish, once again called on Britain to adopt a responsible attitude towards Indians in Washington and resolve the grievances of Canadian Indians.

At the same time, President Andrew also called on the British Empire to abandon its colonial practice of Myanmar territory.

On the same day, Dutch Prime Minister Tolbeck also believed that Britain should not destroy the balance in the Far East and break the status quo to allow Britain to dominate. For this, the Netherlands protested.

However, the British Foreign Office did not respond directly to the Netherlands.

On May 28, 1869, the Ambassador of the Five-Party Alliance of Upper Burma to the Kingdom of Siam submitted an ultimatum to the Ambassador of the British Empire's Disraeli government to the Kingdom of Siam, requiring the British Empire to withdraw from the Inner Union within one week. metropolitan area, otherwise they would face war against the British.

Before this pre-war ultimatum had been waited for a week, the Burmese Ambassador to the Kingdom of Siam received a direct reply from the British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Siam: Then let’s go to war!

The five-party alliance in Upper Burma is making great noise in mobilizing the people. How could the British Empire not know about it?

Only enemies who are hurt will sit down and listen to you, instead of a group of demons dancing in front of you. As the next colonial target of the British Empire, the Disraeli government never relaxed its surveillance of any disturbance on the Southeast Asian peninsula, not to mention the semi-colonial Burma, which borders the British colony of the Bay of Bengal.

The previous policy of the British Empire was to co-opt and suppress at the same time, trying to slowly boil the frogs in warm water and dissolve their unity to resist the British. Unfortunately, for some reason, the five forces in Burma actually united to fight against the British.

This broke the British plan. Seeing that the plan could not be implemented, the result was that the Disraeli government would no longer do anything in vain.

By this time, British Prime Minister Disraeli saw that Burma was almost an ultimatum under general mobilization for war. He already knew that war was inevitable.

And if you look at the map of the current distribution of power in the Far East, you can see that Britain is definitely in the right place at the right time when dealing with Myanmar. Disraeli's ambitions extended beyond Burma, but he just didn't have the time.

In the Far East, there are only three countries that can pose a threat to Britain. The ancient big country in the north of the Far East. The second one is the Netherlands that occupies the Dutch East Indies and the Australian mainland in the south. After that, it currently holds the territories of North and South Vietnam, and then launches colonial wars and occupies them. The Kingdom of Siam, the Cambodian region, the French Empire in the central and eastern parts, and Laos in the south.

In the middle, there are the Kingdom of Siam and the surviving Upper Burma, surrounded by three European powers and an ancient Far Eastern power.

The geographical location determines that Upper Burma is now the best place to fight during the expansion of the British Empire. No matter what, it will not lose, because the British currently occupy areas close to the coast. With British naval escort there, there would be no risk of annihilation.

Because of this, when the Disraeli government faced the ultimatum issued by the indigenous people of Burma, it felt that it was a serious insult, but a letter of challenge.

"Then let's fight"

Disraeli clearly remembered that when he reported to Queen Victoria, the Queen gave him the answer in this way, and he also directly transferred the answer to the British Consulate in the Kingdom of Siam to Upper Burma.

The French Empire does not dare to have an idea of ​​​​Burma, or it is impossible to touch it. The country bordering Burma and closest to France's current power is Laos. Currently, southern Laos has become a colony of France, and France is also infiltrating northern Laos, at least Laos, which is close to North Vietnam. The area is being eroded, so it has a little influence on Upper Burma. However, because it is still under the jurisdiction of the Kingdom of Siam and is isolated by the Kingdom of Siam, it is more than enough to intervene by sea from the Bay of Bengal or the Andaman Sea. Insufficient, it is estimated that even the chance of landing was blocked by the British Navy.

As for passing through the Kingdom of Siam, just kidding, although the French Empire and the Kingdom of Siam have ceased fighting in Cambodia, both sides are preparing to start a war at any time.

This is also the reason why Britain seemed to have no intention of blocking France without the sanctions initiated by the Netherlands, in order to plunge France into the Far East and have a bad relationship with the Kingdom of Siam, the neighbor of Myanmar that Britain wanted to colonize, and Siam The Kingdom of Luo and Myanmar have been competing for the southeastern peninsula for hundreds of years, and the Kingdom of Siam will not help the Kingdom of Siam.

The ancient country in the north was even more afraid of Britain after the Y-movie war launched by Britain in 1840. It couldn't take care of its own domestic affairs. How could it take care of the tributary countries in Southeast Asia? Otherwise, the Kingdom of Siam in 1861 Why didn't the ancient great country respond in any way when there was no tribute? In the end, the Kingdom of Siam completely turned to the west and became a friend of hope instead of becoming a vassal state to the ancient northern great power.

That leaves the Netherlands. Although the Netherlands has developed rapidly in recent years, it is limited by the weakness of its home territory. Although the development of the Far East has enhanced the strength of the Netherlands, the homeland has become the weakness of the Netherlands. Don't forget, there may be a British navy at any time. The location of the bombardment.

Moreover, the Dutch Far East can participate in and defeat the British Indian Fleet.

What's more, don't forget that Britain does not only have the Indian Fleet in the Indian Ocean. There is also the South African Fleet, one of the six fleets of the British Empire, at the southern end of the Indian Ocean. In addition, there is the New Zealand Squadron in the southern part of the Pacific near the southeast of the Indian Ocean.

With the support of the three major fleets around the Indian Ocean, whether it is attacking Burma as a powerful back-up, or it can block the French Empire or the Dutch Far East Army who are trying to interfere with the British attack on Burma. If it is not possible, many people in the British cabinet government As mentioned, it can be done by shelling the coastal areas of Sydney and Melbourne in Australia's big cities, or Jakarta and Surabaya, the largest cities in the Dutch East Indies in the north, are also good.

Therefore, when the Disraeli government reported its own analysis to Queen Victoria, it confidently stated that it would take over Upper Burma in a short time and complete the colonial rule of the entire Burma in the first half of the year.

Or it would be too easy for the British army to block the Strait of Malacca in violation of the agreement signed by Britain and the Netherlands.

In short, from the perspective of Prime Minister Disraeli, the ultimatum issued by Burma was a farce and an excuse for war given to Britain.

So under Prime Minister Disraeli's idea, the British government began to ask the Governor-General of India, Sir John Laird Miles Lawrence, to quickly recruit 30,000 indigenous troops in India and transport them to the coast of Myanmar via freighters. Landing in the Arakan region on the westernmost coast of Myanmar, at the same time, the indigenous people in Bengal also became the targets of the British recruitment of indigenous troops, where they formed a line of defense against attacks from Myanmar.

It is said that the five-party alliance in Upper Burma has formed more than 100,000 troops, while the British hastily only has 85,000, West Bengal has 30,000, Arakan has 20,000, and Lower Burma has 30,000. Kingdom, and far away from Upper Burma where the battlefield was located, so only 5,000 British troops were deployed there.

On June 1, 1869, both sides declared war. Despite the "dissuasion" of the Netherlands and other countries, Britain launched a war into Burma, but the first blow hurt itself.