Start 1861: I just inherited the Dutch throne

Chapter 10 People Who Create Crises as Opportunities
"It seems that the Prince of Orange, no, should I say William IV is a good choice?" Queen Victoria asked.

"It is indeed a good choice," Viscount Palmerston nodded and confirmed.

"OK then"

"It is said that William IV is planning to hold a marriage meeting in Amsterdam. At that time, royal family members of marriageable age from all over Europe will gather for a meeting. At that time, it will be a good opportunity."

Queen Victoria thought for a moment and said, "That's it then."

"Well, Princess Helena is also over 16 years old, so she can attend this meeting."

I, Queen Victoria, did not question it again this time, nodded and said: "Yes."

William IV in Amsterdam did not know that the two most influential people in London were eyeing him. To be precise, they were eyeing the Netherlands under his jurisdiction, which has always been famous in the world. financial services business.

He was now continuing his Privy Council meeting.

We just talked about Henry John Tapper, Viscount Palmerston, and William IV also told everyone to move lightly and accurately.Don't draw this person's attention.

Because in his previous life, just reading the biography of this person made many netizens explode and caused a heated discussion.

Among them, one of the wars that the Chinese people will never forget was launched by Henry John Tapper, who was the Foreign Secretary at the time, and caused the Chinese people to suffer a lot of vicissitudes of life.

“Only when a nation truly stands up can it face and reflect on its history of humiliation before its rise.”

This is the source of the awakening of the Chinese people after the man-made disaster caused by this person.

What is most regrettable to many people, including William IV, is that Lin Xu's heroism in fighting the gunfire in the South in 1839 and even turning the tide of defeat moved him to serve his country with loyalty even though he knew he could not do anything.

However, with Lin Xu's shrewdness and ability, it is a pity that the Chinese people's vision at that time was limited to the domestic situation, and they did not even have the most basic understanding of the development of the overseas situation. Otherwise, Lin Xu would not have chosen to carry out the war that year.

The people in power at the time, including Lin Xu, did not realize that their real opponents were not the cigarette dealers, but Queen Victoria in London and Henry John Tapper, who was at the helm of her foreign policy.

After the British Empire established its maritime hegemony in Europe, colonization outside Europe became their national policy.

Stepping eastward, they directly used naval guns to break the traditional power of the Indian subcontinent, and then drove away the Portuguese, Dutch and French territories there, leaving one country to own a continent.

This further boosted the power of the British Empire. After that, sharp artillery broke the door to the Qing Dynasty, which became an inevitable event, because who will be satisfied now? There is no best, only better!

History is a combination of necessity and chance!

The people in power, including Mr. Lin, chose the worst time to engage in gunfire by mistake.

Because in this year, the originally low-key Foreign Secretary of the British Empire, Henry John Tapper, did something that was the most embarrassing event for the Netherlands in the history of European diplomacy, and it had a very significant and far-reaching impact on the situation in Europe. , because he created a new country through means.

Northeastern France and the southern part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands were originally an undefendable plain. Any hostile force that controlled this area would put tremendous pressure on the British Isles across the sea from the mainland of the British Empire, because apart from France itself, It is the closest place to the British Empire.

When the Holy Alliance first started fighting Napoleon I, it was here that the Duke of Wellington of the British Empire led the Holy Alliance to defeat Napoleon I in a head-on manner, resolving the biggest crisis since the founding of the British Empire.

From then on, ensuring that this land did not fall into the hands of powerful rivals of the British Empire became the most urgent goal deep in the heart of the British Empire.When the Vienna System was first established, the British Empire originally wanted to take it into its hands, but other major countries opposed it, especially France and Austria, who fiercely opposed it. In the end, the British Empire failed.

However, in order not to fall into the hands of other powers, the British Empire finally settled for the next best thing. After compromise with all parties, this land was assigned to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which had become a second-rate country. The British Empire was unwilling to accept it. After all, the Netherlands Four wars were fought at the end of the last century, which was obviously disgusting for other countries and thwarted the British Empire's ambition to encroach on this territory.

This was a thorn in the side of the British Empire, and many people were very unhappy about it.

It was at this time that Henry John Tapper became the new Foreign Secretary of the British Empire in 1830. When others had been wasted for more than ten years, he actually shocked Europe in just one year. , the whole country in Britain rejoiced because he accomplished what many British people wanted to do.

He first caused the outbreak of the Dutch Revolution in early 1830, and then lured other countries such as France, Prussia, Tsarist Russia, and Austria to gather troops, just as they were about to join the financial capital of central and northern Europe to stop the riots.

Henry John Tapper finally knew that the time was ripe. The method he analyzed so that the British Empire could not participate in governance and once and for all become the bridgehead of the British Empire's European power was finally completed.

He made a shrewd calculation. As long as he does not allow this place to become a position and springboard against the British Empire, and does not become the territory of other powerful countries to threaten the British Empire, then there is only one possibility, and that is to make it a separate country in the Netherlands. foreign countries.

The crisis in the Netherlands is an opportunity, an opportunity created by him!

So in order to accomplish this, he began to use this as a goal, traveling around various countries to join forces, and even sometimes used naval threats and demonstrations against France, Prussia, and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. After 9 years of coordination, and inducements and threats.

He succeeded, he became the creator of this miracle!
At the end of 1839, he finally completed this task. With the helpless consent of the European countries, including William II of the Netherlands, the Principality of Belgium separated from the Kingdom of the Netherlands and established its own kingdom. King Leopold I was also the uncle of Queen Victoria. He and it Also pro-British enough!
Of course, the parties that signed the Belgian Convention at the time stated that Belgium was not allowed to favor any country and would always be neutral. At the same time, the armies of other signatory countries could not enter Belgium without Belgium's consent.

The comments of netizens from previous lives are here.

If Lin Gongyan's gunfire had occurred before this incident, Henry John Tapper, who was fully engaged in the establishment of the Belgian nation, would most likely have no time to go eastward, and the naval fleet concentrated in the mainland would not be able to mobilize troops to the Far East.

The Belgian Convention of 1839 had just been signed, and the whole of Europe had heard of his fame, and all countries, especially the small ones, were trembling.

The spread of gunpowder from the Far East to Europe hit his reputation. Naturally, this person would not compromise easily, so he roared at the diplomatic conference that this was a matter of Queen Victoria's dignity and could not be compromised, so there was a follow-up A series of events developed.

It was this convention that gave him his prestige.In one fell swoop, the British Empire's policy of balancing power on the European continent was established. The national interests of the British Empire suddenly became the justice and axioms of the European continent.

Just like what the godfather of human rights in the United States in the West said in later generations, they just want to occupy the moral peak. They call it thinking about the world, but in fact it is just a tool to safeguard their own national interests.

Later, during the Franco-Prussian War initiated by Prussia, Gladstone, the then Prime Minister of the British Empire, temporarily invoked this convention. The warring parties were not allowed to violate Belgium's neutrality. The British Empire's warning was subconsciously obeyed by both countries.
From then on, the role of the guardian of order in Europe fell into the hands of the British.

Gladstone was a direct descendant of Henry John Tapper. He was also the leader of the Whig Party and succeeded Henry John Tapper.

Southern Europe, Portugal, Lisbon!

Aeneas MacKay, the ambassador to the Kingdom of Portugal currently stationed in the Netherlands, also accompanied the Admiralty Minister to be received by the King of Portugal.

They are doing things that the outside world doesn't know about.

In short, the Netherlands was carrying out the work of all European countries in January 1862, secretly carrying out the balance of power diplomacy of a middle power as a second-class power.

(End of this chapter)