Start 1861: I just inherited the Dutch throne

Chapter 689 30 years Hedong, 30 years Hexi!
On October 1878, 10, the new version of the British Defense Strategy was submitted to Parliament in the form of a public report for members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords to review when approving the defense budget for the fiscal year 30.

隔日的1878年11月1日，在议会通过审议后送达首相克莱斯顿签字后，并与11月4日抵达白金汉宫的英国维多利亚女王手中，女王在白金汉宫公开1签字盖印生效新版《国防战略》。

Queen Victoria repeated the unclassified content of the document released by Prime Minister Creston that day. She elaborated on the different challenges posed by the Netherlands, Germany, America, and Tsarist Russia.

She said: “These countries are the UK’s most important strategic competitors in the next few decades. Currently, the Netherlands and Germany are the UK’s only competitors in the Indo-Pacific and Europe that both have the intention to reshape the international order and are increasingly capable of doing so. Rivals, among which the Netherlands is currently the country that is most directly confronting the UK and is confronting it.”

"While the Netherlands is rapidly modernizing its economy and even surpassing the British economy and expanding its military power, it has also taken more and more coercive actions to reshape the international system in the Indo-Pacific and Americas. It is also influential even in Europe."

She pointed to the National Defense Strategy in her hand at Buckingham Palace with a very solemn face and said that currently from the domestic information of the Netherlands, we know that the Netherlands’ goal is to become a world power that can fully rival the United Kingdom in 1900, and that the number and quality of surface warships will be the same. To be on par with the UK, this does not include the fact that the Netherlands has the most powerful submarines in the world. If this request is achieved, the Netherlands can use this powerful military power to carry out coercive actions in the future, including against the UK, its allies and partners around the world. military challenge.

The British Queen said: "Unlike the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the German Empire is currently unable to challenge British interests except in Europe and Africa. The American Commonwealth has been suppressed and shrunk from South America, and its influence is only in North America. The Tsarist Empire followed. With the rise of the German Empire and the military strength of Austria-Hungary and Sweden, it can only look south. However, because the strength of the Ottoman Empire is not weak, the current Tsarist Russian Empire is like a polar bear trapped in its hands and feet, unable to move. Therefore, the Tsarist Russian Empire and the United States cannot directly pose a major systemic threat to the United Kingdom.

The threat scope of the German Empire is relatively small. The only one that currently poses the greatest threat to Britain is the Netherlands. The Kingdom of the Netherlands' current actions in Chile pose an immediate and obvious threat to British interests and values. "

Queen Victoria also said, "British warships will continue to play a role in containing the expansion of Dutch influence in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. If the Kingdom of the Netherlands launches an attack on Britain and Britain's partner Argentina, the solution will be something that the British and Dutch are not willing to see. That would be a total war between the two countries."

Even the great Queen Victoria of England personally went to the "crusade" against the Dutch subjugation!

It was gratifying that the struggle between the Netherlands and England, which had been sparked by national attention to South America, had finally risen to the top.Especially other bystanders, or people who want to reap the benefits of the fisherman.

Soldier to soldier, general to general, king to king!
Naturally, William IV will not continue to hide in Melbourne.

"As the most advanced industrialized country in Europe, the United Kingdom has been the leader in European development for hundreds of years. The Netherlands greatly admires the UK's huge contribution to the world economy.

But Her Majesty Queen Victoria should have heard a classic saying in the Far East: 30 years to the east of the river and 30 years to the west!
Another more popular saying is that as the tides turn, come to my house next year!Most people who have now migrated to the Far East and the Netherlands understand the meaning of these two sentences. The general idea is that there is no eternal overlord in the world, and there is no eternal winner.

The current economic scale of the Netherlands is comparable to that of the United Kingdom, its industrial scale exceeds that of the United Kingdom, and its technological advancement surpasses the United Kingdom in most types.

Militarily, as mentioned in the British "National Defense Strategy" report, our surface ships have reached [-]% of the UK's total tonnage, and the size of our submarines is twice that of the UK, and we are serving second-generation submarines. , and this is the first generation of British submarines.

In international relations, the Netherlands has more advantages than the United Kingdom. For example, the Kingdom of the Netherlands has its most loyal allies such as Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, Greece, and the Kingdom of Siam. It also has the Commonwealth of America, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, We have allies with a common strategy such as Argentina. We also have core partners with common concepts such as the Russian Empire, the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and Mexico. Of course, other countries such as Italy, north and south France, and the Netherlands have a close relationship with each other. It’s not bad either, it’s a Dutch partner.

On the contrary, it is the UK. Currently, the UK’s offshore balancing methods in Europe for many years have made countries very wary of the UK. Currently, the UK’s only allies are the post-split Confederate States of America in the south and the Mascaiano government in southern Chile. , Kingdom of Belgium.Of the others, only Portugal counts as half, while Italy is Britain's closer partner and the Ottoman Empire is Britain's partner.As for the Second French Empire, its closeness to Britain showed that the German Empire had become more hostile because of Britain's latest National Defense Strategy.

Faced with Britain, whose economic strength, military strength, imperial examination strength and international prestige are weaker than or cannot surpass the Netherlands, why does the Netherlands still need to be timid? Why can't the Netherlands stand up bravely and contribute its own strength to the world? ? "

Finally, William IV said confidently at the Dutch Palace in Melbourne: “I think the Netherlands should contribute more in the future, instead of standing still or going backwards.

In order to achieve this goal, the Netherlands announced that it will help its allies to upgrade their submarines in the next 5-10 years. Our plan is to formulate a new Dutch Defense Law within ten years. Help the Netherlands and other allies and partners sell the second-generation submarines currently in service in the Netherlands according to the degree of intimacy with the Netherlands.

Except for second-generation submarines, in the past, the sales of 1875-type Mauser rifles to a single country were limited to no more than 1 units per year. We will relax the quantity restrictions in the new national defense law and sell according to the highest alliance level. 5.

In addition, the Dutch government has formulated an economic strategy. In the future, the Netherlands will promote the Pacific Rim economic strategy and support the economic development of these countries.
Finally, we, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, will not take the initiative to challenge the United Kingdom, but we, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, will not easily compromise to the United Kingdom that challenges us. And I solemnly say here: The world has changed, and the United Kingdom should follow the trend and compromise when it is necessary. Bar! "

(End of this chapter)