Start 1861: I just inherited the Dutch throne

Chapter 892 The Dutch Ambassador makes trouble in Tokyo

East - Asia, Japan - Japan, East - Beijing.

Now the whole country is immersed in the joy of forming an alliance with the United Kingdom, the world's most powerful country.

In the past, they were wary of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, so in the early days of the Meiji Emperor, the trio of Saigo Takamori, Kido Takayoshi, and Amakubo Toshimichi had not directly completed the idea of ​​​​alliance with the United Kingdom in the past few years. They were afraid of the Netherlands. Reaction.

However, since the three people passed away or retired last year, and Shigenobu Okuma came to power at the end of the year and became the new Prime Minister of Japan, he began to put aside this concern, especially because the benefits offered by the British were so great that the Meiji Emperor of Japan Unable to refuse, he finally approved the Anglo-Japanese alliance treaty.

Since the conflict between Britain and the Netherlands in 1876, when Britain began to deploy in the Far East and hoped that Japan would raise Japan's status and curb the Netherlands' influence there, Britain and Japan began to negotiate a territorial alliance. the way.

Japan is also willing to be supported by the world's most powerful country to become a regional power, and has even turned its back on foreign affairs many times.

After more than three years of planning, it has naturally blossomed.

On April 1880, 4, the Japanese-Japanese Minister to the United Kingdom Ling Dong proposed the idea of ​​an Anglo-Japanese alliance plan to the then British Foreign Secretary Granville in his own name, and Granville also gave a few words in response.

On May 5, President Lin met with Granville on this issue and expressed Japan's willingness to form an alliance with Britain. On July 15, British Prime Minister Gladstone met with Lin Dong, the Japanese Foreign Minister, and expressed that the British government was willing to establish an alliance with Japan.

On July 7, the Japanese-Japanese government decided to adopt the policy of establishing an Anglo-Japanese alliance with the United Kingdom, and formally authorized Director Lin to negotiate with the British government on the issue of the Anglo-Japanese alliance.

11月6日英国提出了第一次在草案，11月28日，日本政府通过了日方修正案，12月7日的代课天-皇明-治的批准。

This also marked that the Anglo-Japanese alliance finally entered the stage of practical negotiations.

After repeated negotiations between Japan and Britain, Japan and Britain signed the "Anglo-Japanese Alliance Agreement and the First Anglo-Japanese Alliance" in London on January 1881, 1. It was originally intended to be a trump card, or Japan was afraid of offending too much. The Netherlands prevented the alliance between the two countries from being openly harmonized, but with the renewal of the alliance between the Netherlands and Sweden, Britain and Japan no longer concealed it. Especially after Britain's opposition, Japan and Japan compromised.

So the two principalities made the treaty public, but due to Japan's insistence, the treaty signing of the Anglo-Japanese alliance was finally changed into a counterattack after the Netherlands and Sweden signed the alliance.This makes Japan feel more comfortable when facing the Netherlands.

The main content of the treaty is as follows: "The two countries mutually recognize the special interests of the Qing Dynasty and the Koryo Peninsula. If the interests of any one of the two countries are violated in the Qing Dynasty and the Koryo Peninsula, or a war breaks out between the other country and the other country, Strictly maintain neutrality, and when the country sails into the ground or more countries help the warring parties, Britain, one of the contracting parties, will send troops to assist. This treaty is obviously a military alliance treaty for the Russian Empire and the Netherlands, and it has a significant impact on the future international pattern of East-North Asia. Impact."

Emperor Meiji looked distressedly at the letter of protest submitted by Morris, the Dutch ambassador to Japan, in his hand. Looking at the Dutch ambassador in front of him or speaking Japanese, Emperor Meiji had a headache.

"Maurice's protest against the alliance between Japan and the United Kingdom makes me disagree. Japan, as an independent country, has the right to establish its own alliance system. We will not agree with your country's opposition to us and the United Kingdom. Once an alliance is established, it must be terminated. Japan has its own national interests, so I will not accept the content of the ambassador’s letter of protest.”

While Emperor Meiji's attitude was very tactful, he also revealed his persistence in the alliance between Britain and Japan.

Since Morris came to Tokyo from the Netherlands in 1877, he has very professionally entered into his role of representing the national interests of the Netherlands and began to understand the country of Japan.Unlike European countries, Japan is actually a very conservative country, especially Japan's position is very embarrassing. The Qing Dynasty was much larger and stronger than Japan, but the Qing Dynasty also caused a lot of troubles. On the contrary, Japan In the past few years, Japan overthrew the shogunate rule. With the Meiji Restoration starting in the early 1860s and absorbing technology and capital from abroad, Japan turned out to be the domestic country with the fastest economic and industrial development in East Asia. Yes, except for the Netherlands, which is a foreign country. outside.

The development of Japan's economy and industry has ignited an unprecedented ambition among its citizens, that is, to defeat the Qing Dynasty and become the most powerful local country in East Asia.

So in the 70s, friendly visits to European and American countries began one after another. Every year, foreign ministers must visit abroad, which refers to more than two visits to Europe and the United States, both of which are visits.

It doesn’t hesitate to say it’s a pilgrimage.

Therefore, Japan has been able to quickly establish a good external environment in the past ten years.

Living in East Asia is becoming more and more prosperous.

It was not until the Anglo-Dutch rivalry in 1876 that Britain began to attach importance to Japan's position, which finally began to restrict regional powers from being supported to great power status.

From then on, Japan began to exploit the bad relations between Europe and the United States to get more of what Japan wanted.

But recently, Britain has been forced to let Japan go on like this. Morris and many people related to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands thought that Japan would follow the previous pace, even though there were already speculations about Okuma Shigenobu, a hardliner. , but still underestimated the other party's determination and ambition.

The Anglo-Japanese Alliance actually completed all the steps less than a year after he came to power.

In fact, the Emperor of Japan actually went against the grain and changed his past practice and agreed to it and signed it into effect.

So after getting the authorization from Melbourne, Maurice, the Dutch ambassador, hurriedly asked to see the Japanese Emperor Meiji Restoration. Finally, due to the strength of the Netherlands, Meiji still received him, but once Maurice came in, Here I met Japanese Prime Minister Kuma Shigenobu.However, he didn't care and directly raised his own dissatisfaction.

As a result, there was the rebuttal and firmness revealed by Emperor Meiji just now.

Morris sneered in his heart when he heard this, and said expressionlessly: "The Netherlands attaches great importance to its relationship with Japan. We do not agree that Japan is the enemy of the Netherlands, but if Japan destroys the national interests of the Netherlands, , if the global rivals of the Netherlands support the Netherlands to besiege the Netherlands and harm the interests of the Netherlands, then we will not compromise easily. We will fight back and retaliate. We, the Siwa women, can understand the intensity of our counterattack. Don’t go there. time to regret”

Morris' words were very unreasonable, but he acted very forcefully.

However, Emperor Meiji and Japanese Prime Minister Okuma Shigenobu were unwilling to confront each other directly.

However, the other party's arrogance also made the two of them very angry.

(End of this chapter)