Start 1861: I just inherited the Dutch throne

Chapter 945 The decisive battle between Britain and the Netherlands will take place in America?
William IV ignored Lyndon's various envy, but returned to the Brazilian election just now: "Can the United Kingdom continue to advance its global hegemony and whether it will truly decline? Can the Netherlands achieve a sustainable rise and check and balance the United Kingdom? The final will be in South America, not Europe."

Lin Deng stared anxiously at first, and asked himself secretly with doubts: Why does Your Majesty think so?
William IV: "As the Netherlands moved its capital to the Far Eastern Australian continent and took root, its influence in the Indo-Pacific region and even the Middle East affairs increased day by day. The Netherlands became the most important country in this region, and its influence gradually increased, conquering colonial India and Southeast Asia. Great Britain with a large number of colonies;
Europe maintains the Nordic Alliance formed with Sweden, Denmark and Spain, has stable relations with its Greek allies, and has maintained a semi-alliance with the Russian Empire for many years.

This has brought the Netherlands security benefits in some European territories and influence in the European region. However, it is still far behind the United Kingdom. After all, the British Isles are there, and Belgium and Portugal have strong British allies. On the side of Britain, although the Ottoman Empire is not very confident about Britain, Britain is the Ottoman Empire's most important and most trusted ally compared to other countries.

Therefore, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria allowed Britain to fully stabilize Southeast Europe with the support of the Mediterranean fleet and Egypt;
In Africa, the United Kingdom owns South Africa, the Sudan region, and the African part of Egypt, but compared to the Netherlands, it owns the North and South Congo, Gabon, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Madagascar, northern Angola, northern Mozambique, northern Zimbabwe, the Mauritius Islands, etc. , the United Kingdom occupies key areas of important waterways in North and South Africa, while the Netherlands occupies the transverse continent in central Africa and the highways that run through the region.

The Netherlands is currently organizing African blacks with Dutch nationality and aboriginal immigrants from the Australian continent and the East Indies (today's India-Nepal) to build a railway artery with a main line and multiple branch lines.

Go straight east from Kinshasa, the capital of Congo, to Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi (on the northern coast of Lake Tanganyika, the largest lake in Africa), then southeast to Dodoma, the capital of Tanzania, and then east to Dar es Salaam on the coast. port.

This is the first planned east-west railway under construction that runs through Africa. Construction started in 1880, and it is expected that this railway will be opened to traffic in 1890.

The second plan under review is for the Netherlands to claim Luanda, the original capital of North Angola, after defeating Portugal, and then go east to the city of Luau at the junction of Angola and southern Congo, and then go south to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia.The eastern direction extends from Blantyre in Malawi to the port of Quelimane in Mozambique.

The second plan would probably begin construction in 1890. , opened to traffic ten years later in 1900.

When these two railways are fully opened to traffic, their influence in Africa will be greatly increased, and their global transportation influence will not be much inferior to that of the United Kingdom, which occupies key straits in global waterways. "

Following the thoughts coming out of William IV's mouth, Linden couldn't help but become excited.

Not to mention, the opening of these two railways will greatly reduce the monopoly of the United Kingdom, which occupies the Suez Canal in South Africa and northern Africa.

William IV: “As the Netherlands’ influence in regional affairs in Europe, Asia and Africa increases, the Netherlands’ global influence has once again risen to a higher level, but the UK and the Netherlands will next focus on their territory, strength, and comprehensive national strength in the Americas. "Based on the current situation of the Anglo-Dutch conflict, there seems to be no sign of a Napoleonic war triggered by the Anglo-Dutch, but at least there is currently no skeleton who has expressed that it will support the British in substantive military operations. War with the Netherlands. Because why? Because every country is unwilling to draw fire, Japan in the Far East has newly allied with Britain, but privately showed favor to us; France is pro-British, but France has not been seen in recent British actions; The Ottoman Empire and the United Kingdom are allies, but many times they would rather sell their land to us. Isn't this a sign of goodwill?
These countries are unwilling to let the war break out around them, in order to avoid fulfilling their covenants to help Britain fight the war with the Netherlands. Even Portugal, although it does not deal with the Netherlands, has an ally relationship with Spain and uses Spain to ease the dispute with the Netherlands. "

William IV said again: "But if Britain and the Netherlands were in the Americas, these countries would definitely fight against us, hoping that we would fight to death in the Americas, and in the end they would take advantage. Not only did he open the door, Germany and Austria-Hungary were among them. "Leader"

"So, at present, we, the UK and the Netherlands, will all choose peaceful confrontation, forcing these countries to stand aside. However, it has already predicted that there will be such a hypothetical situation in the future. If the United States and the French Empire cannot complete the peaceful reunification- , these two countries respectively launch military operations to the south, and it is possible that two major wars will occur simultaneously in America and Europe.

On the side of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Confederate States of South America, it is currently unknown whether the United States is supported by the Netherlands or the German Empire, but it has the greatest chance of being unified. "

"As for France, Napoleon III and Queen Victoria of England may have agreed that Britain will support the unification of France, but behind the Third French Republic in the south is the rising power of the German Empire. Now that the German-Austrian Alliance is huge, Britain needs to avoid its edge, and Britain will stand Will it come out to help Napoleon III oppose the existence of the German-Austrian Alliance? I don’t think so. Therefore, the unification of the two Frances is more unreliable than the unification of the United States, but it is not impossible that the United Kingdom will stand on the side of Paris to support it, although the intensity is limited.”

After Linden thought for a moment, he said: "According to His Majesty's statement, the reorganization and upgrading of the European League of Nations may lead to a new pattern of wars in the second half of the 19th century: Britain, the Second French Empire, Belgium, Portugal , Ottoman on one side; with the German-Austrian Alliance and the French Third Republic on one side;
Italy may favor Britain and France.

Other European countries such as Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Tsarist Russia will remain neutral."

"If this is the case, it will become a confrontation between the three major camp countries. The resulting war will definitely be global. It will be more terrifying than the Napoleonic War of more than ten years at the beginning of this century. Moreover, this is only the European part, not just the European part. Counting the colonies and other countries around the world, at that time, the aerial photography world will once again use military victory or defeat as a basis to reorganize the global governance system.

When William IV thought about the First World War 30 years later and the Second World War 60 years later, he couldn't help but become more worried about the future. He found that the speed of the Netherlands' development was still somewhat full and should be accelerated.

(End of this chapter)