v3 Chapter 259： USS Nassau and USS Orange

William IV: "I'm not afraid of leaks. In fact, we are also building, and we have already built two"

James: "My God, is this true? Does Your Majesty know the consequences of this statement?"

William IV: "Of course, but the Netherlands has become one of the most advanced naval countries in the world. As you just mentioned, the Netherlands has become the same as Britain and France with steam battleship technology and the ability to manufacture them. s country"

William IV "Britain faces the problem of diplomatic choices internationally, and the Mediterranean will not change the vigilance of many countries against Britain because of one or two Prime Minister's foreign visits.

Although the British Royal Navy is the best in the world, it does not have enough and safe non-supply ports, which will become a shortcoming for the United Kingdom.

In recent years, the international situation has been changing rapidly, including the Kingdom of the Netherlands, who feel that the world pattern is very different from 5 years ago. Therefore, the British used to rely on the navy to drive to other people's coastlines and make countries bow their heads. It seems that countries are very disgusted. "

James: "Is this in Your Majesty's opinion that the British navy is not enough to maintain the previous status of Britain? Well, it is that there is an earth-shaking difference between what His Majesty said 5 years ago and 5 years later."

William IV: "Nature is different, it's not just the Netherlands"

James: "Does this mean that Britain is in decline?"

William IV: "It's all over the world, but it can't be said that Britain is declining, it can only be said that other countries are progressing too fast..."

James: "What is the current attitude of the Netherlands towards the conduct of British foreign policy? Your Majesty, can this be said?"

William IV: "This is an embarrassing topic. Seriously speaking, the Netherlands has a love-hate relationship with the United Kingdom. Everyone knows that the United Kingdom had the closest integration under the rule of a single king. Lost advantage over Britain, including capital and naval advantage.

It is precisely because of such a profound history that when facing the United Kingdom, the Netherlands should be vigilant enough to guard against the United Kingdom. At the same time, because of the same national conditions, the Netherlands has a foreign policy based on contact with the United Kingdom. Therefore, in the past For several years, the relationship between the Netherlands and the United Kingdom has been in such a state of contradiction. "

James: "Just now, His Majesty talked about the unexpected fact that the Netherlands already owns two steam battleships. To be honest, I feel that my heart is still beating fast. I believe that with the emergence of this news, the world will cause a sensation, you know. Britain and France currently have three and four battleships of this type, respectively.

Four of them are French and one is a sail semi-steam product, and French battleships are generally small in tonnage, if the tonnage of Dutch steam battleships is large enough, then”

William IV: "I know what you're trying to say, but the tonnage of the new Dutch ships is no less than that of the British type."

James: "I'm curious, are the two steamships in the Netherlands named?"

William IV: "Naturally, the first was the Nassau, and the second was called the Orange"

James: "I have to say, it's a good name. Ask Your Majesty, can you tell me where the Nassau and the Orange are deployed? Shouldn't it be Amsterdam?"

William IV: "Yes, the Orange is currently in Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands of the Alaska Peninsula and Surabaya in the East Indies"

James: "The main ace of the Netherlands is actually deployed in the Far East Pacific?"

William IV: "In fact, the Dutch military in Europe is not weak."

James: "However, putting the most advanced military power in the Pacific Ocean shows that the Netherlands attaches great importance to that side. Does the Netherlands really attach so much importance to the Far East?"

William IV: "We are also very helpless. The Netherlands is surrounded by big countries. This is a very dangerous thing for the Netherlands. The Dutch strategic depth is too narrow. This environment makes it very difficult for the Netherlands to develop. There is no need to hide what everyone knows.

And the Far East is precisely the key to solving this problem for the Netherlands. We do not deny that the Netherlands wants to use this to make the Netherlands a great power. The Tsarist Russian Empire has occupied the entire northern half of the Eurasian continent with its continuous southward and eastward expansion for hundreds of years.

The United Kingdom, with the world's largest navy, has conquered cities and plundered islands in the world's seas, and has become a maritime hegemon.

The Netherlands does not have such capital. Therefore, the Netherlands can only compete for hegemony in the core circle of countries far away from Europe, and go to the Far East to open up wasteland. Yes, it is wasteland. We are going to build a new strong country, the Netherlands. "

James: "It seems that everything is going according to His Majesty and the Dutch government's plan, so congratulations on the prosperity of the Netherlands under His Majesty's leadership......"

. . . . .

The sale of the "Echo" around the world allowed William IV's remarks to be passed around the world, and the attitudes of various countries were different.

However, the implementation of William even used this newspaper to announce that the Netherlands had secretly become the third country that owns the most advanced steam battleships in the world navy, and the world was shocked for a while.

If Britain and France were able to have it before, so that other countries in the world could not afford to have ideas, then the possession of the Netherlands made some big countries in the world such as Prussia, Austria-Hungary and even Italy feel huge pressure.

Because of the pride that was deliberately promoted in the country, the expectations of the people were raised, so that the steam battleship suddenly appeared in the Netherlands, and they also asked their respective governments to let their countries join the ranks as soon as possible.

Naturally, they will not know how many accessories and matching technologies are needed to build such a steam battleship, but this is the counter-effect received by the managers under the policy of ignoring the people.

The people pay so much tax every year, they don't want to see a cowardly government, because it's a shame that it's a rare tax, what they want is not to be able to lag behind the glory of other countries, yes, it's that simple.

Therefore, including Prussia and Tsarist Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Spain and Portugal, Sweden, etc., because of this interview with William IV, they were very involved, and they couldn't help complaining about his crimes.

Even North America, the North and the South were confused by the news that the Netherlands suddenly had steam battleships.

Lincoln's government announced that it would approach the Kingdom of the Netherlands, asking the Netherlands to help the Commonwealth of Millikin build their fleet of steam battleships.

To this end, the Lincoln government announced that it would set up a special fund of more than 10 million US dollars (2 million pounds) to purchase and introduce the technology from the Netherlands.

$10 million, equivalent to 0.55% of their $1.8 billion GDP

This investment is not too big.

For this reason, the world is silent.

But the opponents of Lincoln's administration did not dare to remain silent.

The Davis government in the south stated that it did not want the Netherlands to grant this technology to the Lincoln government in the north, because it undermined the position that the Dutch government had always declared, that is, to maintain world peace, the Netherlands should not do this.

However, even they themselves do not believe that the Netherlands will achieve such a slogan.

Because they themselves say one thing and do another, this is a unique gene inherited from England.