Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

The actions of the United States are also expected by various countries.

What's more, both the north and the south of the United States have too much to take care of themselves, so how can they still have the energy to deal with the conflicts between the Netherlands, Portugal, and Brazil.

Portugal naturally doesn't want Brazil to back down over this.

So Portugal made a move that completely dumbfounded all countries.

The Portuguese army in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) in western Mozambique went directly north and launched an attack from the Portuguese colony of Harare to the Dutch-occupied Chinoy, but was finally stopped. Portugal even lost more than 500 soldiers. .

It turns out that the Dutch soldiers here are South African Transvaal soldiers who have experienced battles in the battlefield. They had fought wars with the British in South Africa for many years.

Facing the Portuguese army, which was accustomed to bullying the natives, they were naturally not a problem.

Although it successfully stopped the other party, the Dutch government does not intend to let the other party go.

Thus issued the strongest statement to Portugal.

On January 30, 1864, all personnel of the Dutch Embassy in Portugal were evacuated, and the Portuguese Embassy personnel were required to leave the Netherlands immediately and return to their respective homelands.

Then on February 1, the Netherlands announced that it would break off diplomatic relations with Portugal.

Afterwards, the Netherlands stated that it would impose economic sanctions on Brazil, and all Dutch people were not allowed to make new investments in Brazil until the Dutch government allowed it.

The series of actions by the Netherlands made other countries realize that the situation was getting more and more serious.

However, the territories of the Netherlands and Portugal are not connected, so it is impossible to fight on the mainland.

This is why European countries have not stopped it so far.

In fact, the Netherlands and Portugal are weakening each other's strength in Africa. This is also a self-interested thing for each country.

Especially for Tsarist Russia, Austria, etc., they had great power status in Europe, but because of their late start, they were not as big as the colonies of the Netherlands and Portugal in Africa, which made them dissatisfied for a long time.

In the current dispute between the two countries, it is best for both sides to suffer losses, so that each country can take advantage of the opportunity to expand its power in Africa.

Therefore, even though they call for peace on the surface, they are actually watching the fire from the other side and adding fuel to the fire.

A standoff developed in Cabinda as the two countries increased their troops in Angola and Congo.

It was originally thought that this pattern would calm the two countries for a period of time, but a scene that shocked European countries occurred.

On February 10, 1864, a Dutch army of more than 40,000 men landed in the Portuguese colony of Mozambique.

And in just one week, they completely occupied the entire territory north of the Zambezi River in Mozambique.

This completely shocked everyone. At the same time, many people had questions, where did this Dutch army come from?

It turned out that as early as last month when Portugal attacked the Congo, the Netherlands had begun recruiting troops in the Dutch East Indies.

After completion, more than 30,000 indigenous troops and 10,000 Dutch troops were secretly transported from the Dutch East Indies. After half a month of crossing the Indian Ocean, they arrived in the northern port city of Antseranana in Madagascar. and a stop at Mahajanga (also called Mahajanga).

With the severance of diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and Portugal, instructions came from Amsterdam, so this army finally chose February 10 to directly land in northern Mozambique.

The first place to land in Mozambique on February 10 was Mekufi, a small town south of Pemba City in the north.

The Netherlands landed 10,000 people here, but there were also 5,000 Portuguese troops stationed here. The defenders were not much weaker than the 10,000 Dutch troops who attacked the city.

It is not easy for the Netherlands to attack 5,000 Portuguese troops inside Pemba City with 10,000 Dutch troops.

Naturally, the Netherlands did not only have this deployment. Just when the Portuguese defenders were confused, the Dutch chrysanthemum army appeared in the north and headed south.

It turned out that the Dutch troops from Tanzania had already been assembled. Within the agreed time, long before the Netherlands landed in Mozambique, the Dutch Tanzanian troops had already begun to move southward, forming a north-south joint attack on Pemba City.

In the end, under the combined attack of Dutch warships on the north and south land and at sea, the 5,000 Portuguese troops in Pemba City finally surrendered after more than 3,000 casualties.

As soon as the gate of northern Mozambique was opened, the North Dutch Army, together with 50,000 African indigenous troops composed of Tutsi, Hutu, and East Indian tribes, began to sweep all the way south.

Mepra soon fell.

When the time came on February 15, under the attack of 30,000 troops who landed in Quelimane, it quickly fell into the hands of the Netherlands.

Due to Portugal's unpreparedness, in just over a week before February 20, the entire Zambezi River Basin was occupied by the Netherlands, and the armies of the two countries even reached the bottom of the Gorongosa Mountains before stopping.

At that time, Portugal also launched an attack in the direction of Angola, because Louis I felt that East India was closer to East Africa, giving the Netherlands an advantage, so Portugal opened a second battlefield and chose Angola in the south of the Atlantic Ocean to attack Congo.

Brazil also announced that it was dissatisfied with the Dutch attack on Portugal, so it mobilized its army to support Portugal.

What is even more surprising is that Argentina, a powerful South American country, chose to support the Netherlands and sent warships to intercept Brazilian warships.

Portugal saw that when the Netherlands supported Africa in Europe, it would need to pass through the English Channel and the sea off Brazil to go south, so it was a smart move to attack the mouth of the Congo River and join forces with Brazil.

All countries were surprised by the strict deployment made by Louis I, and they also paid unprecedented attention to the king of Portugal.

But they never expected that the Netherlands would start from the Far East. This was the reason why Louis I underestimated the strength of the Netherlands in the Far East.

It was not just Louis I who underestimated the strength of the Netherlands in the Far East.

No one in other countries in the world understands the strength of the Netherlands in the Far East.

In this deployment of the Dutch-Portuguese African War, various countries finally discovered how great the war potential of the Dutch Far East was.

They even realized how terrible the Netherlands was after possessing Australia and the East Indies.

The war between the Netherlands and Portugal has reached this point, and is almost a declaration of war.

On February 25, 1864, William IV signed a national mobilization order, and the Netherlands announced a nationwide mobilization, requiring everyone to have one month of military training a year.

Portugal also tracks all Dutch warships heading south and is on guard at any time.

At the same time, the two countries also announced to accelerate the construction of naval warships to deal with the crisis.

Portugal announced that it will build an additional 30,000-ton navy in the next five years and place an order with the United Kingdom to purchase an additional 20,000-ton warships. The most eye-catching thing is that Portugal will purchase a steam first-class battleship from the United Kingdom.

The Netherlands did not give in much, announcing that it would build more than 50,000 tons of warships in the next five years.

But what is surprising is that the Netherlands also placed orders with the United Kingdom and France at the same time, asking the two countries to build an additional steam first-class battleship for the Netherlands, with a total of more than 10,000 tons.

The total new tonnage in the Netherlands is 60,000 tons.

The Dutch and Portuguese purchases of navies from Britain made Britain very embarrassed. It was not a question of who built them first.

It's a question of whether to accept the order or not.

The navies of Portugal and the Netherlands are not weak among the navies of various European countries, and they are among the top ten in the world.

The Netherlands currently has about 90,000 tons, ranking eighth in the world like the United States, and Portugal has 120,000 tons, ranking fourth with Tsarist Russia.

Portugal increased its production by 50,000 tons to reach 170,000 tons, while the Netherlands also reached 150,000 tons.

This is the main reason for Britain's hesitation.

Because the UK's current tonnage is 230,000 tons, although it is only on the surface, but so are other countries.

France ranked second with 190,000 tons, while Spain ranked third with only 170,000 tons.

In other words, if the tonnage of other countries remains unchanged, Portugal will rank third in the world's navy with Spain, and the Netherlands will also move from eighth to fifth.

If this is true, the proportion of Britain's naval tonnage in the world will shrink. At the same time, the navies of these countries will have the strength to challenge Britain's maritime status and it will be easier.

It's okay, France and Spain have already made the UK feel threatened, and with Portugal and the Netherlands, the UK will be uneasy.

Britain could no longer sit still, but before Lun could stand up and express his opinion.

The next actions of other countries shocked all the British, including Queen Victoria and Viscount Palmerston.

They did not expect that all European countries would take this as an opportunity to openly increase the size of their navies.

On March 1, 1864, the Kingdom of Prussia first stated that due to the actions of certain countries to increase naval tonnage, it threatened the maritime security of the Kingdom of Prussia. Therefore, in order to safeguard interests from the sea, Prussia strengthened its ability to protect its own maritime security and eliminate potential threats.

Prussia will build a navy equivalent to its own land strength based on the current tonnage of only 50,000 tons of warships.

At a time when countries are full of questions about what it means to be equal to land power.

On March 3, 1864, when the Prussian Army Chief of Staff Moltke was asked this question at a public event, he said that the Prussian Army was currently among the top five in Europe, so colleagues in the Prussian Navy could use this as a staff guide .

Top five?

If Prussia really takes this as a reference, if it wants to enter the top five navies, it must at least reach the level of the Dutch Navy, that is, it must reach 150,000 tons in five years.

This means that in just five years, the navy will be built twice the size of the current Prussian Navy!

This really scared all countries.

Especially the Austrian Empire, which was at odds with Prussia.

So news came from Vienna, announcing that the scale would be at least doubled from 70,000 tons, in order to increase the deployment of more warships in the Mediterranean, the Gulf of Guinea, and the Red Sea.

Although relations between Austria and Italy have eased due to British mediation, and because of the Ethiopian issue, both countries were provoked by Prussia.

However, in terms of threats in the Mediterranean, Italy's biggest threat still comes from Austria, because Austria's naval headquarters is located in the eastern Adriatic Gulf next to Italy.

So Italy also announced that it would build an additional capacity of no less than 30,000 tons, reaching 150,000 tons.

The Russian Empire had even more space to display its presence on the sea because of the province of North Kalimantan and Ghana.

Therefore, it also means that at the scale of 120,000 tons, it will at least reach the top three naval scales, so it also means that it will increase by 50,000 tons in the next five years.

France was naturally not to be outdone, so it announced an increase of no less than 40,000 tons, reaching the current level of Britain.

The British were dumbfounded as this started because of Portugal and the Netherlands, causing various countries to announce the trend of building naval warships.

In desperation, the UK has also joined this trend and announced that it will build more than 70,000 tons of warships in the next five years, reaching 300,000 tons.

At the same time, Britain was afraid that other countries would continue to compete in the competition to increase the number of navies, so it united with France and asked the Netherlands and Portugal to stop the war and hold peace talks in London on April 1.