Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

"We need to increase access to the sea in West Africa. Just relying on the mouth of the Congo River is not enough. Our Portuguese attack is an example. Since Portugal gave us the excuse, we must tear off a piece of flesh from Portugal to make up for the original shortcomings."

With the tone set by William IV in the Privy Council, the Netherlands began to make arrangements for this.

On April 25, 1864, William IV of the Netherlands ordered Martinas, the Under-Secretary of War for West Africa, and George Nash, the Under-Secretary of War for East Africa, to speed up the counterattack.

On April 28, 1864, Portugal was finally forced by the situation in Angola. Nearly 30,000 people retreated from the north bank of the Congo River estuary back to the south, all the way back to the two Luandas for defense.

But it seems a bit late at this time.

The Netherlands also sent 20,000 mixed soldiers from Cabinda on the north bank of the Congo River south to the town of Nzeto in the north of Luanda.

At the same time, the 20,000 Transvaal troops in Uige moved east of Luanda. More than 10,000 people went south and violently attacked Endalatando, letting people know what it means to be a fighting master.

When the time arrived on April 30, the Dutch national anthem "Ode to Wilhelm" was sung there.

At the same time, George Nash of Kananga also made it clear that the Orange army did not belong to the Transvaal soldiers.

When George Nash personally led the 10,000 Orange soldiers to capture Malanje and rushed to Endaratando, he presided over the eastward attack on Luanda.

Wanbo in the south was also captured.

At this point, in just one month, Angola has occupied all major towns except Luanda, Benguela, Namibe, and Lubango.

Even now, with the encirclement pressure brought by George Nash of the eastern Netherlands and Martinas of the northern Dutch army after crossing the Congo River, Portugal's situation in Angola is dangerous.

Portugal can no longer live there.

So Portugal launched a diplomatic operation.

On May 1, Portuguese Prime Minister Barreto visited the Kingdom of Italy. After paying a courtesy visit to King Emmanuel II of Italy, he held talks between the two prime ministers with Marco Minghetti, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy.

Later, at a press conference that day, Italian Prime Minister Marco Minghetti expressed Italy's firm support for Portugal, Italy's ally, regarding its position on the battle for African colonies that broke out between the Netherlands and Portugal.

Formation Prussia actually sent troops to occupy Ongiva to express its condemnation.

Italy will formulate plans to support Portugal, including sending troops to support Portugal, which is at a disadvantage in Angola.

With the marriage between Italy and Portugal last year, all countries have noticed that the father-in-law and son-in-law of Emmanuel II of Italy and Louis I of Portugal seem to have an increasingly tacit understanding.

The positions of the two countries have repeatedly converged in Europe, and they have adopted a unified foreign policy.

Italy's location in the Mediterranean has made Italy known as a southern European power since its establishment, so no one dares to ignore Italy's opinions.

Marco Minghetti said that currently Italian officials in Milan believe that it is very unacceptable for Portugal to encounter the Dutch invasion of Mozambique and Angola, and Portugal is the victim.

He revealed that Italy will formulate a plan as soon as possible to empower the Italian Defense Forces to support Portugal's counterattack.

He said that the tools available to Italy include not allowing Dutch ships to dock in Italian mainland ports and port rights in Italian Libya in the Mediterranean, suspending the purchase of Dutch products, and increasing international condemnation of the Dutch incursions.

Marco Minghetti pointed out at a public conference in Milan: "What Portugal did to the Netherlands was a clear invasion. The Netherlands was using the same methods it used to attack Africans on the Portuguese. This is What is undesirable is a form of coercion. They are pointing their guns at white Europeans. We must put pressure on them to stop this dangerous activity."

The conflict between the Dutch and Portuguese was due to Portugal's declaration that Congo did not belong to the Netherlands, despite Dutch rule in the Congo in Africa.

After the Dutch's persuasion failed, Portugal sent troops to invade the north bank of the Congo River.

Then, the Netherlands announced that it was severing diplomatic relations with Portugal.

The Netherlands then counterattacked and penetrated deep into the eastern and central parts of Angola and the northern bank of the Zambezi River in Mozambique.

Brazil was even sanctioned for this.

Italian Prime Minister Marco Minghetti said: "It doesn't matter why the fighting started between the Netherlands and Portugal. What matters is how the Netherlands chooses to deal with the Netherlands' grievances."

He stated that although Italy does not have any prejudice against the Netherlands, a large country in northern Europe, it also respects King William IV of the Netherlands very much.

But he believes that "this does not mean that Italy can tolerate the Netherlands turning a blind eye to the Portuguese invasion, that it cannot use the Italians' good opinion of the Netherlands to cover up our dissatisfaction, and that it cannot maintain harmonious relations between Italy and the Netherlands at the expense of our sympathy for Portugal. Therefore, we are here sided with Portugal in the dispute."

The day after the Prime Minister spoke these words in Milan, not long after Portuguese Prime Minister Barreto returned to Lisbon. However, news came from Angola that made the two of them unhappy.

And this news completely made the situation in Africa become such that kings, cabinets and prime ministers of European countries could no longer sit still.

It turned out that on May 2, Luanda in Angola was finally captured by Martinas and George Nash. Benedetto Cairoli, the Portuguese Governor of Angola, led more than 10,000 remnant troops under the cover of the navy and headed south. After crossing the Kwanza River, we arrived at the city of Sunbe. However, because small towns such as Kibala and Musende had already fallen into the hands of the Dutch army, Benedetto Cairoli was worried that he was in a dangerous environment, not to mention the Netherlands in the north. The army is also heading south and will soon arrive outside the small town of Gabela.

So 5,000 Portuguese troops were left to defend Sunbei, and they went south to Benguela, a large city that Portugal had built over the years, and at the same time applied for reinforcements from Lisbon.

Is the Netherlands about to occupy the entire Angola?

This caused a huge change in the faces of all countries. The Netherlands was already the largest in Africa, even bigger than France and second only to the United Kingdom.

This is embarrassing for other countries.

Therefore, Italian Prime Minister Marco Minghetti's speech gave various countries different interpretations, but it was also an excuse, especially for countries that were dissatisfied with the Netherlands.

Austrian Prime Minister Archduke Rainer Ferdinand criticized the Dutch team for the invasion of Portugal.

He pointed out that over the past many years, Europe has made great progress in eliminating colonial rule around the world. This was the result of the constraints of various countries within the European colonial system, rather than the influence of other countries.

When questioned, Archduke Rainer Ferdinand said that last week in London, the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Austria, Portugal, and Italy held a meeting. All countries have understood the importance of this issue for many years.

He also said that all participating countries have a clear understanding of this.

He even announced that at the foreign ministers' meeting held in London a few days ago, one of the most important items was the war between the Netherlands and Portugal.

He said: "We all believe that there should never be a war for colonies."

He also said that the foreign ministers in London have pledged to cooperate a lot through this dialogue to ensure that this situation does not happen again in Africa.

The Austrian Empire did not border the Netherlands, but as the Austrian Empire invaded Ethiopia, the Netherlands sold various weapons to Ethiopia, making Austria's invasion of Ethiopia more difficult.

Therefore, I have long complained deeply about the Netherlands.

What's more, in early 1862, when William IV chose to form an alliance with Austria's old enemy Prussia, the relationship between the Netherlands and Austria began to show tension.

The Austrian government at the time tried to persuade the Netherlands, but to no avail.

Even when Austria later threatened to enter the South German Confederation's Customs Union, the Netherlands remained indifferent. It even used the Principality of Luxembourg to intervene in the battles between Austria and Prussia within the German Confederation from time to time, leaving Austria helpless. After all, Luxembourg was also in the South German Confederation.

And more importantly, many members of the South German Customs Union rely on Dutch ports to transport products, so they do not want to offend the Netherlands. This makes Austria's position towards the Netherlands not shared by other countries.

Austria was furious here, but she could only endure it at that time.

This war between the Netherlands and Portugal just gave Austria an excuse to curse.

When Archduke Rainer Ferdinand was asked whether he sympathized with Portugal when it was invaded by the Dutch, he agreed.

He said that the invasion of the Netherlands and Portugal had had the opposite effect, and accused the Netherlands of invading methods. When countries forced countries to look at the Netherlands again, they no longer looked at the Netherlands with the eyes of a peaceful Netherlands. Instead, it made the Netherlands more dangerous and popular with everyone. The Netherlands will lose a European partner that many European countries recognize as reliable.

The Dutch denied that they were invading Portugal.

Prime Minister Tolbeck responded, insisting that this was Portugal's counterattack against their provocation against the Dutch overseas territory of the Congo. This was a tit-for-tat thing. All European countries knew the latitude and longitude, and knew the cause and effect of the incident.

"Some people like to mix things up and spread rumors, but no matter what, the matter is there. We are the victims, not the perpetrators. We are using the application to fight against the invaders. We must teach them a lesson as a winner and make them pay the maximum. The price is so that they will never have the thought of repeating it again, this is what we are doing.”

When asked what the Netherlands' position was regarding Austria's actions in Ethiopia.

Tolbeck said: “We do not take a position, but we are just like Prime Minister Bismarck, and the Netherlands needs to be like Prussia in protecting its interests in Ethiopia from being harmed. We hope Austria can understand this.

Although I'm a little worried about it."

In addition, someone asked Prime Minister Tolbeck that Portugal's Prime Minister Barreto accused the Netherlands of violating the border agreement between the two countries when Mozambique made a sneak attack and occupied Portugal's land north of the Zambezi River.

Tolbeck said: “After maintaining a relatively stable and peaceful border between Tanzania and Mozambique, Portugal’s actions in Angola have made us no longer trust Portugal, and the indigenous Mozambicans there have also proposed to us the idea of ​​joining the Netherlands. Therefore, the Netherlands has After many considerations, we finally prevented the Portuguese from attacking us in Southeast Africa, and the indigenous people repeatedly begged us, and we granted them."

Tolbeck also said that he has received an invitation from the British government and will participate in a meeting to discuss the interests of various countries in Africa, scheduled for May 15.