Chapter 112

As a member of the British Privy Council, the Marquis of Salisbury has been feeling exhausted recently. Over the past few months, there have been more than two meetings a week. Such frequent meetings have made him an elderly man in his 60s. strenuous.

The situation in Europe is changing, and there is a lot of trouble here in London.

The death of Prince Albert has caused a huge blow to the Queen. He can clearly see that the Queen has become lazy recently. She is no longer enthusiastic about things, but is forced to meet difficulties. This is what the Queen is currently dealing with. State of mind when it comes to European affairs.

However, this result shocked the representatives of the Privy Council nobles, because it means that the Whigs, as the rulers, can go beyond their powers and get more authorization from the Queen when the Queen is unwilling to manage them. This made the Tories more passive.

This is also the reason why he wants to put his free son, Robert, into his friend Russell. Under the hopeless rule of the Tory party, it is a good choice.

Robert loves diplomacy, he discovered it at an early age.

He also designed his development route at the beginning, but unfortunately, because of Georgiana's affairs, the relationship between the two finally had a crisis of tension, and the father and son had a separation.

However, as Georgiana continued to give birth to three direct descendants of the Cecil family, she gained the recognition of the entire Cecil family.

This time, it was obviously to give his son a chance, but it was actually to ease the relationship. Naturally, his three grandsons could often return to the Cecil family as if they could recognize their ancestors and return to their ancestors.

Once very conservative, he did not think that Robert was so young to be able to take on a big responsibility, so he has always been hesitant to promote his rise in British politics.

It was precisely because he saw the young Dutch William IV stirring up trouble in Europe. After realizing the power of young people, he let him look away. He didn't know why for a while, thinking that he was bigger than William IV. His son Cecil, who is nearly ten years old and has been extremely intelligent since childhood, even wondered what it would be like if there was his son in the current Downing Street cabinet, and even if he formed a cabinet and became the Prime Minister?

As soon as this idea came out, he was startled, and at the same time, he was extremely moved.

If there is a prime minister in the Robert family, then the status of the Cecil family in the UK will forever be a part of the aristocratic legend in British history.

If he can really become the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, then the strength of the Cecil family will be greatly increased, and it can be regarded as a great development boost for his own family.

Because of this, from the very beginning, he urgently and directly said this problem, and at the same time, it was also to ignore the unpleasantness of the two at the beginning, and not to continue to be obsessed with it.

Of course Robert felt a sense of happiness now.

It was like the feeling of being hit by a pie from the sky. Surprise was the adjective for his mood at the moment, but he soon calmed down.

After years of maturity on the fringes of the political arena, I knew that the opportunity for the Cecil family to provide resources to fully support his rise in British politics was at hand.

If he wants to pass the level, he needs to devote 12% of his energy to deal with the next challenge.

"If I'm serious about generalizing, I think we should look at how things are going at the most basic level"

"Go on." The Marquis of Salisbury looked at Robert, then did not speak.

"In this round of competition between Britain and the Netherlands, as well as France and Prussia, the relationship came suddenly and inexplicably became tense.

Of course, the original reason was naturally because we were too enthusiastic about our support for Belgium, so it was spread in Europe that the ultimate goal of our British Empire was to station troops in Belgium.

The abominable thing is that the Palmerston cabinet government did not have any refutation, which made people feel that it was just right, and finally made the three countries come together.

In particular, the three countries directly announced their alliance, which made Palmerston's cabinet furious.

Among them, the most unnecessary thing in our opinion is that the Whig party cabinet actually chose to confront the hard way, to form an alliance with the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy, and they also believed that they would support Austria and the German Confederation to disintegrate the influence of Prussia. To weaken Prussia's position in the German Confederation, to achieve the effect of knocking the mountain and shaking the tiger, so as to make Prussia retreat.

However, William I and Bismarck were obviously dissatisfied, so they directly ignored the British move.

This is the superficial relationship that caused Shikoku to deteriorate completely, and it entered a stage of white deterioration.

Needless to say, it is natural that the United Kingdom began to fall into a passive situation in Europe, and the three countries acted as a barrier, blocking the communication between the United Kingdom and Europe based on the British Isles, and it seemed out of place to hang out overseas.

In particular, the joint fleet established by the three countries and the establishment in the Indian Ocean made the British fight against the scale even more, and the relations between the four countries became rigid in the end.

The Netherlands has repeatedly broken through its own limits and sought the support of Sweden, a big Nordic country. The two countries have formed an alliance. France has since dared to confront the United Kingdom because of the goodwill released by the two countries.

The three countries cooperated most vividly in Belgium, but the United Kingdom was exhausted, which eventually caused Belgium to be divided, and lost more than 60% of its territory and population. It can be called success or failure.

In 1830, as foreign minister, Palmerston made Belgium a sensation around the world, but now he is passive and questioning his ability to govern because the kingdom of Belgium is torn apart.

It can be called the impermanence of the world, step by step.

However, I have to be amazed that Palmerston is indeed the most resourceful diplomatic figure in the UK for hundreds of years. He finally used the transaction between the Netherlands and Tsarist Russia to peep an opportunity to ease tensions and exchange colonies with the Netherlands. , once came to bring instability to the relationship between the three countries, increasing the suspicion within the three countries, thus proving that the interests of the three countries are not monolithic, and prying open the solidified screws of the three countries.

I took a sip of Georgiana's coffee, and suddenly found that I felt better after drinking it. Compared with the past, the effect seems to be particularly good today.

Heart sigh, really, people are in a good mood when they have a happy event. The effect of drinking coffee is different in different environments.

"However, although this is in sight, the actions of the three countries in South Africa show that the three countries are jointly acting overseas to break the British monopoly of expansion. They obviously trust them very firmly. If the three countries want to expand, the British mired in the quagmire is the biggest opportunity. Therefore, the whole world knows about the secret support of the three countries in South Africa.

The purpose, of course, is to weaken the British overseas power, and even the mobile power is trapped there.

Militarily speaking, the UK has almost exhausted more than 50% of the standing army mobile army, and for this reason, the domestic support for other places has fallen into a tense shortage. In this regard, I think we are in a crisis, after all, if other places When there is a war, we will be instantly passive."

"Continue talking." The Marquis of Salisbury said three words, and continued to lean back on the chair with his mouth closed.

"Since we talk about the source of the deterioration of the relationship between the four countries, then we can see why our relationship has been maintained for so long."

Rob Robert paused, and then confidently continued: "The three countries are all regional powers, yes, so is the Netherlands now, at least I think so.

I think as one of the representatives of the old British aristocracy, my father can see clearly better than any Englishman, and now the strength of these old British rivals is growing."

The Marquis of Salisbury was noncommittal.

Seeing this, Robert was not annoyed, but instead became more and more energetic, which really made people wonder if he was the type of person who became more and more brave, but this is the physical condition that a leader should have.

"The rise of Prussia in the German Confederation has threatened Austria's dominance. Think about the North German Customs Union reaching 18 countries, while the South German Customs Union is Austria's means of countering Prussia's plundering of influence. Only 10 countries.

It can be seen from this that Austria can no longer suppress Prussia, which is why the Queen is willing to marry Princess Victoria to Frederick, Crown Prince of Prussia, in order to win over the rise of Prussia.

Grasp the lifeblood of the new situation in Europe. It is a pity that the rise of Bismarck and others stopped the Queen and Palmerston's plan. Obviously, the Prussians are not fools. They will not easily accept the British dare to be willing to develop relations with their foreign policies. The alliance of France and the Netherlands is the best illustration, and it has to be an ironic response to our constant focus on preventing the alliance between Prussia and the Russian Empire."

"The struggle between Britain and France has reached a bottleneck. This bottleneck is due to the development of colonial disputes in the Far East. Especially after the Middle East Suez Canal competition for France lost to us, Napoleon III is more suitable for the dissatisfaction in his heart. .

Later, they launched the practice of supporting the Kingdom of Sardinia against Austria. Unfortunately, in the end, we took away their Mediterranean ally, which made Napoleon III deeply frustrated. more favourable to the UK

However, this time, the Three Kingdoms' actions in Africa have benefited. I think Napoleon III can no longer raise his pillow and count sheep, but he can sleep peacefully for a few days. "

"As for the Netherlands, father, I have been observing the Netherlands, and I have found that William IV of the Netherlands has been avoiding a head-to-head showdown with the UK. It is so beautiful that Viscount Palmerston can only spend a lot of time on diplomatic activities with the three countries, not the Netherlands alone, every time.

Viscount Palmerston is now facing a much smarter and smaller opponent, but this opponent is a master who can use strength to fight."

"That said, but"