Chapter 190

"We need to increase access to the sea in West Africa. It is not enough to rely on the mouth of the Congo River. Our attack by Portugal is an example. Since Portugal gave an excuse, we must tear a piece of meat from Portugal to make up for the original deficiency."

With the tune of William IV in the Privy Council, the Netherlands began to deploy it.

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

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

But it seemed a little too late now.

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

At the same time, the 20,000-strong Transvaal army in Uige moved to the east of Luanda. More than 10,000 people went south and attacked Ndalatando violently, making people know what a fighting man is.

When the time arrives on April 30, the Dutch national anthem "Wilhelmsde" is sung there.

At the same time, Kananga's George Nash made it clear that the Orange Army was not part of the Transvaal.

When George Nash personally led the 10,000 Orange soldiers to take Malange, and rushed to Ndalatando, presided over the east attack on Luanda.

And Huambo in the south was also taken.

So far, 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 in the east of the Netherlands and Martinas in the north after crossing the Congo River, Portugal is in a dangerous situation in Angola.

Portugal can no longer live.

So Portugal launched diplomatic action.

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 with the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy, Marco Mingotti, between the two Prime Ministers.

After that, Italian Prime Minister Marco Mingotti, at the press conference that day, in response to the stance on the African colonial war between the Netherlands and Portugal, he stated that Italy firmly supports Portugal, an Italian ally.

The formation of Prussia even sent troops to occupy Ongiva to condemn it.

Italy will develop a plan to support Portugal, including sending troops to support Portugal, which is disadvantaged 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, the father-in-law and son-in-law, seem to have more and more tacit understanding.

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

Italy's position in the Mediterranean made Italy known as a southern European power from the very beginning, so no one dared to ignore Italy's opinions.

Marco Mingetti said that at present Italian officials in Milan believe that it is very unacceptable that Portugal suffered the Dutch invasion of Mozambique and Angola, and that Portugal is the victim.

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

The tools available to Italy, he said, include not allowing Dutch ships to dock at Italian ports and Italian Libyan ports in the Mediterranean, suspending purchases of Dutch products, and increasing international condemnation of the Dutch aggression.

Marko Mingotti said at a public briefing in Milan: "What Portugal has done against the Netherlands is a clear invasion, the Dutch are using the methods of attacking the Africans to use on the Portuguese, which is It's not desirable, it's a form of coercion, they're turning their guns on white Europeans, and we have to put pressure on them to stop this dangerous activity."

The Dutch language was at odds with Portugal because Portugal disregarded Dutch rule in the Congo in Africa and declared that the Congo did not belong to the Netherlands.

Under the fruitless persuasion of the Netherlands, Portugal even sent troops to invade the north bank of the Congo River.

Then, the Netherlands announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Portugal.

The Netherlands then counterattacked and penetrated into the eastern central part of Angola and the north bank of the Zambezi River in Mozambique.

It even sanctioned Brazil for it.

Italian Prime Minister Marco Mingerti said: "It does not matter why the fighting between the Netherlands and Portugal started, what matters is how the Netherlands chooses to deal with the grievances of the Netherlands."

He showed that although Italy did not have any prejudice against the Netherlands, a major northern European country, it also respected King William IV of the Netherlands very much.

But he believes that "it does not mean that Italy can tolerate the Netherlands turning a blind eye to Portugal's invasion, it cannot cover up our dissatisfaction with the Italians' goodwill towards the Netherlands, and it cannot maintain harmony between Italy and the Netherlands at the expense of our sympathy for Portugal. Therefore, here we are here. In the dispute, he sided with Portugal."

The day after the Prime Minister made his remarks in Milan, when Portuguese Prime Minister Barreto had just returned to Lisbon not long ago. However, there was news from Angola that made the two of them uncomfortable.

And this news has completely made the situation in Africa the prime minister of the king's cabinet of European countries can no longer sit still.

It turned out that on May 2, Luanda, Angola was finally captured by Martinas and George Nash. The Portuguese Governor of Angola, Benedetto Cairoli, led more than 10,000 remnants of the army, under the cover of the navy, all the way to the south. After crossing the Kwanza River, they arrived at Sunbei City, but since the small towns of Kibala and Musendei 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 Gabera.

So he left 5,000 Portuguese troops to defend Sun Bei, and went south to Benguela, a big city built by Portugal for many years, and at the same time applied for reinforcements from Lisbon.

The Netherlands is about to take over the whole of Angola?

This has changed the faces of all countries. The Netherlands is already bigger in Africa, even bigger than France and second only to the United Kingdom.

This makes other countries feel bad.

Therefore, the speech of Italian Prime Minister Marco Mingerti has caused different interpretations in various countries, but it is also an excuse, especially for countries that are dissatisfied with the Netherlands.

Austrian Prime Minister Rainer Ferdinand criticized the Dutch team for the Portuguese invasion.

He pointed out that in the past few years, Europe has been colonized all over the world and has made great progress. It is the result of the constraints of various countries within the European colonial system, rather than the result of the influence of various countries.

Archduke Rainer Ferdinand said when asked that last week in London, the foreign ministers of Britain, Austria, Portugal and Italy held a meeting, and all countries have understood the importance of this issue for many years.

He also said that everyone in the participating countries has a clear understanding of this.

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

"We all believe that there can be no colonial war at any time," he said.

He also said the foreign ministers in London had pledged to cooperate a little more through this dialogue to ensure that this does not happen again in Africa.

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

Therefore, the Netherlands has long complained very deeply.

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

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

Even after Austria threatened to enter the South German Confederation Customs Union, the Netherlands was indifferent, and even used the Principality of Luxembourg to intervene in the battle between Austria and Prussia within the German Confederation from time to time, making Austria helpless. After all, Luxembourg is also in the South German Customs Union.

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

Here Austria was angry, but at the time it could only bear it.

The Dutch-Portuguese war just gave Austria an excuse to scold.

When asked if Archduke Rainer Ferdinand had any sympathy for Portugal when it was invaded by the Netherlands, he agreed.

He said that the invasion of Portugal by the Dutch team had had the opposite effect, and accused the Netherlands of invading the country when it forced countries to look at the Netherlands again, they no longer looked at him with the eyes of a peaceful Netherlands, but a dangerous Netherlands that was more accessible to everyone. The Netherlands will lose a European partner that many European countries agree with as reliable.

To Rough, the Netherlands denied that it was invading Portugal.

Prime Minister Tolbek responded, insisting that this was a counterattack by Portugal and their provocation against the Congo, the overseas territory of the Netherlands.

"Some people like to gossip and tell lies, but no matter what, the matter is there, we are the victims, not the perpetrators, we are fighting the invaders after the application, and we must teach them as winners and make them pay the most. The price~www.mtlnovel.com~ so that they can't think twice, that's what we're doing"

What is the Netherlands' position when asked about Austria's actions in Ethiopia.

"We don't take a stand, but like Prime Minister Bismarck, the Netherlands needs to protect its interests in Ethiopia, just like Prussia, and we want Austria to understand that," Tolbeck said.

Although I'm a little concerned about it"

In addition, in response to the question of Prime Minister Torbeck, Portuguese Prime Minister Barreto accused the Netherlands of violating the border agreement between the two countries, when Mozambique attacked and occupied the place north of the Zambezi River in Portugal,

"After maintaining the relatively stable and peaceful borders of Tanzania and Mozambique, Portugal's actions in Angola have made us lose our trust in Portugal, and the indigenous Mozambicans there have also proposed to us the idea of ​​joining the Netherlands, so the Netherlands has After many considerations, we finally avoided Portugal's attack on us in Southeast Africa, and the indigenous people's many hardships, and we fulfilled them."

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