Chapter 1259 Agree
Palau was the Republic of Palau in the previous life. This island was located between the Philippines and the US Guam base in the previous life.
After the war in the previous life, Palau fell into the hands of Japan because of Germany's defeat. Now, Japan obviously cannot pick up this advantage.
After East Africa took over Palau Island from Germany, it attached great importance to Palau Island. The main reason is that Palau Island plays the role of a sea bridge between East Africa's Mindanao colony and New Guinea colony. There are no other large islands within thousands of kilometers of surrounding waters. .
This island is also the last backup route from East Africa to the Far East. However, apart from military purposes, it is estimated that few ships in East Africa will choose to reach the Far East from here.
Kuyper said: "Although many of the strategic places we are going to visit in East Africa this time seem very important, they are relatively useless places for our country."
"After all, the Netherlands has declined to a certain extent and does not need to consider global strategies. It is not a bad idea to sell these islands to East Africa."
He pointed to the map and said: "For a small country like ours, the fate is always in the hands of great powers such as Britain, France, Germany and East Africa."
"If we really offend any party, even if we occupy these strategic locations, they can easily cut off our connection with the colonies or our trade routes."
Kuyper's words are not exaggerated at all. Britain, France and Germany are beside the Netherlands. The Netherlands has no independent destiny. Otherwise, it would be impossible to maintain a neutral position in today's European wars. This is actually a helpless choice. Offending any one of the three belligerent countries would threaten the Netherlands' destruction.
Although East Africa is relatively far away from the Netherlands, East Africa can easily cut off the connection between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies in the Indian Ocean, or intercept the trade between the Netherlands and the East. Although there is no threat of national subjugation, it is enough to cause the Netherlands to suffer.
After all, as a commercial country, the Netherlands relies most on maritime trade. The British once replaced the Dutch maritime hegemony with the promulgation of the Navigation Regulations.
This regulation stipulates that all goods entering British territorial waters must be transported by British ships, and ships from other countries are not allowed.
On the surface, this bill was to protect the interests of British domestic ships, but in fact it was aimed at the Netherlands, because the Netherlands' shipbuilding industry was developed at that time, and the Dutch Chamber of Commerce was efficient and well-organized, and basically monopolized the maritime transit business.
The promulgation of this bill intensified the struggle and friction between Britain and the Netherlands, which ultimately led to the defeat of the Netherlands and the rise of the Royal Navy.
Therefore, as long as a certain country has the ability to cut off the maritime trade of the Netherlands, it basically means that it has a hold on the lifeblood of the Netherlands.
"And we do not rely on these strategic locations. The most important thing for our government at the moment is to ensure that East Africa and other countries have plans for the wealthy areas of the East Indies."
"Only places with dense populations or rich mineral deposits such as Java Island and Sumatra deserve our attention."
"So selling these dozen islands and island groups to East Africa will not harm us. If we insist on controlling these places in our own hands, it may cause catastrophe."
"After all, East Africa is still willing to negotiate and contact us. This is the best news. If we really refuse, Siam will be a negative example."
Kuyper's mention of the unfortunate Siam was apparently very persuasive to Queen Wilhelmina.
Not only did East Africa snatch the Kra Isthmus from Siam, but Siam also paid East Africa a huge sum of money to settle the matter, which was like losing money to grandma's family.
Therefore, Wilhelmina agreed very much and said: "What the Prime Minister said is indeed reasonable. If we do not agree to East Africa's request, maybe the East Africans will not only not feel frustrated, but will be ecstatic, so that they do not need to take into account the differences between the two countries." Due to the love between the two countries, they let go of the East Indies Colony."
Kuyper sighed and said: "This is what I am most worried about. The current international situation is quite favorable to East Africa. Apart from the United States, which major country in the United States can check and balance East Africa."
"But the United States is also competing fiercely in the Americas and East Africa. In the Southeast Asian region, their strength is far inferior to that of East Africa. Moreover, cooperation with the United States may lead to wolves entering the house. If this happens, that will be the worst. After all, East Africa is just By plotting to build more than a dozen islands, the Americans may really have bad intentions for the entire East Indies.”
"So I think our attitude towards East Africa should be that as long as East Africa does not do anything that harms our country's core interests, we can fully agree to East Africa's details."
Kuyper's concerns are not unreasonable. The United States only has one Philippines in the Southeast Asia, and it is not a complete Philippine Islands. On the other hand, East Africa not only has a large number of colonies in the Southeast Asia, but also the entire Pacific Ocean, except for the west coast of South America. Colonies exist.
Therefore, compared to an East Africa that is half full, a country like the United States that is still hungry poses a greater threat to the Netherlands.
Furthermore, the relationship between East Africa and the Netherlands has always been good. Although there will be some conflicts due to the colonies in Southeast Asia, this will not affect the relationship between the two countries at all. At least at the government level, East Africa has always had a good attitude towards the Netherlands.
This is just like the UK and the Netherlands had a lot of conflicts overseas in the past, but the relationship between the Netherlands and the UK is actually pretty good.
This government-level attitude is often related to national conditions. Even if the Netherlands has some troubles with the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom is the Netherlands' reliance to prevent being attacked and annexed from land by Germany and France.
The economic significance of East Africa to the Netherlands is far greater than that of the East Indies to the Netherlands. From Ernst to the colonial development era in East Africa, there was much cooperation with the Dutch, and this was even more true after the rise of the Rhine Empire.
Countries outside the region like East Africa have always focused on developing friendly relations with some small countries in Europe. Of course, Portugal is an exception, but this is just Portugal blocking the road to expansion in East Africa.
In fact, since the 20th century, the relationship between East Africa and Portugal has also begun to warm up. Especially after the outbreak of the European War, cooperation between the two countries in the economic field began to develop rapidly.
After all, Portugal is one of the gateways to Western Europe, and trade between East Africa and Western Europe cannot bypass Portugal. As for the troubles that once occurred between the two countries in Africa, they have gradually dissipated over time.
Wilhelmina said: "Now that you have made a specific plan, all you need to do next is to do the work of the parliament. At the same time, the public opinion on this territory sale must be well controlled to avoid causing problems in the country."
Prime Minister Kuyper said: "I believe that Parliament will recognize our reasons. After all, our country is involuntarily and has no right to refuse in front of East Africa. As for the control of domestic public opinion, domestic attention is now focused on the war in Europe. "
The European war dominates the headlines in the Netherlands every day. It can be said that every day's disturbances on the Western Front battlefield attract the attention of the entire Netherlands.
After all, if one thing goes wrong, the Netherlands may become a battlefield between the two camps and repeat the mistakes of Belgium. Just look at the miserable situation of neighboring Belgium. The Dutch have no time to pay attention to the changes in the sovereignty of a few islands thousands of miles away.
After all, the last time East Kalimantan was taken away by East Africa, it did not attract much attention in the Netherlands. Unless the core interests of the Netherlands overseas such as Java Island or Sumatra were damaged, such places could still be named, but East Africa demanded There are more than a dozen islands in the country, and 99% of the people in the country probably don’t know them.
One day later, the Dutch Parliament was successfully persuaded by Kuyper. Of course, the threat contained in the subtext of East African Foreign Minister Freer was the key to making the Dutch Parliament decisively give in.
Compared to selling a few islands to ensure the security of the entire East Indies, the Dutch government has no better choice. East Africa does not even need to send troops. Simply funding the indigenous resistance forces in the East Indies will make the Dutch government unable to do what it wants.