Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

On August 16, 1866, the latest report of the world-influential Amsterdam Peace Research Institute was released on this day. As soon as it appeared, it was immediately reprinted by major newspapers around the world on the 17th.

The report caused a huge stir.

This report points out that from the beginning to the present wars in European and American countries, whether it was the Prussian-Danish War or the Prussian-Austrian War in the past few years, or the African colonial war, the Balkan Peninsula war, the North American war, etc., behind a series of wars , all have arms suppliers. The article also takes the UK as an example. The UK launched a war in southern Africa. The local arms suppliers immediately made a lot of money, but the dead war soldiers were forever buried on the soil of South Africa. .

After the South African War ended, Britain entered a period of peace without war. However, the arms dealers were naturally unwilling to accept it and were dissatisfied with the loss of the arms market. Therefore, the arms dealers eventually instigated a war in the Balkans and pushed the British cabinet to participate in the war in North America. These two factors place to fill the lost South African market.

Even in Europe and around the world, new markets are being developed by arms dealers in these countries, which the report explains is driving the formation of new wars.

The author of the report, Robbio, the first researcher of the institute, cited the war between the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire as the reason why Britain entered the war.

Not only was the Tsarist Empire's invasion of the Balkans the reason why Britain's influence was reduced, it was even worried that the Tsarist Empire would move south into the Mediterranean. The report pointed out that this was just a false proposition, because Constantinople was there to block Tsarist Russia from moving south unless It was the Tsarist Empire that really destroyed the Ottoman Empire, which had more than 20 million people. Otherwise, it would be difficult to imagine that the Tsarist Empire could enter the Mediterranean.

Therefore, the result of the intertwining of many factors is mainly the geopolitical competition between major powers, especially the struggle for influence in the Balkans between Britain and the Russian Empire. Behind the competition, there are even arms dealers.

The British Navy is the protagonist of the British arms dealers, but the Army is naturally unwilling to play only a small role. Therefore, the arms dealers of Army equipment are the driving force behind this round of war.

To cover this, experts in this report estimate that the annual global arms trade is close to 50 million pounds (1.25 billion Dutch guilders). The report says that in the past five years (referring to 1861-1865) Europe and America have still been The main arms purchasers, the Ottoman Empire in the Near East and the Siam Empire in the Far East, are also good participants. Even the Persian Empire chooses to join as arms purchasers from time to time.

The Commonwealth of America, the Confederate States of America, the Kingdom of Prussia, the British Empire, the Russian Empire, and the Austrian Empire (later the Austro-Hungarian Empire) have become the world's six largest arms purchasing countries and regions (including local manufacturing and self-purchasing and imports from other countries). kind).

It even surpassed the French Empire, which ranked seventh with few battles.

Followed by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Kingdom of Portugal, and the Ottoman Empire from eighth to tenth.

The 11th to 20th places are Argentina, the Kingdom of Spain, the Kingdom of Italy, the Kingdom of Denmark, the Kingdom of Sweden, the Brazilian Empire, the Kingdom of Siam, the Kingdom of Greece, Colombia, and Venezuela.

After that, the 21st to 27th places are the Kingdom of Belgium, the Persian Empire, Myanmar, Paraguay, Chile, Ecuador, Japan and other countries

Yes, Japan had just started to open up to the outside world at this time, and it was even learning from the good foreign policy of the Kingdom of Siam (the later predecessor of Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia). It can be regarded as crossing the river by feeling the stones, but there are many What people don’t know is that with the Meiji Restoration now being promoted, this now poor and conservative country became out of control. In just half a century, it became a powerful country in the Far East, and after 1905, with the The Far East defeated the Russian Empire, caused a sensation in Europe and the United States, and became a heavyweight player in the world hegemony. This is history, and it is also a story for later.

In the past five years, the six largest arms-buying countries accounted for 55% of global arms purchases.

The following 7th to 10th positions account for 13%, and the next 17 positions account for more than 25%.

In terms of individual countries, due to the Civil War in North America, the Confederate States of America accounted for the most, accounting for 12%, while the Confederate States of America accounted for 8%. The arms trade, which accounts for one-fifth of the world, is terrifying.

The North and the South spent a total of 10 million pounds a year and purchased 50 million pounds of weapons in five years.

Rusman, co-author of the latest report from the Amsterdam Peace Institute and the institute's second senior fellow, said:

“European competition remains unchanged, but in addition to North America, South America is now a new hotspot, and South American countries need to increase military spending.

Not bit by bit, but a substantial increase. Countries there obviously realize that they, like European countries, need to face instability in their surroundings, so they need to spend money on weapons to maintain their own security environment and intimidate other countries. Don't aim your ambitions at your own country, so you need to buy a lot of weapons. "

In his opinion, the Balkan Peninsula War caused European countries to change their defense stance. Not to mention other countries, even the Kingdom of Greece, which was previously known for its peace, also asked the Greek cabinet government to purchase more weapons after the Balkan Peninsula War. , to increase Greece’s defense capabilities.

This is true for Greece, not to mention other countries. Denmark has increased its annual military expenditure by nearly 50% compared to before the Prussian-Danish War.

The same goes for Portugal and Italy.

Seeing this, South America is even more afraid of Europe's invasion of South America again, so they have increased their military expenditures and sought self-protection.

This has come back to Europe. Naturally, the big countries will not let these small countries threaten themselves because of their preeminence. What's more, the big countries do have ambitions in the first place.

These measures have aroused the desire of various countries to purchase arms. Arms have become a hot commodity. Countries have increased their defense expenditures aggressively, and orders are flying all over the place.

Therefore, major countries have also increased their budgets.

Robbio, the first researcher at the Amsterdam Institute for Peace, said, “This has brought huge business orders to arms dealers in various countries, and manufacturers from major military powers have rushed to seize orders from around the world.

For this reason, our Amsterdam Peace Research Institute discovered this situation in 1865 last year and added a project, that is, major arms importing and exporting countries. "

He pointed out that this year, a list of military import and export countries was added.

The largest arms importer from 1861 to 1865 was the Confederate States of America. Due to its economic strength and industrial capabilities that were different from those of the North, it was able to manufacture its own firearms, battleships and other weapons.

Most of the weapons used in the Civil War in the South were imported, with Britain accounting for the majority.

According to statistics from the institute, during the past five years, the United Kingdom purchased 70% of the total 20 million pounds of weapons used by the Confederate States of America in North America, taking away 14 million pounds of orders.

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