"Opening 1861: I just inherited the Dutch throne (

"Paraguay and Brazil going to war?"

"A battle of 8,000 versus 150,000?"

This title is enough to attract everyone in Europe.

In the major newspapers in Europe, the strengths of the conflicting countries in South America are put on the table.

At this time, Paraguay had only a total population of 520,000 and a regular army of 8,000.

Brazil, on the other hand, has a population of more than 11 million and an army of 150,000.

Argentina has a population of 2.4 million and an army of 100,000.

Uruguay has a total population of 100,000 people and an army of 4,000 people.

April 1, 1866, April Fool's Day.

President Lopez ordered troops to be dispatched on this day in the region of Mato Grosso, a western Brazilian city close to Paraguay's northern border.

When the news reached Rio de Janeiro, the entire Brazilian capital thought it was a joke.

Because today is April Fool's Day.

But when the news was confirmed, no one in Brazil could laugh.

Co-authored, Paraguay, a country with only 500,000 troops and 8,000 troops, thinks Brazil is a mess?

Pedro II was so angry that he almost wanted to fry the pot.

The Brazilian Emperor, who was born in Brazil and hangs with Portugal's prince, how can he be so humiliated. If this was passed back to Louis I of Portugal (cousin), it would be a real shame.

As a result, Pedro II began to dispatch generals to the borders of Brazil and Paraguay, and the war was about to break out.

......

Napoleon III looked at the letter requesting support in his hand, which was a French letter written to him by the President of Paraguay, Lopez, expressing his respect for him and Paraguay as an ally of France in South America. glory.

In the letter, he introduced Paraguay's dissatisfaction with Brazil and Argentina's involvement in Uruguay. In the letter, the president of Paraguay also hinted that as long as France helps Paraguay win Uruguay and repel Argentina and Brazil, then Paraguay is willing to be on Uruguay's territory. , ceded a piece of territory to the French Empire, and even pointed to the ports of Maldonado and Rocha, the Atlantic ports that France longed for.

This made Napoleon III very excited.

In recent years, he has invested a lot of resources, technology and manpower in Paraguay, and spent a lot in Paraguay. If it were not for Argentina's pride, Brazil and Portugal, etc., he would not choose inland Paraguay.

Even this time Paraguay revealed its ambitions for Uruguay, and it was only under his previous guidance that the current situation appeared.

He is more aware of developments there than any other leader in Europe.

"In Uruguay, General Caudiro of the Red Dang overthrew the North Luo of the White Party. Because of the Argentine Civil War in 1859, the Red Dang of Uruguay had supported the President of the Liberal Party, Mitre, who had just been elected in Argentina, so Argentina Support the rebel Luan Red Party; at the same time, because the Uruguay White Party government has adopted a policy of restrictions on Brazilian immigration in Uruguay, Brazil also supports the Red Party's rebel Luan to come to power."

Olivier, Prime Minister of the French Empire, said: "The overthrow of the White government, supported by President Pelos, has therefore severely criticized Argentina and Brazil for their policies towards Uruguay, warned them not to disrupt the regional strategic balance, and told the Brazilian Empire An ultimatum was issued, but Brazil not only turned a blind eye to Paraguay's ultimatum, but also sent troops to Uruguay to intervene, so Pelos ordered Paraguay to attack the Brazilian caravan on the river."

Olivier said to Napoleon III: "Your Majesty, now Paraguay has sent such a letter of request for help, do we want to support it?

If the support is given, Argentina and Brazil may be offended, and as a result, the gains may not be worth the candle.

But if we don't support it, we may lose the prestige of France because of this, and it may even lead to a chain reaction, and other small countries will no longer trust France. "

"The majesty of France cannot be discarded"

Napoleon III's words made Olivier immediately know the answer.

In this South American vortex, France is sure to get involved!

......

On April 1, 1866, Pelos commanded his generals and led 3,000 soldiers into the Mato Grosso province of Brazil, which was larger than the area of ​​Britain, France, and Prussia. But the province has an area of ​​only 90,000 people and its defenses are weak.

Paraguay's army is like no one, because of the fourth danger, so after the Brazilian reinforcements occupied the province in Paraguay, the reinforcements from Rio de Janeiro are still halfway, and it is even difficult to capture the condescending Paraguayan army.

In the second week of the war, Paraguay occupied several times the size of its territory. The news came out, which shocked the world.

Pedro II was even more embarrassed.

Argentina's President Mitre was even more surprised by this, so Argentina's 100,000 troops, originally only 20,000 troops stationed in the north, thought it was enough to handle 80,000 Paraguayan troops, but now they are a little worried.

Therefore, 10,000 troops were urgently sent to the north. In addition to the original 10,000 troops in Corenster and Salta, the 10,000 troops were transferred to San Miguel.

After completing the invasion of western Brazil.

On April 17th, Paraguay formally applied to Argentina for Misiones to assist the Uruguayan White Party against the Brazilian army there.

Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires.

Just when President Mitre was about to refuse Pelos' request, he was blocked by the newly promoted Finance Minister Sarmiento.

Mitre looked at him with some dissatisfaction, and waved everyone away, leaving only the two of them.

Mitre looked at Sarmiento and said dissatisfiedly: "Tell me, why did you stop me from rejecting Paraguay's request, if it's a good idea, you don't have to be the finance minister anymore, you know, I have that energy. "

Sarmiento, on his face, was as calm as ever.

He said: "Your Excellency, as you know, we Argentina and Brazil have never been of one mind."

Miret naturally would not object to this statement, or else it would not have been necessary for the two countries to have a dispute over the Uruguay region for historical reasons in 1828. In the end, after everyone compromised, they made concessions to each other and established the country of Uruguay.

President Mitre: "Go ahead"

Sarmiento breathed a sigh of relief and continued: "At the beginning, our two countries had their own factions in the Red Dang government, but Paraguay later participated in the name of ethnicity, but Brazil couldn't help it, why? We in Argentina are still indifferent, because the White Party has no hostility to Argentina.

Even for the sake of team Brazil, the White Party also proposed to conduct normal trade with Argentina. Instead, they cut ties with Brazil.

This is obvious, but nothing has changed for Argentina. "

Mitre said: "But in this way, the practice of setting up Uruguay as a buffer country between Argentina and Brazil at the beginning was careful to become an excuse for Brazil to send troops. If Argentina does not participate in the end and Brazil completely wins Uruguay, for Argentina, A strategic location will be lost.”

Sarmiento said: "Your Excellency, what if Uruguay and Brazil can never get it?"

Mitre looked at Sarmiento who was full of information in surprise.

"Why are you so sure"

"Your Excellency, Paraguay has allies"

Mitre heard the words, "Napoleon III? France?"

Sarmiento nodded and said, "Before I came back to Argentina, Dutch Prime Minister Tolbeck mentioned the issue of wanting to increase trade with Argentina."

Mitre frowned. He didn't understand how Sarmiento jumped the topic. He hesitated before saying, "The Netherlands and Argentina have a good relationship, and they can negotiate, but the Lincoln government is not easy to explain."

Sarmiento: "The Dutch side said they would do it themselves, the Netherlands is prepared not to do business on both sides of the Atlantic"

Miret asked curiously, "Where are you going to do?"

Sarmiento: "Australia and East India in the Far East"

There?

Miret went to the map next to him to find the location of the Far East. In this era, the Atlantic Ocean was the center of the world, so the map was often centered on the Atlantic Ocean, and the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean were the edges. Therefore, Miret found It took me a long time to see Australia.

Pointing to the unfamiliar continent of Australasia, he said to Sarmiento: "We are relatively close here, as long as we pass through the Strait of Magellan, we will get there. It can be said that it is much closer than walking the Atlantic Ocean to the north. Yes, the market over there is not big, you must know that Argentine grain has always been the largest market in Europe.”

Samiento paused and gritted his teeth: "The Netherlands not only wants to buy Argentine food, but also prepares to recommend arms and industrial products to Argentina. Of course, they also expressed their support for Argentina's political power and interests in Uruguay. "

Mitre's eyes lit up and asked anxiously, "What do you mean?"

Sarmiento said slowly and with emphasis: "The Netherlands wants to have the same open trade political and military policy as Argentina, and the Netherlands is willing to support Argentina in realizing its ambitions."

Sarmiento saw that Mitre was short of breath and knew that he was heartbroken, so he dropped another bomb.

"Paraguay and France are engaged in a large-scale arms trade. According to Dutch intelligence, UU Reading www.uukanshu.com Tolbek reminded us that the French Empire seems to be somewhat interested in Uruguay, and reminded Argentina that the situation in Uruguay may be more serious in the future. Complicated, therefore, Argentina can choose to stay out in the early stage, and then join in after the situation becomes clear in the later stage.”

Mitre was shocked when he heard the news.

France to join the situation in Uruguay?

If this is the case, it is very unwise for Argentina to participate now, and it may even be worth the loss.

Argentina is known as the second largest country in South America, but it has only 2.6 million people, while Brazil has 11 million, which is more than 4 times that of Argentina.

Therefore, Argentina has always been afraid of Brazil. For fear of a full-scale war between Brazil and Argentina.

Therefore, when Uruguay had the upper hand, Argentina compromised, turning the entire Uruguay into a buffer zone, and even ceded the territory opposite the Buenos Aire River, the capital of Argentina, so that the capital of Argentina was facing Threats to buffer states.

Therefore, this is a strategic threat to Argentina. I've been thinking about getting it back.

Sarmiento knew it was time.

Dao: "The Netherlands expressed its willingness to support the entire estuary of the La Plata as the territory of Argentina"

"real?"

Mitre's breathing became a little rough and asked: "The Netherlands really said that, but why do they think they can help Argentina against France and Portugal behind Brazil?"

Although the Netherlands is stronger than Argentina and is much more developed than Brazil, both in terms of industry and industry, a Brazil and Portugal are enough for the Netherlands, not to mention the second largest country in Europe, France, how can the prime minister of the Netherlands speak out like that? if.

Mitre asked in disbelief.