Chapter 285 Brabant Uprising

Chapter 286 Brabant Uprising

When Campbellen heard the word "Brabant", he sat up straight and winked at the Dutch diplomat beside him.

The latter immediately signaled all the servants to leave and closed the door.

Campbellen then said carefully: "My Lord Marquis, in fact, the riot in Brabant has nothing to do with the Netherlands."

The British Foreign Secretary nodded: "Yes, it has nothing to do with it. Van der Nott did not get the support of the Dutch Parliament."

The Van der Nott he was talking about was the leader of the Brabant Uprising.

Brabant is a core region of the Southern Netherlands, which is Belgium in later generations. At this time, a large-scale riot was taking place.

At this time, the Southern Netherlands was still Austrian territory, but it had been implementing a relatively autonomous political model before, and the Southern Netherlands Parliament managed daily affairs here.

And Austrian Emperor Joseph II began to implement a series of reforms a few years ago, including strengthening centralization and weakening aristocratic privileges.

This offended almost all the forces in the Southern Netherlands - the liberals opposed centralization and demanded that the rights of the parliament be maintained. The conservative nobles were extremely dissatisfied with the weakening of privileges.

So the two sides joined forces and began to organize the forces of the Southern Netherlands, preparing to drive the Austrian forces out of here and establish their own country.

This incident was called the Brabant Uprising in history.

Another name for the Netherlands is "Northern Netherlands". As a country with the same origin as the Southern Netherlands, the Netherlands naturally hopes that its brothers can get rid of Austrian rule, so it secretly gave a lot of support to the rebels.

Marquis Wellesley glanced at the look of the Dutch Speaker and continued: "Don't be nervous, I came here to inform you of the attitude of the British Parliament.

"We believe that the Southern Netherlands has every right to choose its own affiliation.

"But you also know that Van der Noot alone is powerless to deal with the powerful Austria."

Campelon stared at the British: "Please continue."

"They need their compatriots as a backing." Marquis Wellesley clasped his hands together, "to resist the Austrians as the 'Republic of the Netherlands'."

Campelon's breathing became rapid: "You mean, Britain supports the unification of the Netherlands and the Southern Netherlands?"

Marquis Wellesley nodded: "We have always been the most loyal ally of the Netherlands. Naturally, we hope that the Netherlands can become stronger, so the unification of the Low Countries is the first step."

He did not mention the Anglo-Dutch War that had just happened a few years ago, and the British Navy almost wiped out the Dutch fleet.

In fact, Britain has always regarded the Netherlands and Belgium as a springboard for the European continent to attack Britain, so it has pursued a policy of firmly controlling here.

Previously, the French supported the Dutch Patriot Party to drive William V out of power, and then the Netherlands began to be pro-French, which made the British feel uneasy.

Now that there is the Brabant Uprising, Britain immediately used this as a handle to win over the Netherlands.

"Unification?" Campbellen seemed a little hesitant, "Will the people of the Southern Netherlands agree?"

Marquis Wellesley smiled and said, "If they want to get rid of Austria, they can only choose to merge with the Netherlands.

"Van der Noot has been seeking help from Prussia - to be precise, without the Prussian army entering the Southern Netherlands, Austria can easily suppress the rebellion. And I have talked about this with His Majesty William II, and he is very supportive of the unification of the Netherlands."

Cambellen immediately stood up and touched his chest excitedly, saying, "Thank you and His Majesty William II, the people of the Netherlands will remember the strong friendship between our three countries!"

Marquis Wellesley suddenly changed the subject: "I heard that the Dutch East India Company is preparing to cooperate with the French to form a joint East India Company?"

Cambellen immediately shook his head: "This is just wishful thinking of the French, we have never agreed."

"Alliance?" Campbellen was stunned for a moment, and then reacted immediately, "Yes, the Triple Alliance! This is exactly what the Netherlands has been looking forward to! "

A meaningful smile flashed across the corners of the Marquis of Wellesley's mouth. He knew that his strategy would definitely succeed.

The unification of the North and South Netherlands has been the dream of all Dutch people for hundreds of years. For this, they are willing to give up everything!

For Prussia, they will do everything that can weaken Austria without hesitation. As long as the Southern Netherlands does not belong to Austria, they don't care whether it is independent or unified with the Netherlands.

The Southern Netherlands controls the estuary of the Rhine River. Most of Austria's territory is inland. If it wants to conduct overseas trade, one is to go south to the Mediterranean, and the other is to go west to the Atlantic Ocean through the Rhine.

Now Britain controls the gateway to and from the Mediterranean Sea-the Strait of Gibraltar. If it controls the estuary of the Rhine through the Netherlands, it is equivalent to completely blocking Austria's maritime trade route.

At that time, there is no need to worry about Austria not bowing to Britain.

...

At the same time, in the Schönbrunn Palace in Austria, Joseph II listened to the report of State Minister Kaunitz, took a deep breath, and said in a hoarse voice: "Reform must not stop.

"Paris has carried out reforms that are more radical than ours, and there have been no problems. I have confidence...

"As for Brabant, they only have a few thousand poorly trained militiamen. Let General Wurmser quell the riots as soon as possible."

Kaunitz frowned and said, "Your Majesty, the Prussians will definitely not miss this opportunity to strike us, so we have to face more than just a few thousand militiamen."

Joseph II leaned against the back of his chair. His poor health made it difficult for him to concentrate on thinking.

After a moment, he finally said: "Give General Wilmser 30,000 troops. If the Prussians dare to interfere, attack them."

Kaunitz was silent for a few seconds, then tentatively said: "Your Majesty, maybe we can ask your sister for help."

The sister of Joseph II is Marie Antoinette, the current Queen of France.

The corner of Joseph II's mouth curled up, as if he was smiling: "My dear brother-in-law has always been thinking about Wallonia, but you actually let the French army set foot in the Southern Netherlands?

"This matter must be resolved by ourselves. If Austria can't even deal with a Brabant riot, then why talk about unifying Germany?"

The Walloon region he was talking about is a large region in the southern part of the Southern Netherlands, accounting for nearly half of the area of ​​the Southern Netherlands. The residents basically speak French and are generally very pro-French.

Kaunitz sighed helplessly and thought to himself: If His Majesty had not pushed for radical reforms, the rebellion in the Southern Netherlands would not have been provoked. Nowadays, the nobles are causing public dissatisfaction everywhere because of the reform. Austria is at its weakest. I hope it can get through the difficulties smoothly this time.

He bowed to Joseph II: "Yes, Your Majesty, I will go and discuss with General Wilmser about sending troops."

…

Palace of Versailles.

The final of the Star of France officially began, and the entire Palace of Versailles Square was packed with tens of thousands of people.

People kept shouting the names of the players they supported, and the shouts of vendors made the whole square very lively.