Chapter 49: The Eighteen-Nation Alliance
What I want to say is that this era, whether in China or the West, is an era of helping relatives but not helping people, and European judges are following the evidence of freedom in deciding cases. www.biquge.info Many of these cases have been cited by later European and American courts, so judges have great power in Europe and the United States, even if the jury convicts them, whether they are imprisoned for seven days and go home for the New Year or go to prison for 100 years without bail is a sentence from the judge.
Under the connection of the Habsburg family with royal blood, European countries soon organized an anti-Qing coalition army, which was led by Britain, France and Russia, and later joined by Italy, Austria, Hungary, Spain, the Netherlands, Prussia, Sweden, Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Ottoman Turkey, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Luxembourg. The total number of members of the coalition is 18 countries on the European continent.
There are feuds between these eighteen countries, but under the premise of the westward expansion of the Qing Dynasty, they have temporarily put aside their previous grievances. Like Ottoman Turkey, it used to fight with Russia in the dark, but seeing that Russia was about to perish, Ottoman Turkey could also feel the chill of its lips and teeth, and under the lobbying of European countries, it decided to send troops.
In addition, Switzerland and Belgium were originally permanent neutral countries in Europe, and the purpose of their permanent neutrality was actually not to get caught in the war and make war money by the way, but at the same time, the domestic standing army was still maintained. For such a country, the coalition means that if you are neutral, we will destroy you first, and then fight a decisive battle with the Qing army. In front of us, the Europa people are about to die out, you are still neutral, you say that you are neutral, and when the Qing Dynasty occupies Europe, you can still let you remain neutral?
Liechtenstein and Luxembourg are micro-states in Europe that are only slightly larger than the Vatican, and these two countries together have a population of only tens of thousands, and they can play a role of waving flags and shouting and the like.
Although Portugal did not form a coalition army, it sent 18,000 naval and army troops in the name of volunteers to the British. and open all the colonies to the British, who could recruit volunteers or mercenaries in all the Portuguese colonies.
This treatment is inseparable from the fact that the British are the number one maritime power. If the British find a fault and send newly launched 10,000-ton ironclad ships to shell port port cities along the coast of Portugal and blockade the Portuguese coast, Portugal, which started as a colonization, will immediately sit on wax.
Now Portugal's profit point is not only the income of the colonies, since Britain and France and the Qing Dynasty were at war, in fact, Europe's trade with China was controlled by the Portuguese.
Originally, the botanists among the British invaders who stole tea technology and tea seeds in the Second Opium War are now being watched as white orangutans in the cage outside the Five Cities Terracotta Division - the best place in the capital, even if the locals are tired of seeing it, there are always newcomers who visit relatives and friends to come to the capital every day, and this is outside the Shuntian Mansion or the Five Cities Terracotta Division to see the black, white, and bearded three kinds of orangutans are now a scene in the capital, and those who have not seen it are simply going to the capital in vain.
Tightly control a tea trade in Europe, and the profits from selling it in Europe are not less than 10 million taels of silver every year, and this matter of forming a European coalition army, even if Portugal does not declare war, it will have to pay some blood. Of course, the formation of the 18-nation coalition in Europe in the history books was a bad move that sent Europe into a century of war.
Thanks to the efforts of the Habsburgs, the coalition was formed, but the command was never implemented. In fact, it is still the troops of each country under the command of each country, and the eighteen countries have arranged a total of nine defense lines on the European continent. In terms of total strength, the coalition forces of the 18 European countries have exceeded 10 million without all mobilization, including millions of elite professional soldiers on the European continent.
The first line of defense, which was jointly arranged by Russia and the countries surrounding Russia, is a total of three points to guard the territory of Russia. Part of the Russian army and Sweden jointly defended St. Petersburg. Part of the armies of Austria, Hungary, Prussia and Russia jointly defended Warsaw. Part of the army of Ottoman Turkey and part of the remnants of Russia guarded Kyiv.
Like the Anglo-French defensive line, a million-strong army is deployed outside Paris. Because Spain was also a lord after joining the coalition army, the main force of the Spanish army was deployed on the border with France, and you let the French feel at ease how to transfer the army to Eastern Europe. There were many such things, such as the fact that Italy, after not gaining dominance in the coalition forces, began to move freely, and the large army was deployed near the border with Austria. There is such a restless neighbor in the back, and you can make Austria feel at ease and go all out to resist the Qing Dynasty.
Therefore, the establishment of the Eighteen-Nation Alliance can only be said to look beautiful.