Chain Reaction (2)

The Netherlands ambassador to France first met with France Foreign Minister Talleyrand to probe France's views on the Cape Colony. Talleyrand that France has always supported the Netherlands' just demands. Previously, Netherlands had consistently supported Britain Netherlands' demands to Britain for the return of the Cape Colony. This stance has never changed. The Netherlands and France are allies who share a common destiny, and both sides France a responsibility and obligation to support each other.

Talleyrand's statement essentially meant that the Netherlands could incite conflict with Britain, France could support them and bail them out, ensuring that the Britain wouldn't send warships to bombard Rotterdam.

Of course, the Britain seized Cape Town, but afterwards forced the Netherlands to sign a treaty, paying a symbolic purchase price. Later, after France's undisputed victory, a revolution broke out in the Netherlands (of course, this was orchestrated by France, but the Netherlands people strongly supported it—because with the revolution, the Netherlands became a revolutionary ally of France, a victorious nation, a tributary state like Korea, rather than a state-controlled state like Prussia or Austria). The post-revolutionary Netherlands government declared that the money the Britain used to "buy" Cape Town was used to support the reactionary government in suppressing the revolutionary people; therefore, the traitorous treaty sold Cape Town by the overthrown reactionary government was invalid, and the Netherlands people would not recognize it.

Although they claimed they wouldn't recognize it, the Netherlands alone couldn't do anything about the Britain. In fact, the Netherlands itself wasn't particularly concerned about reclaiming Cape Town. In fact, if the Britain were willing to discuss buying Cape Town again at that time, the Dutch Republic government would have been very willing.

Of course, this is impossible. If the Britain were to actually do that, given the Netherlands' notoriously shameless greed, Netherlands would surely ensure that every change of government takes the form of a "revolution." The new "revolutionary government" would immediately label the previous government as "reactionary," and then renegotiate with the Britain to sell Cape Town again.

So the Britain naturally rejected the Netherlands' demands. And after being rejected, the Netherlands largely ignored the matter for a long time. The reason was simple: at that time, the Ming Dynasty —or rather, France— did not intend to break with Britain, so as an ally (tributary state), the Netherlands naturally couldn't create trouble for itself. However, now, the France's efforts to cause trouble for the Britain were being observed by all of Europe.

Especially recently, His Rome Napoleon delivered a speech on the Europe economic situation at a meeting of the Roman Imperial Senate. In this speech, His Majesty Napoleon pointed out. "Given the still dire economic situation and the fading hope of recovery, maintaining and promoting the Europe unified market, and even the world unified market, is the guarantee for promoting economic recovery. But sadly, some countries, for selfish purposes, are engaging in activities that harm others without benefiting themselves and undermine free trade. This is truly hateful and tragic."

Today, an iron curtain has been lowered across the English Channel, blocking free trade. Behind this curtain lie England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, as well as the much larger North America, British Africa, and India. Hundreds of millions of people are kept out of free trade by this iron curtain.

We know that economic freedom determines political freedom. Without a free economy, there is no free politics, and no protection of basic human rights. Therefore, we see that on the other side of the Iron Curtain, there is both the barbaric and brutal exploitation of various ethnic groups and the trampling of the freedoms of people, including their own.

Many years ago, insightful people in France pointed out that the security of a free nation and the guarantee of freedom lie in the pursuit and maintenance of freedom throughout the world. Freedom and democracy cannot coexist with oppression and enslavement, just as Rome could never coexist with Carthage.

The Iron Curtain must be destroyed, and free trade must become a universal principle. Just as Carthage must be unconditionally destroyed...

This speech sounded the clarion call against Britain. The Britain were naturally extremely dissatisfied and immediately protested to France. However, the France government stated, "This is a matter for the Roman Empire, what does it have to do with France? If you want to protest, go protest to the Roman Empire."

However, Britain and the Roman Empire did not have formal diplomatic relations at all, because Britain was not an ally of the Roman Empire. And outside of the Roman Empire and its allies lay barbarians. The Roman Empire naturally would not establish diplomatic relations with barbarians. Therefore, the Britain diplomatic protests could not be effectively carried out.

In his speech, Napoleon explicitly compared Britain to Carthage. Since ancient times, "Rome and Carthage were irreconcilable enemies," and France's determination to undermine Britain was very clear. Now, as an ally of the Roman Empire, the Netherlands naturally understood that it was time to take the initiative.

Napoleon and Joseph greatly appreciated the Netherlands' initiative in stepping forward when Rome needed them. Napoleon believed that controlling Cape Town meant controlling the most important shipping route between East and West.

"During the Seven Years' War, France lost the crucial India, and a series of France financial problems were related to this loss. Britain, with just a small island, was able to wreak havoc across the Europe continent largely because they possessed India, which they could freely exploit. If we could control Cape Town, the shipping route from Europe to India would be directly under our noses. In critical moments, we could even simply prevent Britain ships from using Cape Town's facilities, which would be enough to create significant difficulties for the Britain in exploiting India. And if we stationed a fleet there, it would be a nightmare for the Britain."

Joseph wholeheartedly agreed with Napoleon's view. Besides what Napoleon said, there was another extremely important reason: South Africa had gold mines, and very large ones at that.

The Rand Gold Mine in South Africa is the world's largest gold mine, with recoverable reserves of up to 53,000 tons, accounting for more than half of the world's recoverable gold reserves.

Gold is the natural currency. With two gold mines in the Americas, the Roman Bank can issue banknotes without batting an eye. This is why, while the rest of Europe experienced an economic crisis, France, the epicenter of the crisis, is currently in the best economic position. Of course, the France won't claim that their good economic situation is due to their gold mines and ability to print money at will. Instead, they will assert that it's because they have democracy, freedom, and free trade.

"We must organize an uprising in Cape Town, and the insurgents must quickly seize Cape Town," Joseph said. "I recall that this should have been prepared long ago, Ministry of Peace should already have several plans. Napoleon, have someone select a few plans that best suit the current situation, and we will discuss them together."

Just as Napoleon and Joseph began studying the Ministry of Peace's proposals, the Spain, along with the Netherlands, jumped in, their target, of course, still the Gibraltar fortress that Napoleon had always coveted.