However, although the strength of the Dutch Empire carried into the 19th century and catalyzed it into an economic hegemony that could compete with other great powers, when the emerging empire used more powerful industrial and war machines to challenge the Netherlands at the same time, it was finally forced to give up.
total dominance in geopolitics.
The early European hegemons, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, were blocked from competing for hegemony in the 19th century for the same reason.
As an island country in the Atlantic Ocean, Britain was the biggest winner in global hegemony in the 19th century. From pure overseas ocean trade to the defense of overseas trade, Britain's expansion interests gradually increased their strong motivation on the basis of obtaining a large amount of material basis.
From the 17th to the 19th century, Britain's new industrial coal production gradually increased to 4/5 of the world's total production.
At the same time, when British steel warships sailed to the east coast of the late Qing Empire, the output of iron in the British mainland had reached four times that of the rest of the world combined.
With the foundation of overseas conquest, the British Empire naturally needed more powerful and faster maritime warships. Only fast guns and heavy artillery could cope with its British opponents. There were conflicts of interest almost all over the world, from the fishery resources of the Atlantic Ocean in the north of the earth.
, the commercial wars in the Eastern colonies, the colonies in the Americas, and finally the slave trade in Africa and the West Indies, all reminding the British at every moment that they need to update their industrial machines and war machines.
Therefore, it was able to win step by step in the Anglo-Dutch War and the Anglo-French War precisely because Britain's economic development was not based on Confucianism like the ancient Eastern civilization.
It was only after the British established their hegemony that they could make full use of the backs of slaves or coolies who sweated and worked hard, rather than on the basis of human power.
In the eyes of all British people, the development of the Far East is absolutely a monster. Li Ningyu does not have a vast and rich territory, but he devoted all his efforts to build an iron-clad army with an iron will and did not resort to colonization, oppression and exploitation.
But it has taken the system of freedom and equality to the extreme, which is a forbidden area that the British currently dare not cross.
With the realization of the Far East Group's global strategic advantages, the Far East has now completely replaced the United Kingdom as all the leading power in the Eastern world.
Nowadays, one-fifth of the coal mining in various parts of the world flows into the controlled area of the Far East through various transportation channels. However, the number is still increasing. At the same time, new mining equipment and drainage equipment in the Far East are also being improved.
Various demands in industry naturally caused chain reactions in various technical and scientific fields. Both the Far East and Europe were very concerned about mechanical principles and hydraulic principles at this time.
Before the 19th century, Asia was not interested in European goods at all, so merchants from various European countries could only reluctantly use gold and silver to pay for the Asian products they wanted to buy. Until the end of the 18th century, with the advent of steam-powered machines,
Only through development can the problem of long-distance trade with Asia be completely solved.
But in the next hundred years, Europe, especially the United Kingdom, not only completely flooded Asian countries with machine-woven textiles, but also used a harmonious method of raining down bullets, and finally forced the Eastern countries to donate their gold and silver wealth. Science made
European countries can form hegemony over the world technologically.
Westerners no longer looked down upon Europeans, steam power was no longer used merely to open and close temple doors, it provided a means of propulsion that not only greatly improved the European powers' redistribution of world resources, but also economic power and military power, while directly relying on
on the energy obtained.
The nineteenth century was Europe's re-domination of the world, a means and power based on the steam engine.
Also among Eastern countries, the Tsarist Russian Empire clearly lags behind the United Kingdom in the fields of energy and industry. The Tsarist Russian Empire has always maintained its own nomadic cultural characteristics. This is the personality of a country. Although it is also willing to expand its territory,
They all carried out military conquests in the Far East.
In fact, the Tsarist Russian Empire has always been in a dominant position, but how to control an unrestrained country and rationally utilize its natural resources has always been the theme of the internal struggle of the Tsarist Russian Empire. Although the Tsarist Russian Empire has no shortage of coal resources, whether it comes from
Limitations in mining capabilities, as well as the defeat at the hands of the British and French forces in the Crimean War, seemed to have caused the Tsarist Empire to temporarily abandon modern development based on energy development.
However, the Trans-Siberian monorail still had the ability for the Russian Empire to transport large amounts of fuel and equipment to itself from industrial centers in other European countries. In addition, the Northern Navy fleet could cross the Arctic Ocean and stationed in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans for thousands of miles.
The expedition would not be easily defeated and stalled in the Atlantic Strait due to lack of supplies and rest along the way. The Tsarist Empire would stand up step by step with the hegemony of the Far East Group, and in the end it would definitely not achieve much in Asia.
Germany, which was originally no worse than the Tsarist Empire, successfully defeated France in the Franco-Prussian War and fully realized national reunification. It realized the close integration of coal from the Ruhr region and iron ore from the Alsace region, and finally cast it into
A massive and efficient industrial and war machine.
Under the highly centralized imperial system, resource advantages surged and were fully utilized in the process of industrialization, and they also surpassed the United Kingdom in strategic economic fields such as steel, coal mining, chemical industry, and electricity. At the end of the 19th century, in just 30 years
, Germany jumped directly from the status of "little brother" to a heavyweight player. Of course, all this is also inseparable from the rise of the Far East.
After all, the Far East first defeated little Japan in Asia, successfully distracting the attention of Britain and France, and then defeated Italy three times in a row in Africa, causing Germany to rise instantly and attract investment from all sides.
Germany's modern navy was founded in 1867 in the mid-19th century. It played a small role in the Franco-Prussian War. However, with the implementation of Germany's ten-year naval expansion plan, a total of more than 100 warships were built, and in the early 1890s
, Germany began to pay attention to building its army. With the cooperation of its navy, defensiveism prevailed. At that time, the German navy was only a second-rate navy, and its main combat capabilities were mostly limited to defending its own coast.
However, with the naval battle against France in the Far East at the end of the 19th century, Germany successfully became the second largest naval power in the world, and its military status with the United Kingdom became significantly closer. However, Britain's absolute hegemony was still very low.
Consolidation, but with the loss of France and Tsarist Russia, the Allies, led by Germany, shined exceptionally brightly at this time.
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