AngloSaxon rhythm
Nord Stream 2 was hit **, and Putin accused the Anglo-Saxons of being behind the scenes**.
The Anglo-Saxon nation is a broad concept that includes countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. Of these, England was the backbone and had maritime supremacy, which was established by defeating the Spanish Armada in 1604.
However, despite the fact that Britain has established military supremacy at sea, it has not yet achieved economic supremacy. In order to achieve the primitive accumulation of capital in the early capitalist development, the most direct way was to colonize overseas and develop commerce**.
Therefore, the struggle for maritime supremacy is of paramount importance to the UK. This is also evidenced by the results of the four Anglo-Dutch wars. As the most competitive rival in the rise of England in the 17th and 18th centuries, the conflict between the Netherlands and Britain could only be resolved by means of war.
Britain's empire was a process of crowding out other competitors and monopolizing it.
The TV series "Game of Thrones" on HBO TV in the United States has taken the world by storm, and the shape of the continent of Westeros in the play resembles the island of Great Britain reversed left and right. In the eighth season, the love story of Snow and the Dragon Daenerys, King of the North, has the viewer's heart in mind, and with the revelation of Snow's identity, he becomes the first heir to the Iron Throne, which creates a direct conflict between him and the Mother of Dragons.
To solve this problem, the little demon Tyrion and Davos, the onion knight, negotiate to let Snow and the Mother of Dragons share power. Interestingly, there have also been cases in England where husband and wife ruled together.
In February 1689, the English Parliament decided that the throne would be jointly inherited by Prince William and Princess Mary, who were William III and Mary II, respectively.
Around 1700, as the cold spell in the Northern Hemisphere receded, England ushered in spring, and the once mighty Netherlands was defeated by the British.
In the 17th century, the Netherlands was the most economically powerful country in Europe, with twice as much economic power per capita as England. The Netherlands' merchant fleet is also the largest in Europe, hence the reputation"Coachman of the sea"。
The Dutch economy model is almost identical to that of the UK, relying mainly on the sea**. However, Britain felt threatened by the rise of the Netherlands, because Britain would have to sweep away this formidable rival if it wanted to dominate Europe.
As a result, there was a bourgeois revolution in England, and Cromwell became the protector of the country, and he was very tough on the outside world. Cromwell made it clear that Britain and the Netherlands had to choose to merge or become enemies, ready for war at any time.
The Netherlands, knowing that they were economically stronger than the British, decisively rejected Cromwell's proposal. Cromwell then blockaded the English Channel, through which Dutch merchant ships must pass, and went on a rampage to rob Dutch merchant ships.
Soon after, war broke out between Britain and the Netherlands. Although Britain won the Second Anglo-Dutch War, it did not completely defeat the Dutch. In the end, Britain united with France on the European continent to encircle and suppress the Netherlands, and the Netherlands was finally defeated.
Before the Opium War, in order to obtain more profits from China, the Western powers illegally imported opium into China, which brought serious harm to Chinese society. Opium was imported into China in large quantities as a hobby, beginning in the 17th century.
In 1773, the British East India Company directly dealt in opium, which opened the prelude to real opium**. This kind of ** takes the Opium War as the boundary and is divided into two periods.
After the Opium War, opium** became even more rampant, and the foreign powers forcibly imported opium into China, bringing greater damage to Chinese society.
Before the outbreak of the Opium War, the Qing Dynasty issued several anti-smoking edicts in an attempt to stop the sale of opium. However, the East India Company bypassed the ban in various ways and brought opium into China.
They either sold opium directly to British merchants, who brought it to Canton by sea to sell it; Or the opium could be transported to barges outside the port before being transported into Chinese mainland.
At the same time, opium merchants would also bribe China's anti-smuggling** in order to make greater profits. As a result, opium smuggling** expanded rapidly before the outbreak of the Opium War.
After the East India Company's monopoly was abolished, the import of opium increased further. Initially, Anglo-American merchants came to Guangzhou, China, for **, and they could only exchange goods for goods, and the scope of the transaction was limited.
However, with the sale of opium, they received a large amount of cash that could be used to buy Chinese products such as silk and tea. As the importation of opium increased, the Western colonialists were able to sell opium in more cash than they needed to prepare their return shipments.
China, on the other hand, has shifted from cash-in to cash-out. The large-scale importation of opium had a huge impact on China. First, millions of Chinese have been poisoned by opium and have suffered serious physical and mental damage.
Second, the import of opium has also caused significant damage and losses to China's socio-economic and state finances. Due to the large outflow, the price of silver, the price of money, this has had a serious impact on China's economy.
Therefore, the Opium War was the beginning of the invasion of China by the Western powers and the destruction of China's social economy.
In the late thirties of the 19th century, there was widespread opposition to the importation of opium in Chinese society, and all classes in the country, including the ruling class, supported the anti-smoking campaign, except for a few who benefited from opium smuggling.
Therefore, in the first month of the 19th year of Daoguang (1839), the Qing Dynasty sent Lin Zexu, the minister of the Qin Mission, to Guangzhou to strictly enforce the smoking ban. However, the British merchants refused to accept China's regulations, and in the end, the British launched the Opium War of aggression against China under the pretext of protecting their British subjects and containing.
All of these examples illustrate the core belief of the British Anglo-Saxons: to fight for maritime supremacy and protect their core interests, no matter what the cost.