How do I open a URL from C++?

how can I open a URL from my C++ program?

In ruby you can do

%x(open https://google.com)

What's the equivalent in C++? I wonder if there's a platform-independent solution. But if there isn't, I'd like the Unix/Mac better :)

Here's my code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <fstream>

int main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
    char url[1000] = "https://www.google.com";

    std::fstream fs;
    fs.open(url);
    fs.close();

    return 0;
}