Anglo-Dutch Wars

**♥ Lily ♥** · 11-02-2019, 11:27 AM

The Anglo-Dutch Wars

Anglo-Dutch Wars, also called Dutch Wars, Dutch Engelse Oorlogen, (English Wars), the four 17th- and 18th-century naval conflicts between England and the Dutch Republic. The first three wars, stemming from commercial rivalry, established England’s naval might, and the last, arising from Dutch interference in the American Revolution, spelled the end of the republic’s position as a world power.

The First Anglo-Dutch War (1652–54) began during a tense period following England’s institution of the 1651 Navigation Act, which was aimed at barring the Dutch from involvement in English sea trade. An incident in May 1652 resulting in the defeat of a Dutch force under Adm. Maarten Tromp led England to declare war on July 8 (June 28, old style). The Dutch under Tromp won a clear victory off Dungeness in December, but most of the major engagements of the following year were won by the larger and better armed men-of-war of England. In the summer of 1653 off Texel (Terheide), in the last battle of the war, the Dutch were defeated and Tromp killed, with both sides suffering heavy losses. The war was ended by the Treaty of Westminster (April 1654).

The commercial rivalry of the two nations again led to war in 1665 (the Second Anglo-Dutch War of 1665–67), after hostilities had begun the previous year and the English had already captured New Amsterdam (New York). England declared war in March 1665 and won a victory over the Dutch off Lowestoft in June. Most subsequent battles (which occurred in the following year), however, were won by the Dutch. England’s ally, the principality of Münster, sent troops into Dutch territory in 1665 but was forced out of the war in the following year by France, which took the Dutch side in January 1666. A plague epidemic in 1665 and the Great Fire of London in 1666 contributed to England’s difficulties, which culminated in the destruction of its docked fleet by the Dutch at Chatham in June 1667. The war was ended the following month by the Treaty of Breda.

The Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672–74) formed a part of the general European war of 1672–78. England and the Dutch Republic had been allied for a century when they again went to war (the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War of 1780–84) over secret Dutch trade and negotiations with the American colonies, then in revolt against England. The English declared war on Dec. 20, 1780, and, in the following year, quickly took key Dutch possessions in the West and East Indies while imposing a powerful blockade of the Dutch coast. In the only significant engagement of the war, a small Dutch force won a victory off Dogger Bank in August 1781. The republic was never able to assemble a proper fleet for combat, however, and when the war ended in May 1784, the Dutch were at the nadir of their power and prestige.

Michiel Adriaanszoon De Ruyter, (born March 24, 1607, Vlissingen, United Provinces [Netherlands]—died April 29, 1676, Syracuse, Sicily [Italy]), Dutch seaman and one of his country’s greatest admirals. His brilliant naval victories in the Second and Third Anglo-Dutch wars enabled the United Provinces to maintain a balance of power with England.

Employed at sea at the age of nine, De Ruyter by 1635 had become a merchant captain. After serving as rear admiral of a Dutch fleet assisting Portugal against Spain in 1641, he returned to the merchant service for the next 10 years, fighting against the Barbary pirates off the north African coast. With the outbreak of the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652–54), he accepted a naval command, serving with distinction under Maarten Tromp and attaining the rank of vice admiral in 1653 after his victory off Texel. De Ruyter’s successes in battle have been attributed to his development of an effective combat order, stressing fleet discipline.

In 1659 De Ruyter supported Denmark against Sweden in the Baltic in the First Northern War (1655–60). He fought against the English (1664–65) off the Guinea Coast of Africa, helping to restore the Dutch West India Company’s commercial dominance in the area, but he was unsuccessful in subsequent campaigns against the English in the West Indies.

Returning to the United Provinces in 1665, De Ruyter was named lieutenant admiral of Holland and worked closely with Johan De Witt to strengthen the Dutch navy. In the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–67), his greatest victories were in the Four Days’ Battle (June 1666) and in the raid on the Medway (June 1667), in which much of the English fleet was destroyed; the latter victory accelerated the Anglo-Dutch peace negotiations that had begun at Breda in April 1667. De Ruyter’s blaming Admiral Cornelis Tromp for the defeat in the St. James’s Day battle in August 1666 resulted in the withdrawal of Tromp’s commission and his resignation from the navy until 1673, when the two distinguished commanders were reconciled.

De Ruyter’s performance in the Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672–74) has been considered his greatest achievement: his victories over larger Anglo-French forces off Solebay (1672) and Ostend and Kijkduin (1673) prevented an invasion of the Dutch Republic from the sea. In 1675–76 he fought against the French in the Mediterranean and was mortally wounded off Sicily.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Anglo-Dutch-Wars

**♥ Lily ♥** · 11-02-2019, 11:35 AM

New York was once named New Amsterdam.... and Australia was once named New Holland.

The East India Company was owned by the Dutch and British.

The East India Company (EIC), also known as the Honourable East India Company (HEIC), East India Trading Company (EITC), or the British East India Company, and informally known as John Company, Company Bahadur, or simply The Company, was an English and later British joint-stock company. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with Mughal India and the East Indies, and later with Qing China. The company ended up seizing control over large parts of the Indian subcontinent, colonised parts of Southeast Asia, and colonised Hong Kong after a war with Qing China.

Originally chartered as the "Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies", the company rose to account for half of the world's trade, particularly in basic commodities including cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, spices, saltpetre, tea, and opium. The company also ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India. In his speech to the House of Commons in July 1833, Lord Macaulay explained that since the beginning, the East India company had always been involved in both trade and politics, just as its French and Dutch counterparts had been.

Both the British and the Dutch have territories in the Caribbean (West Indie Isles.)