Mar 20, 2023

Anglo-Dutch Wars (1652- 1784) (W11:D3)

The Dutch, English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese were all very competitive to claim parts of the New World and explore its fertile lands. Many wars broke out across the waters; ships were pillaged, stolen, or sunk. Spanish ships were constantly being attacked or stolen by all their competitors, but when it came to taking over the fertile soils of North America, no war was as significant as the Anglo (meaning English) – Dutch Wars. Exploration was not the only reason for these groups to battle; the religious dominance over the New World was also a great driving factor for those fighting in the war. The fight was between the Roman Catholic Church, and the newer claimed moderate faith of Protestants. In the early 1600s, the Dutch fought with the Catholic Habsburg Dynasty of Austria, in the Eight Year War, while exploring the New World in areas such as modern-day New York and Delaware. The Dutch East India Company found much success in India and Indonesia, trading on the spice trade routes, and Dutch privateers had made many successful captures of Spanish ships. By the early 1700s, the Portuguese made a truce and began to trade heavily with the Dutch. The Dutch merchant fleet was growing to become the largest in all of Europe. The Spanish signed the Peace of Münster treaty, in 1648, and their war came to an end. The Dutch began to decommission their military, which led to a Civil War amongst the Dutch - especially those in the New World, as they felt they were being poorly protected, and demanded more support. No other colony was more vocal about this than the New York colony.

The English, on the other hand, in the 16th century, built up the greatest naval military to conduct privateering against Spanish treasure ships, which only funded more military and privateers. This was known as the Anglo-Spanish War. Protestant King, James I, wanted peace with Spain and the Catholics, so he signed a treaty with Spain and outlawed privateering for a time, and then neglected his Royal Navy. Charles I, while sympathizing with the Catholics and Spain, reconstructed his Navy. During this time, Charles made secret agreements with Spain to fight the Dutch sea power. During the English Civil War of 1642, the Navy was again neglected, and weakened because of divisions in the war. King Charles was beheaded, and his predecessor, Oliver Cromwell, succeeded in bringing the country back together. He then revamped the Navy to focus on one great task: to cripple the Dutch merchant and naval fleets. He turned the country’s anger towards the Dutch as their common enemy. Their grievances stemmed from fishing in English waters, to the Dutch forcing England out of India and Indonesia, to the Dutch’s free trade attitude (which circumvented the English’s high tax and control structure). The Spanish forces were also up for grabs, because the Spanish Empire was beginning to crumble at the end of the Thirty-Year War in 1648.

Cromwell feared the political strength of Orange, a region of France, and the Colonists of the Republic in the New World, who both supported Charles I when the King was beheaded. To gain support, he joined forces with the Dutch in taking the fallen Spanish colonies, a very lucrative endeavor. This treaty was one sided, with the English as benefactor, and the Dutch saw through the deception, which led to war. First War (1652–1654) – As the Dutch began to decommission much of their Navy, because of their treaty with Spain, the English began to purchase and recommission them, growing their Navy force. Instead, the Dutch grew their merchant fleet and continued to trade throughout the world, yet, due to their treaty with Spain, were not allowed to trade with most of Southern Europe. The English, in 1651, signed the Navigation Acts, only allowing English ships to trade in England, which shrunk the reach of the Dutch traders and made it lawful for English privateers to attack Dutch ships. With the increase in hostility, the Dutch felt they had to respond. They began to support armed merchant ships. The English demanded that other ships lower their flags, in respect for England, when two ships passed; the Dutch refused, leading to the first conflict on the sea (the Battle of Dover), which led to England declaring war on the Dutch, on July 10, 1652. Though battles occurred all the time at sea, the first major conflict was the Battle of the Kentish Knock, with the Dutch sailing 62 ships and 1900 cannons, compared to the English’s 68 ships and 2,400 cannons. The Dutch were forced to withdraw, not due to the lack of guns, but the internal struggle between the ships, which nearly ended the first war. The Dutch succeeded in driving away the English ships in the smaller Battle of Leghorn, near Italy, where they gained most of the control over the Mediterranean. The English had also lost control of the English Channel. The final battle occurred on August 10, 1653, at the Battle of Scheveningen, which finally exhausted the two fleets to sign the Treaty of Westminster, on April 5, 1654. Afterwards, England went to war with Spain. The Second War (1665-1667) – Peace did not last long. The English merchant companies, like the Levant Company and East India Company, saw the success of their businesses during this time of turmoil with the Dutch, and they began pressuring England to restart the war. They suggested making every ship available and filling them with a crew that would be paid by the plunders of the Dutch ships they attacked. Before the war had even begun, the English ships sailed across the Atlantic, straight into the harbor of New Amsterdam, to find it defenseless. In 1665, the English fleet set sail and captured and plundered dozens of Dutch ships, which were then sunk, or released crippled. The Dutch trading industry suffered greatly; then the Dutch fought back. The Dutch quickly learned the strategy the trading companies had learned: they were more profitable during times of war. By 1666, Dutch trade recovered and began to thrive, taking trade away from the English. The English did get their revenge, setting fire to destroy a fleet of 140 Dutch ships and subsequently, the city of West-Terschelling, Netherlands. The Dutch sought revenge for that, and so started the Great Fire of London. Something else happened during this time that hurt England greatly: the people began to suffer from the plague. Their cities were ravished by this disease, and so were their ships. This nearly crippled the English efforts. In 1667, the Dutch laid another blow on the English, as they attacked the English fleet, harbored for the night, near Upnor Castle. During this attack, they plundered many ships, captured the town Sheerness, and stole the HMS Royal Charles - flagship of the English. This was the worst defeat that the Royal Navy would ever experience. This crippled the English war efforts and ended the Second war. One last battle was launched by the Dutch, when they sailed from New Amsterdam to Virginia, destroyed a British ship in the harbor, and attacked and plundered the Hampton Roads fort. The news sent London into a panic, as the people began to revolt against Charles II. He quickly sent Ambassadors to sign a peace treaty with the Dutch. Even though they won, and could demand reparations (rewards back from the English), they did not ask for New Amsterdam back, but only the sugar plantations down the east coast of the Americas. New Netherland stayed under English law, when the Treaty of Breda was signed. Third War (1672-1674) (W11:D3) – You think this would have taught the two countries a lesson on attacking each other, but in 1672, as soon as the English fleet was rebuilt, they were at it again (though they did not have the support of the English people). It was the secret treaty with the French that pushed them to assist Louis XIV in his attacks on the Dutch, during the Franco-Dutch War. The French and English forces were prevented from attacks, and after many failed attempts, the people rose up to demand Charles make peace once again. During this time, the Dutch briefly took back New York. They installed the first ever Dutch Governor, as all others had been appointed by the Dutch East India Company. It was now named New Orange, after the Dutch Royal House of Orange. Though the Dutch had won the war, they relinquished the colony to the British, in exchange for the plantation colony of Surinam, which was more profitable. It’s still a country in South America today. Fourth and Final War (1780-1784) – The English had learned their lesson; their people’s voices were heard, and peace was kept for over 100 years. This was partially due to the Dutch attacking England in 1688, during the Glorious Revolution, where the Dutch crossed the channel and dethroned James II, who was replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary and her Dutch husband, William of Orange. Orange was a region of France. He joined the fleets of England and Dutch to combat the French. The King gave the Royal Navy much respect, and privileges to earn their loyalty, and keep it. By 1707, Scotland formally united with England, to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. The fleet became the most dominant military force in all the world. The Dutch freely traded in England and the economy of both kingdoms flourished. The defeat in the Americas during the American Revolution, and the support of the colonists over the British, created a resentment that led to the fourth and final war. The Dutch Navy was a fraction of what it once was; the British Navy was diminished because of the war in the Americas. So, this was not as much a war as the two countries rebuilding their fleet, in order to attack (though not much occurred until the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, in 1793-1815, when the French basically left their presence in the Netherlands, annexing the country, in 1810). The Dutch and English had small battles and scuffles in the future, but nothing like the first three wars, that had sent hundreds of ships to the deep dark burial grounds in the sea. Peace was built from the mutual respect they had for the two European countries, and not through the battles themselves. Activity: The Art of Propulsion – The ships of the past are nothing like what we have today. Back then, the ships were propelled forward by the wind in their sails; now, they move using large propellers under the ship. Today, we are going to experiment with the difference between wind power and propulsion. Check out this activity at: http://www.huntthepast.com/propellervswind/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8-84J8vtUg First: Draw your ship. What would your ship look like?