4th Anglo-Dutch War
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The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War ( nl, Vierde Engels-Nederlandse Oorlog; 1780–1784) was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, contemporary with the
War of American Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
(1775-1783), broke out over British and Dutch disagreements on the legality and conduct of Dutch trade with Britain's enemies in that war. Although the Dutch Republic did not enter into a formal alliance with the rebelling American colonies and their allies, American ambassador (and future president) John Adams managed to establish diplomatic relations with the Dutch Republic, making it the second European country to diplomatically recognise the
Continental Congress The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America, and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. ...
in April 1782. In October 1782, a treaty of amity and commerce was concluded as well. Most of the war consisted of a series of British operations against Dutch colonial economic interests, although British and Dutch naval forces also met once off the Dutch coast. The war ended disastrously for the Dutch and exposed the weakness of the political and economic foundations of the republic. The war settled the decline of the Dutch Empire and further cemented Great Britain as the leading commercial power.


Background

Although Great Britain and the Dutch Republic had been allies since the
Glorious Revolution The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...
of 1688, the Dutch had become very much the junior partner in the alliance and had slowly lost their former dominance of world trade to the British. During the Second Stadtholderless Period, the Dutch Republic had more or less abdicated its pretences as a major power and this became painfully evident to the rest of Europe during the War of the Austrian Succession. Near the end of that war in 1747, an Orangist revolution restored the
stadtholder In the Low Countries, ''stadtholder'' ( nl, stadhouder ) was an office of steward, designated a medieval official and then a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and H ...
ate with vastly increased powers for the stadtholder and made the stadtholderate hereditary. This did not lead to a resurgence of the republic as a major power because of what many in the republic saw as the mismanagement of the stadtholderian regency during the minority of stadtholder William V, and subsequently during his own reign. Instead, the republic remained stubbornly neutral during the Seven Years' War, which enabled it to greatly neglect both its army and navy. The stadtholderian regime was pro-British, with the stadtholder being a grandson of king George II of Great Britain, but his opponents for this reason favoured France, and those opponents were strong enough in the
States General of the Netherlands The States General of the Netherlands ( nl, Staten-Generaal ) is the supreme bicameral legislature of the Netherlands consisting of the Senate () and the House of Representatives (). Both chambers meet at the Binnenhof in The Hague. The States ...
(the governing body of the Republic whose "first servant" the stadtholder was) to keep Dutch foreign policy neutral. Initially, the British considered the Dutch allies in their attempt to stamp out the rebellion in their North American Thirteen Colonies. They attempted to "borrow" the mercenary Scotch Brigade of the Dutch States Army for use in the Americas, in a similar manner to the
Hessian A Hessian is an inhabitant of the German state of Hesse. Hessian may also refer to: Named from the toponym *Hessian (soldier), eighteenth-century German regiments in service with the British Empire **Hessian (boot), a style of boot **Hessian f ...
and Brunswicker contingents they hired and deployed. This was strongly opposed by the Dutch sympathizers of the American Revolution, led by baron
Joan van der Capellen tot den Pol Joan Derk, Baron van der Capellen tot den Pol (; 2 November 1741, Tiel – 6 June 1784, Zwolle) was a Dutch nobleman who played a prominent role in the revolutionary events that preceded the formation of the Batavian Republic. As a member of the ...
, who managed to convince the States General to refuse the British request. More importantly, Dutch merchants, especially those from Amsterdam, became involved in the supply of arms and munitions to the American rebels soon after the outbreak of American Revolutionary War. This trade was mainly conducted via the Caribbean entrepôt of
St. Eustatius Sint Eustatius (, ), also known locally as Statia (), is an island in the Caribbean. It is a special municipality (officially " public body") of the Netherlands. The island lies in the northern Leeward Islands portion of the West Indies, s ...
, an island colony of the
Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company ( nl, Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie, ''WIC'' or ''GWC''; ; en, Chartered West India Company) was a chartered company of Dutch merchants as well as foreign investors. Among its founders was Willem Usselincx ( ...
. There, American colonial wares, such as tobacco and indigo, were imported, in contravention of the British Navigation Acts) and re-exported to Europe. For their return cargo, the Americans purchased arms, munitions, and naval stores brought to the island by Dutch and French merchants. In 1776 the governor of the island,
Johannes de Graeff Johannes de Graaff (1729–1813), also referred to as ''Johannis de Graeff'' in some documents, was a Dutch Governor of Sint Eustatius, Saba and Sint Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles during the difficult time of the American Revolutionary ...
, was the first to salute the
flag of the United States The national flag of the United States, United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rect ...
, leading to growing British suspicions of the Dutch. In 1778, the Dutch refused take Britain's side in the war against France. The British invoked a number of old treaties (1678, 1689, 1716) to have the republic support them militarily, but as in the Seven Years' War, the Dutch government refused. After the French declared war on Britain, Amsterdam merchants also became heavily involved in the trade in naval stores with France. The French needed those supplies for their naval construction, but were prevented from obtaining those themselves, due to the blockade of the Royal Navy. France being the weaker naval power in the conflict. The Dutch were privileged by a concession obtained after their victory in the Second Anglo-Dutch War, known as the principle of "free ship, free goods", which was enshrined in the Anglo-Dutch Commercial Treaty of 1668, reconfirmed in the Treaty of Westminster (1674). This early formulation of the principle of Freedom of Navigation exempted all but narrowly defined "
contraband Contraband (from Medieval French ''contrebande'' "smuggling") refers to any item that, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold. It is used for goods that by their nature are considered too dangerous or offensive in the eyes o ...
" goods carried in Dutch ships from confiscation by the British prize courts, in wars in which the Dutch remained neutral. According to the treaty naval stores, including ship's timbers, masts, spars, canvas, tar, rope, and pitch, were not contraband and the Dutch, therefore, were free to continue their trade with France in these goods. Because of the still-important role of the Dutch in the European carrying trade, this opened up a large loophole in the British embargo. The British then unilaterally declared naval stores to be contraband and enforced their embargo by arresting Dutch and other neutral ships on the high seas. This led to strong protests by the affected Dutch merchants, who demanded institution of convoys escorted by the Dutch navy, to protect them against the Royal Navy and British privateers. According to customary international law, such convoys were (and still are) exempt from the right of
Visit and Search Visit and Search is the right of a belligerent warship, under certain conditions, to board a neutral merchant ship in order to verify its true character. The term probably refers to a misunderstanding of the French word , which in this context simp ...
by belligerents. Initially, the stadtholder managed to prevent this, but strong diplomatic pressure by France, that selectively applied economic sanctions to Dutch cities supporting the stadtholder in this policy, forced his hand in November 1779. The States General now ordered him to provide the escorts and the first convoy, under command of Rear Admiral
Lodewijk van Bylandt Lodewijk Count van Bylandt ( Keken, 1718 – Hoeven, 28 December 1793) was a Dutch lieutenant-admiral. He gained a certain notoriety in the Affair of Fielding and Bylandt of 1779 and even more in consequence of the refusal of the Dutch navy to ...
, sailed in December. This led to the humiliating Affair of Fielding and Bylandt on 31 December, which enraged Dutch public opinion and further undermined the position of the stadtholder. The incident motivated the Dutch to seek admission to the First League of Armed Neutrality, which espoused the principle of "free ship, free goods", especially after Britain formally abrogated the Commercial Treaty of 1668. The Dutch hoped to gain the armed support of the other members of the league to maintain their neutral status.


War


Declaration of war

The British government saw the danger of this move (it might embroil Great Britain in war with Russia and the Nordic powers Sweden and Denmark–Norway also), so declared war on the republic shortly after it announced its intentions in December 1780. To forestall Russia from coming to the aid of the Dutch (something Empress Catharine II of Russia was not keen on, either), the British government cited a number of grievances that were ostensibly unrelated to the Dutch accession to the league. One of these was the shelter the Dutch had (reluctantly) given to the American privateer John Paul Jones in 1779. More importantly, much was made of a draft treaty of commerce, secretly negotiated between the Amsterdam banker
Jean de Neufville Jean de Neufville or John de Neufville (Amsterdam, May 25, 1729 - Cambridge, Massachusetts, in December 1796) was an Amsterdam banker who had a meeting in Aachen on September 4, 1778 with US William Lee, a diplomat. Biography Jean was the son ...
and the American agent in
Aix-la-Chapelle Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...
, William Lee, with the connivance of the Amsterdam
pensionary A pensionary was a name given to the leading functionary and legal adviser of the principal town corporations in the Low Countries because they received a salary or pension. History The office originated in Flanders. Initially, the role was refe ...
Van Berckel, and found among the effects of Henry Laurens, an American diplomat who had been apprehended by the British cruiser HMS ''Vestal'' in September 1780, on the high seas. He had been sent by the
Continental Congress The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America, and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. ...
to establish diplomatic relations with the Dutch Republic. The draft treaty was cited as proof by the British of the non-neutral conduct of the Dutch.


Progress of the war

Dutch naval power had been in decline since 1712. The fleet had been long neglected, and the Dutch navy, having only 20 ships of the line at the start of the conflict, was no match for the British Royal Navy. Although the States General had decided on a substantial expansion of the fleet in 1779, just before the fateful decision to offer limited convoys, and had even voted the funds for such a naval-construction program, it progressed but slowly. Another reason for the slow expansion of the Dutch fleet was a lack of suitable recruits—the Dutch navy paid lower wages than the merchant marine and did not use impressment like the Royal Navy. The number of available ships was diminished even more at the start of the war when several ships were captured by the British in the West Indies because they were unaware the war had started. A convoy under Rear Admiral Willem Crul was lost this way near St. Eustatius in February 1781, and the admiral was killed in the short action; in a different action, Captain Bylandt (a nephew of the admiral of the same name) surrendered his ship. The pronounced inferiority of the Dutch fleet, and its state of "unreadiness" was a frequently reiterated excuse for the Dutch naval commanders, especially Vice Admiral Andries Hartsinck, who commanded the Texel squadron, to keep the fleet at anchor, thereby ceding dominance of the North Sea to the blockading British fleet. Within a few weeks of the beginning of the war, more than 200 Dutch merchantmen, with cargo to the amount of 15 million guilders, had been captured by the British and 300 more were locked up in foreign ports. Another reason for the lack of activity of the Dutch navy was the fact that diplomatic activity never ceased and gave the Dutch government the illusion that the war would be of only short duration. First Empress Catharine, though she refused to come to the aid of the Dutch, was very active in offering her services to mediate the dispute. Both the British and the Dutch, with varying amounts of sincerity, cooperated in these diplomatic manoeuvres, which came to nothing, but helped to keep military activities at a low level while they lasted. The British government also made overtures to the Dutch to come to a speedy conclusion of hostilities, especially after the cabinet of Lord North had been replaced by that of Rockingham and
Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
in March 1782. Fox immediately proposed a separate peace on favourable conditions to the Dutch government. Unfortunately for the Dutch, they had just bound themselves closer to France by agreeing to act "in concert" with France in naval actions, so a separate peace was no longer an option. A real military alliance with France was, however, still blocked by the stadtholder, despite the fact that many in the republic favoured it. The war, as far as it went, was fought in three main theatres. Britain blockaded Dutch ports in Europe, and embarked on expeditions to seize Dutch colonial properties throughout the world. These were almost entirely successful; only an attempt to capture the Dutch castle at Elmina on the Africa's Gold Coast (modern Ghana) failed. While many Dutch territories in the West Indies were taken by the British, some, like
Curaçao Curaçao ( ; ; pap, Kòrsou, ), officially the Country of Curaçao ( nl, Land Curaçao; pap, Pais Kòrsou), is a Lesser Antilles island country in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean region, about north of the Venezuela coast ...
, were not attacked due to their defensive strength.


West Indies

As far as the Dutch were concerned, the war in the West Indies was over almost before it had begun. Admiral Rodney, the commander of the
Leeward Islands french: Îles-Sous-le-Vent , image_name = , image_caption = ''Political'' Leeward Islands. Clockwise: Antigua and Barbuda, Guadeloupe, Saint kitts and Nevis. , image_alt = , locator_map = , location = Caribbean SeaNorth Atlantic Ocean , coor ...
station of the Royal Navy, attacked the Dutch colonies in that part of the
Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
: St. Eustatius, Saba, and
Saint Martin Saint Martin may refer to: People * Saint Martin of Tours (c. 316–397), Bishop of Tours, France * Saint Martin of Braga (c. 520–580), archbishop of Bracara Augusta in Gallaecia (now Braga in Portugal) * Pope Martin I (598–655) * Saint Mart ...
, as soon as he had received word of the declaration of war, in the process surprising a number of Dutch naval and merchant ships, which were still unaware of the start of hostilities. St. Eustatius ( captured on 3 February 1781), that had played such a large role in the supply of the American rebels with arms, was completely devastated by him. He proved himself especially vengeful against the Jewish merchants on the island. All goods on the island were confiscated and all merchants, Dutch, American, French, even British, deported. Part of the loot was auctioned off on the spot, but an appreciable amount was put on a convoy destined for Britain. However, much of the convoy was captured in the English Channel by a French squadron under Admiral Picquet de la Motte. The French did not return the goods to the Dutch, however. Though an attempt was made to likewise capture the Dutch Leeward Antilles, these remained in Dutch hands, as did
Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...
, though neighbouring
Berbice Berbice is a region along the Berbice River in Guyana, which was between 1627 and 1792 a colony of the Dutch West India Company and between 1792 to 1815 a colony of the Dutch state. After having been ceded to the United Kingdom of Great Britain ...
, Demerara, and
Essequibo Essequibo is the largest traditional region of Guyana but not an administrative region of Guyana today. It may also refer to: * Essequibo River, the largest river in Guyana * Essequibo (colony), a former Dutch colony in what is now Guyana; * Esseq ...
were rapidly taken by the British early in 1781. These were retaken by the French captain
Armand de Kersaint Armand-Guy-Simon de Coetnempren, comte de Kersaint, in short Armand de Kersaint (29 July 17424 December 1793), was a French sailor and politician. A Girondin, Kersaint held important naval posts during the early stages of the French Revolution. ...
in 1782, and restored to the Dutch after the war.


European waters

Admiral Hartsinck at first proved himself highly reluctant to risk his fleet. However, political pressure to venture outside the safety of the
Texel roadstead The Rede van Texel, formerly Reede van Texel, was a roadstead off the Dutch island of Texel. It was of considerable importance to Dutch long-distance shipping between roughly 1500 and 1800.Johan Zoutman Johan Arnold Zoutman (10 May 1724, Reeuwijk – 7 May 1793, The Hague) was a Dutch naval figure and rear admiral who fought at the Battle of Dogger Bank in the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. Zoutman also fought in the American Revolutionary War. Lega ...
and his second-in-command, Rear Admiral
Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen, Count of Doggerbank (1 May 1735 – 24 May 1819), was a Dutch naval officer. Having had a good scientific education, Van Kinsbergen was a proponent of fleet modernization and wrote many books about naval organization, d ...
, encountered in August 1781 a British squadron of about equal strength under Admiral Hyde Parker in the Battle of Dogger Bank, which ended in a tactical draw. Another promising venture seemed to be what has become known as the
Brest Affair The Brest Affair, also known as the (Failed) Expedition to Brest is the historiographical designation of a scandal during the Patriottentijd that was exploited by the Patriot faction to politically undermine the regime of stadtholder William V. It ...
. In September 1782, after the Dutch politicians had hesitantly agreed to coordinate their actions with the French, acting "in concert", an opportunity seemed to exist to combine a Dutch squadron of 10
ships of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colum ...
with the French squadron at Brest, as the British fleet in the channel had suddenly sailed south. However, Hartsinck, as usual, made objections, based on intelligence that British ships lay in ambush. When this proved false, the stadtholder ordered him to send the squadron, under command of Vice Admiral Count
Lodewijk van Bylandt Lodewijk Count van Bylandt ( Keken, 1718 – Hoeven, 28 December 1793) was a Dutch lieutenant-admiral. He gained a certain notoriety in the Affair of Fielding and Bylandt of 1779 and even more in consequence of the refusal of the Dutch navy to ...
to Brest. However, as had happened countless times before, Bylandt, after having inspected the ships, declared them "unready" to put out to sea. In this refusal, he was supported by the other flag officers. The incident caused a political storm that threatened to engulf the stadtholder himself, as he was responsible as commander-in-chief for both the state of readiness of the fleet and its strategic decisions (though the officers were tactically and operationally responsible, and could not decline responsibility for the alleged state of "unreadiness" themselves). The opponents of the stadtholder demanded an investigation that was, however, very long drawn out, and quietly terminated after the stadtholder was restored in his full powers after 1787, long after the end of the war. Though, except for the Dogger-Bank skirmish, no major battles were fought in European waters, and the British blockade encountered little opposition from the Dutch fleet, the blockade itself exacted its toll on the British seamen, who were at sea for long times at a stretch (which even exposed them to the danger of scurvy) and the ships that suffered from severe wear and tear. Also, because an appreciable number of ships had to be detached to maintain naval superiority in the North Sea, the already overstretched Royal Navy was even more strained after 1781. Ships that were needed to blockade the Dutch coast could not be used against the French, Americans, and Spaniards in other theatres of war. This may have contributed to a number of the naval defeats the British suffered after 1781.


Asian waters

The Dutch East India Company (VOC) had been responsible for defending its own colonies east of the Cape Colony, but for the first time, had to request assistance from the Dutch navy. However, ships were lacking at first and what naval forces were available were unable to prevent Britain from taking effective control of the Dutch colonies (in the Indian Subcontinent all of the Dutch colonies were taken). In early 1782 British Admiral Sir Edward Hughes captured Trincomalee on the eastern coast of
Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
, considered to be the finest harbour in the Bay of Bengal. In March 1781, British Admiral George Johnstone was sent to capture the Cape Colony. France, which had already planned to send a fleet to India, received intelligence of this, and directed its commander, the
Bailli de Suffren A bailiff (french: bailli, ) was the king's administrative representative during the ''ancien régime'' in northern France, where the bailiff was responsible for the application of justice and control of the administration and local finances in h ...
, to try to reach the Cape before Johnstone. After Johnstone and Suffren met in a happenstance battle in the Cape Verde Islands, Suffren was able to arrive before Johnstone, and the strength of French troops he left dissuaded Johnstone from attacking the colony. After capturing a number of VOC ships in the nearby Saldanha Bay, he returned to North Atlantic waters. Suffren had continued on to Isle de France (now Mauritius) and then India. There, he arrived and fought a number of actions against Hughes. Suffren attempted to take the Dutch port of Negapatam ( taken by the British in 1781), but was frustrated by Hughes. In August, the French recaptured Trincomalee, and Suffren fought Hughes to a standstill in a naval battle several days later. The two fleets withdrew and the British repaired in Bombay while the French refitted in the Dutch colony of
Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...
. Hughes and Suffren met again in 1783, but news of preliminary peace between France and Britain ended hostilities in India. In August 1781, word of the war reached Sumatra, where both the Dutch and British companies had trading outposts. The directors of the British company at Fort Marlborough received instructions from Bombay to destroy all of the Dutch outposts on the west coast of Sumatra. Quite fortuitously, a fleet of five East Indiamen arrived not long after, and the directors seized the opportunity for action. Henry Botham, one of the directors, commandeered the fleet, and with 100 company soldiers sailed for Padang. On 18 August, Jacob van Heemskerk, the VOC chief resident at Padang, surrendered all of the west coast outposts without a fight, unaware that Botham's force was relatively weak. The capture netted the British 500,000
florins The Florentine florin was a gold coin struck from 1252 to 1533 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard during that time. It had 54 grains (3.499 grams, 0.113 troy ounce) of nominally pure or 'fine' gold with a purcha ...
in goods and money. The fortress at Padang was destroyed before the town was returned to VOC control in 1784.


Ceasefire and Treaty of Paris

The republic did not form a formal military alliance with France and her allies before the end of the war. A treaty of amity and commerce was, however, concluded with the Americans in October 1782, after John Adams, who succeeded Henry Laurens, had managed to obtain diplomatic recognition of the American republic from the States General in April 1782. The republic was the second European power (after France, but before Spain) to recognise the United States. Adams also succeeded in raising a substantial loan for the Americans on the still-significant Dutch capital market. The republic involved itself in the peace congress that the French foreign minister, Vergennes, organised, negotiating separately with the British commissioners. The Dutch demands were not supported by the French, and this put them into an untenable position when the French and their allies went ahead with the signing of the general peace. The Dutch, therefore, were forced to sign a preliminary peace just before that general treaty was signed. The republic joined the armistice between Britain and France in January 1783. The signing of the Treaty of Paris (1783–1784) made Negapatnam, in India, a British colony.
Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
was restored to Dutch control. The British gained the right of free trade with part of the
Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...
, which had been a major war aim for British merchants. The French also returned the other Dutch colonies they had recaptured from the British, including the ones in the West Indies (like St. Eustatius that had been taken by Admiral Rodney in February 1781, but was retaken by the French Admiral De Grasse on 27 November 1781).


Aftermath

The war proved a disaster for the Netherlands, particularly economically. It also proved to be confirmation of the weakening of Dutch power in the 18th century. In the immediate aftermath of the war, the bad result was blamed on the stadholder's mismanagement (if not worse) by his opponents, who coalesced into the Patriot party. These managed for a while to roll back a number of the reforms of the revolution of 1747, strongly diminishing his powers. However, this Patriot revolt was suppressed in 1787 by Prussian and British intervention. The Patriots were driven abroad, but returned in 1795 with the help of the
French revolutionary The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are consider ...
armies and established a
Batavian Republic The Batavian Republic ( nl, Bataafse Republiek; french: République Batave) was the successor state to the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on 19 January 1795 and ended on 5 June 1806, with the accession of Louis Bona ...
in place of the old Dutch Republic. The Low Countries remained central to British strategic thinking, and they sent expeditionary forces to the Netherlands in 1793, 1799, and 1809. The war caused severe damage to the VOC, which already in a severe crisis, was to go bankrupt just a few years later.


See also

* Anglo-Dutch Wars *
History of England England became inhabited more than 800,000 years ago, as the discovery of stone tools and footprints at Happisburgh in Norfolk have indicated.; "Earliest footprints outside Africa discovered in Norfolk" (2014). BBC News. Retrieved 7 February ...
* History of the Netherlands * British military history *
Dutch military history The Netherlands, as a nation-state, dates to 1568, when the Dutch Revolt created the Dutch Empire. Previously, the Germanic tribes had no written language during the Migration Period, ancient and Early Middle Ages, early medieval periods, so what w ...


Notes


Sources

* Clodfelter, M. (2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015 (4th ed.). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. * * * * * * * * * * * Scott, Hamish M. "Sir Joseph Yorke, Dutch politics and the origins of the fourth Anglo-Dutch war." ''The Historical Journal'' 31#3 (1988): 571-589. * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Anglo-Dutch War, 4th Anglo-Dutch Wars Patriottentijd Wars involving the Dutch Republic