Fourth Anglo-Dutch War

The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (1780-1784) was a war between the Dutch Republic and Britain . Only in May 1781 the Republic declared war on England, after that country on 20 December 1780 had done.

The previous three naval wars had the hegemony at sea at stake; the fourth bore the character of a British punitive expedition, because the Republican "smuggling support" to the rebels during the American Revolutionary War .

Run and led
The Glorious Revolution of 1688 brought an end to the rivalry between England and the Netherlands, because governor William III of Orange-Nassau alongside Mary II of England came to the English throne. However, this maneuver was the slow demise of the Dutch dominance in the market and thus to sea. The merchants began Londonto use as a new base of operations. The growth of the Dutch economy slowed down. After 1720, there was even talk of decline and around 1780 was the income per capita in Britain over that in the Netherlands.

Now jealousy played a role on the Dutch side, which among other things expressed in support for the rebels in the American colonies, which occurred during theRevolutionary War tried to free the British Empire . Weapons and ammunition were sent to the colony of St. Eustatius shipped, where they then to anger the English were sold to the Americans. Although the British protested, the smuggling continued. In 1778, France declared war on England, Spain joined France. England asked the Republic to military and naval support, but the Republic chose to remain neutral, and threatened to join the League of Armed Neutrality .

When the English and then in 1780 the newly appointed US Ambassador Henry Laurens, on his way to his post in the Netherlands , picked up, while she fished a box with a secret treaty from the water that had thrown overboard the ambassador. The British seized the treaty between the city of Amsterdam and the American rebels to the Republic on 20 December to unilaterally declare war.

Course of the war [ edit ]
The Dutch navy was outnumbered, and manages a small victory in the Battle of Dogger Bank not to keep open the sea route to the Baltic Sea. Besides the British were able to take some Dutch colonies, including the disputed island of St. Eustatius . The economic loss to the Netherlands was very great. The conflict did lead to a major new building program for warships.

The war ended with the Treaty of Paris (1783) . The VOC lost the spice monopoly. England was given the right to free navigation on the Moluccas . The Republic lost Negapatnam in India to the English.

In 1785, the Republic entered into an alliance with France. The end of the alliance with England the Republic was potentially vulnerable.