Chapter 5: The Third Anglo-Dutch War

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Michiel De Ruyter, the architect of the Dutch naval victories in the Third Anglo Dutch War.

Due to it’s long ranging effects on the history of Europe and North America, the Third Anglo-Dutch War is studied much more than the preceding two. The war’s causes were much the same as its predecessor, the continuing rivalry in trade and colonization (much the same thing in those days), an eagerness to get revenge, and the warmongering of the duke of York. The war would be fought on a larger scale, both in Europe and the Americas.

The war began with a French invasion of the Spanish Netherlands in early 1674. The French had sought to control the region for quite some time. A secret treaty signed a year previously between France and the Dutch Provinces had solidified an agreement to split the region between them, with the Dutch taking the Flemish north and the French taking the Walloon south(1). The Dutch did not immediately act to invade, hoping to avoid an active confrontation on the Continent until it could prepare to ensure the security of its borders from English and Habsburg allies in the Holy Roman Empire. It still customarily declared war on the British and the Spanish following their making war on France.

The Dutch would not actively involve themselves in Flanders until later in the first year, after several French defeats. Soon would come the forces of Münster and Köln(2) to the doorstep of the Netherlands. They would find themselves in a much worse position than in the previous war. With a strengthened Dutch Army the Dutch forces would succeed in the course of two years, forcing the German forces into retreat. These land successes freed up their navy to take on the English in the North Sea. Although they had put more of an emphasis on their land forces in recent years, the Dutch Provinces Navy still was one of the most powerful navies in Europe. It provided just as much of a match for the English on the North Sea and the Atlantic then it had in the previous war.

By late 1676 the combined forces of the Dutch and the French had overwhelmed the Spanish and their allies in Flanders, Liege and Wallonia. The Dutch had remained undefeated and uninvaded and the forces of Münster and Köln once more were humiliated(3). The war would wind down by the beginning of 1677. It would come to a final end with the treaty of Bremen of 1677. But in our story these changes of European borders and alliances are not as important as what occurred during these years in North America.

[1] Not a common term at this point, I used it anyway.
[2] Cologne
[3] Just Münster in the second war.

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The Dutch Navy at war.

Coming soon:
The Invasion of New England
The Green Mountain Province, accidentally the Americas’ first republic.
An auspicious marriage
 
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