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How the Netherlands fell

The Netherlands dominated the seas in the 17th century and were known as sea coachmen. However, by the late 17th century, the Netherlands had been at war with Britain and France successively. The Netherlands was defeated by the United Kingdom at sea (the Anglo-Dutch War), and the Netherlands was defeated by France on the land (the French-Dutch War), thus declining.

The Anglo-Dutch Wars (Dutch: Engels–Nederlandse Oorlogen or Engelse Zeeoorlogen) were four wars between England and the Netherlands between the 17th and 18th centuries.

After the independence of the Netherlands, the economy developed rapidly, taking advantage of Spain’s decline and Britain’s busy civil war to monopolize world trade. After the end of the British Civil War, the expansion route was resumed, and the navy was vigorously developed. In 1651, the Netherlands was banned from participating in the British maritime trade. The two countries fought three trade wars.

In the 17th century, in order to defeat the growing commercial rival Netherlands, and strive to maintain the maritime superiority it had begun to establish and compete for colonies, Britain provoked three wars against the Netherlands. As a result of the second and third Anglo-Dutch wars, France gained a lot of land and commercial interests; its national strength rose sharply and surpassed the Netherlands, becoming the strongest hegemon in Europe. In the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War in the 18th century, Britain defeated the Netherlands and began to gain world financial hegemony.

The Franco Dutch War (English: Franco Dutch War, referred to as: Dutch War, translation Dutch War) was a war between European countries that occurred from 1672 to 1678. The Franco-Dutch War was a war between the Bishops of Münster, Cologne, and Great Britain against the Dutch Republic in France, Sweden, and Germany under Louis XIV, later joined by Austria, and the lands of Ian Habsburg, Brandon Den Burg and Spain formed a quadruple alliance.

The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Nijmegen in 1678, which granted France control over France and some cities in Flanders and Hainaut (formerly controlled by Spain). France won and began to dominate Europe. King Louis XIV of France was known as the “Sun King”, known as Louis the Great.

The decline of the Netherlands in the 18th century was rooted in the loss of patriotism and enterprise. The Dutch would rather lend their capital accumulated over the past two hundred years to governments and enterprises in Britain, France and other countries to enjoy stable and rich interest income, rather than regain the enterprising spirit of “coachmen on the sea” and take risks abroad. As a result, due to more than 60 years of armaments, it was completely defeated by the British in the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War in 1780-1784, which led to the end of France’s elimination of the Dutch Republic in 1795, officially ending the Dutch financial hegemony, and its The most glorious colonial era.

The Franco-Dutch War caused the decline of the three major powers of the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden in the early 18th century: the Netherlands was limited by the geopolitical structure of Britain and France, and the Dutch maritime hegemony was finally transferred to the United Kingdom in 1713; Sweden’s traditional Military superiority could not prevent the rise of Brandenburg, and Spain’s performance in the war was even more incompetent, and finally suffered a huge defeat in the early 18th century. Except for the mainland, most of the territory was divided up by the powers.