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What was the cause of the French-Dutch War?

After Louis XIV came to power in 1661, he worked hard to dominate Europe.

So in 1667 he chose Spain as the target of his troops and launched the Heritage War (1667-1668). But he had just occupied a large area and was planning to take all of the Spanish Netherlands (now Belgium) to the northeast, but was intervened by the Dutch Republic, an old ally of the Thirty Years’ War.

The head of the Dutch government at the time, the businessman-born Johan de Witte Grand Speaker (the most powerful figure in Europe at the time), worried that too much French territorial expansion would threaten the national security of the Netherlands (the Spanish Netherlands has always been between France and the Netherlands). Buffer zone), so de Witte used both soft and hard methods to unite Britain and Sweden into a “Triangular Alliance”, demanding that France conclude a peace with Spain in 1668 and return a large number of occupied territories, otherwise the “Triangular Alliance” would declare war on France .

Louis XIV was ill-prepared for war and was forced to accept the demands of the Netherlands and agreed to the peace, but it planted Louis XIV’s strong resentment against John de Witte and the Dutch Republic.

It just so happened that King Charles II of England was forced to form an alliance with the Netherlands in 1668 to put pressure on France after losing to the Netherlands in the Second Anglo-Dutch War, but Charles II had always been resentful and longing for revenge. Therefore, after a large-scale expansion of the army, Louis XIV launched diplomatic maneuvers to destroy the nominal “Triangle Alliance” of the Netherlands.

The talented French foreign minister, Hugue Leona, managed a series of outstanding diplomatic achievements: he first bought the Swedish parliament and obtained Sweden’s promise to give up the triangular alliance to remain neutral; then proposed to the king of England to join forces with France to attack the Netherlands ( Partially financed by France), dividing up most of its territory.

The two parties hit it off and signed the secret treaty of Dover in 1670. King Charles II of England and King Louis XIV of France allied and planned to jointly attack the Netherlands two years later. At the same time, the King of France also bribed and instigated the neighboring countries of the Netherlands, the Archbishop of Münster and the Archbishop of Cologne, and promised that once France sent troops, they would also send troops and provide French transportation and logistical support.

So in 1672, the king of France first declared war on the Netherlands, and then the king of England went to war with the Netherlands, and the third Anglo-Dutch War broke out.

The war began in 1672, when King Louis XIV of France dispatched 120,000 troops to attack the Netherlands. The Dutch fort, originally known as the “strongest line of defense”, collapsed at the touch of a button when faced with the new siege technology developed by the genius French engineer General Vauban. .

The French army quickly occupied most of the Netherlands (five of the seven provinces were basically occupied), causing a panic and coup in the Netherlands, known as the “Rampjaar” in history; and then sending 60,000 elite troops to attack the Spanish Langche-Comté and the Southern Netherlands.

As a result, the patriotic energy of the Dutch broke out, preventing the French army from occupying Amsterdam by breaking the embankment, and in a critical situation, he appointed William III, Prince of Orange, to rule the province and save the country from disaster (the angry crowd forced De Witte to step down and take charge, and was later beaten alive by the mob. die).

King Charles II of England attacked the Netherlands at the same time in 1672, but the Dutch admiral won all four naval battles, and Charles II was forced to truce. Later, under the pressure of Parliament, the third Anglo-Dutch War was officially ended in 1674. In the same year, after the Archbishop of Münster and the Archbishop of Cologne took over the United Kingdom, they concluded a peace treaty with the Netherlands.

The Dutch ruler William III first formed alliances with Spain, Austria, Prussia, the Duchy of Lorraine, and the Duchy of Palatine, forcing France to spread its forces around to fight.

At the end of 1673, with the excellent combat of William III and the help of the Allies, the Dutch army captured Bonn and all the French troops were driven out of the country. The hard battle between the third and the French ended in defeat. Afterwards, William III led the newly recruited 80,000 Dutch army to continue to fight back against the French army, but the war situation changed unexpectedly.

In 1674, France used a lot of money to win over the Nordic overlord Sweden and make an alliance with it, to induce Sweden to attack the German region from the rear, and to let Brandenburg and the Holy Roman Empire withdraw the troops to aid the Netherlands and save themselves.

In 1675, the elector of Brandenburg, Frederick William defeated the Swedish army (Frederick William was known as the “great elector” because of this incredible victory), which made Denmark, which has always been hostile to Sweden, take the opportunity to form an alliance with the Netherlands And war was declared against Sweden, resulting in the Skåne War (1675-1679).

Because Sweden attacked the anti-French alliance from the rear, after 1674, the Netherlands had a disadvantageous situation of losing more and winning less. First, Louis XIV adopted the strategy of the Minister of Finance and the economic genius Colbert to greatly increase the tariffs on Dutch goods and conduct a tariff war, which caused heavy losses to Dutch businessmen; secondly, the Dutch “Poseidon” Michel at the Battle of Augusta in 1676 El Adrianson de Reuit was wounded and died in Sicily in the Mediterranean, and the Netherlands and Spain were seized by France for sea control in the Mediterranean.

In the end, although the Netherlands, Spain and the German allies increased their troops and formed a coalition that was slightly more than the French army, it was difficult to stop the French veteran military geniuses Turenne and Grand Condé (the two repeatedly defeated more with less), and the German Lorraine was taken away, and Franche-Comté and part of Flanders held by Spain were also firmly occupied.

If not for Austrian coach Raimondo Montecuccoli to compete with Turena and Grande Condé and let the latter two die and retire, the anti-French alliance would have lost more territory.

In 1677, William III’s diplomacy with the United Kingdom was successful, and he married Princess Mary, who was second in line to the British throne. Although Louis XIV temporarily delayed Britain’s entry into the war by secretly subsidizing King Charles II of England and a small number of Whigs (British opposition parties) elites, he recognized that the war must be ended as soon as possible before the huge advantage was lost. .

So he activated the clever mechanism of dividing the enemy and diplomatic negotiation, and at the same time worked hard on the battlefield to obtain more negotiating costs for the peace treaty, and successfully occupied Ghent and Ypres in the South Netherlands in March 1678, successfully The anti-French coalition was brought to the negotiating table before Britain entered the war.