Anglo-Dutch Wars
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 Dutch attack on the Medway during the Second Anglo-Dutch War by Pieter Cornelisz van Soest c. 1667. The captured English ship Royal Charles is right of center. |
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The Anglo-Dutch wars (Dutch: Engels–Nederlandse Oorlogen or Engelse Zeeoorlogen) were wars between England/Britain (the Commonwealth of England, the Kingdom of England, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) and the Dutch states (the Dutch Republic and the Batavian Republic). They were fought in the periods 1652-1674 and 1781-1810, for the control of trade routes and colonies. There were numerous naval battles.
During the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, neither England nor the main maritime provinces of the Low Countries, Flanders and Holland, had been major European sea powers on par with the commerce driven sea powers such as Venice, Genoa, Portugal, Castile or Aragon. As the Age of Exploration stimulated trade, the Dutch and English—both influenced by mercantilism and centuries of commerce with the other state—were independently compelled to the need to look for colonies and wealth in the newly exposed New World. Led by the Dutch invention of the Joint Stock Company and spurred by rivalry with the Spanish Empire, the Dutch financed expeditions to the orient with stock subscriptions sold in the United Provinces and in London. Thanks to fisheries, the wool trade, and Baltic ships stores, the two regions had long standing relationships.
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