Anglo-Dutch Wars

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Anglo-Dutch Wars
The Four Days' Battle, by Abraham Storck
Date 1652–1654      First Anglo-Dutch War 1665–1667      Second Anglo-Dutch War 1672–1674      Third Anglo-Dutch War 1780–1784      Fourth Anglo-Dutch War Location English Channel, North Sea

The Anglo–Dutch Wars (Dutch: Engels–Nederlandse Oorlogen) were mainly fought between the Dutch Republic (of continental Western Europe) and the Kingdom of England (England) (later Kingdom of Great Britain on the off-shore island of Great Britain) in the mid-17th and late 18th century. The first three wars occurred in the second half of the 17th century over trade and overseas colonies, while the fourth conflict was fought a century later. Almost all the battles were naval engagements.

The English had minor successes in the first war, while the Dutch were successful in the second and third. However, in the century between the third and fourth war, the English / British Royal Navy had become the most powerful maritime force in the world for the next three hundred years, while the Dutch navy had fallen to fourth position, behind the navies of the competing European kingdoms of the French (France) and Spanish (Kingdom of Spain)

There would be more battles during the subsequent French Revolutionary and following Napoleonic Wars of the late 18th and into the early 19th century.