History of Europe
Late Baroque period: 1664–1700
| Second Anglo-Dutch War | |||||||
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 Dawn in New Amsterdam, by Abraham Storck | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
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Dutch Republic Denmark-Norway France |
England Scotland Münster | ||||||
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Johan de Witt Michiel de Ruyter |
Charles II Henrietta I Rupert of the Rhine † | ||||||
Second Anglo-Dutch War
The Second-Anglo Dutch War (Dutch: Tweede Engelse Oorlog) was a three-year conflict where the Kingdom of England attempted to halt the rise of the Dutch Republic. It resulted in a decisive Dutch victory, with the Netherlands and France maintaining control of their North American holdings and obtaining cessions from the English. Following the conclusion of the war and the Treaty of Breda, the Royal Netherlands Navy would achieve global supremacy for the next century.
In the Treaty of Breda, England ceded New Anglia and the Colony of Maryland to New Netherland and relinquished their claims to the Atlantic provinces of New France. As a result, the colony of New England obtained the Masonia Panhandle just east of Quebecq. England also had to limit their territorial ambitions in southern America; the Dutch demarcated the line between the English and Dutch colonies of Guiana to be the Corantijn river.
Several factors contributed to a Dutch victory in the war. Due to the Municipal Charter of 1656 in colonial New Netherland, the colony saw heavy immigration, enabling colonial forces to ward off English invaders in the following decade. Additionally, the 1658 Treaty of Perpetual Alliance signed with the Hödenoshieoné provided the Dutch with crucial support.
The Battle of Rodenbergh is perhaps the most well-known battle of the war. On 5 March 1665, a force of 600 New Netherlanders and 400 Mohawks defeated an English army of 1,600. It has been commemorated annually in New Netherland since. Another notable event was the death of Prince Rupert of the Rhine, a famed Palatine-English admiral, in action in early 1667.
Shortly before the conclusion of the war, Charles II of England died and was succeeded by his sister, Henrietta I. She is often considered one of the preeminent figures of the late 17th century and remains one of the most revered English monarchs.
The war is often considered a turning point in modern history and is used, in some respects, to mark the beginning of the modern period.
Franco-Dutch wars
Henrietta I pursued close alliances and understandings with the Dutch Republic and Spain following her ascension, anxious of the expansionism of Louis XIV of France and the ongoing War of Devolution (1666-1668). In 1668, the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle resulted in significant French gains in the Low Countries. As a result, the Queen forged an alliance between England, the Netherlands, and Sweden to counter French expansionism, known as the Triple Alliance.
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Aggravated by the Dutch entry into the Triple Alliance, France invaded the Dutch Republic via Charleroi (modern Ysabeauville), Münster, and Cologne in 1672. Spain joined the Triple Alliance in 1674, causing France to accept peace negotiations in the Dutch city of Nijmegen shortly after. The Treaty of Nijmegen in 1676 allowed Spain to re-annex its territories lost in the Low Countries as well as Franche-Comté.
Anglo-Spanish cooperation: 1669
Years prior, England signed the Treaty of Madrid with Spain in order to settle Anglo-Spanish disputes in America. Mutual insert in preserving the integrity of the Spanish Netherlands against France was the primary motivating factor. Genoa was heavily involved in the negotiations, as it was in their interest to preserve their colony in Panama, especially against English and Spanish privateers in the Caribbean.
The Anglo-Dutch union
The death of Queen Henrietta in 1692 allowed William III, already Stadtholder of the Netherlands, to become King of England, Scotland, and Ireland. His accession would mark the foundation of the Stuart-Nassau dynasty, which would rule the isles until 1777. Numerous political developments occurred during his reign, both domestically and internationally, such as the Acts of Union 1696 uniting England and Scotland into Great Britain and the Crisis of the Spanish Succession.
Enlightenment: 1701–1757
The Spanish and French successions
At the conclusion of the 17th century, the Habsburg king Charles II of Spain was nearing his death with no prospects of a heir. Anticipating his demise, several dynasties vyed for the Spanish throne. Louis XIV proposed his son, Philip of Anjou, as a candidate for King of Spain in 1698 but was rejected due to Bourbon France's poor reputation.
In 1699, Britain and France signed the Treaty of Nîmes, forming a mutual agreement to push a favorable Habsburg candidate as the Spanish successor with the condition that the Spanish holdings in Italy, namely Savoy, Piedmont, Sardinia, Sicily, and Naples, would be transferred to French rule. The same year, the prospective successor - Prince Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria - had died. Despite this setback, Britain and France sought out Prince Charles Francis of Austria as their candidate; he was soon agreed upon by the Netherlands and Austria. The prince would go on to become Charles III of Spain in 1701, beginning a new Spanish Habsburg line.
Thirteen years later, Louis XIV of France passed away. His heir presumptive was Dauphine Victoire Philip, Duke of Anjou, who would ascend to the throne as Philip VII in 1714.
| Great Silesian War | |||||||||
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Prussia France Bavaria Saxony Sweden |
Austria Britain Spain Netherlands | ||||||||
Great Silesian War: 1750–1755
The Great Silesian War occurred between 1750 and 1755, resulting in massive territorial changes in Europe, North America, and colonial India. A coalition led by Prussia and France initiated the invasion of Austrian-held Silesia in 1750, based on an old claim to the region from Electoral Brandenburg. The states of Bavaria, Saxony, and Sweden soon joined them. In response, Britain, Spain, and the Netherlands came to the aid of Austria.
Prince Maurice's War was the American theatre of the war, fought mainly between the governments of European colonies such as New France, Guadeloupe, New Netherland, New England, and Tussenland.
Five years later, it resulted in a decisive defeat for France and Prussia. The eastern Duchy was restored as a fief of Poland, as it was prior to 1657. Brandenburg continued to be ruled by the Hohenzollern dynasty under the auspices of the Holy Roman Empire. France lost numerous territories, including its Italian holdings, its Mississippian territories, its ports in India, the colony of Guadeloupe, and its de jure claims to its opponents colonies.
Originally, the idea for the war was conceived through confidential conversations between Frederick II of Prussia and Philip VII of France regarding territorial expansion two years before the start of the war in 1748. The two European monarchs began planning the war over the next two years through secret emissaries and letters.
Augustine period: 1795–1815
The New century: 1815–1914
Wars of Dutch Humiliation
The Second Dutch-Spanish War and the Canton War are collectively referred to as the Wars of Dutch Humiliation (Dutch: Vernederingsoorlogen). The Netherlands lost territories to the Spanish colonies of New Spain, Florida, and the Philippines, as well as failing to support its longstanding ally, the Qing dynasty against Britain and France.
The Communard revolutions
In the 1870s, communardism rocked the monarchies of France, Spain, the Belgic Duchy, and to a lesser extent, the United Kingdom and Portugal. During this period, two monarchs were assassinated and three monarchies toppled.
Louis XVII of the Grimaldi dynasty, King of France, was murdered by communard rebels in 1873. Soon after, the political party the Society of the Allies of the Republic (SAR) took over the government and declared a republic in the 1874 Statement of Senlis, rejecting traditional French religious and class structures. Étienne Thévenet, the new republic's leader, invaded and annexed the short-lived Belgic Duchy the same year. However, in 1876, the Society were revealed to have attempted to manipulate elections in Britain, causing the British government to sponsor the Society's rivals, the Communard Party of France (PCF). In 1877, the Party orchestrated a coup with British support, establishing the Third Republic. During this period of turmoil, the Royal British Navy occupied numerous French colonies in the Caribbean and Asia.
Soon after in Spain, members of the SAR joined the Spanish Society of Communards (SdC) in deposing Ferdinand VII. The Spanish Republic was established in Iberia while the Spanish Habsburgs fled to New Spain. In 1881, joint New Spanish-British forces defeated the Spanish Republic and restored the Habsburg monarchy. Soon after, the Spanish colonies of Mexico and Peru declared independence.
In 1875, a communard insurrection in Portugal prompted the government to widely censor media and suppress communard demonstrations with violence. By the next year, the rebellion was quelled. A few years later in Britain, Edward VII was assassinated by communard revolutionaries Lyndon and Feiling in 1878.
Great War: 1935–1939
The Great War was a global conflict that began in 1935, involving the Tripartite Coalition (led by France, the Ottoman Empire, and the Austrian Empire) and the Cordial League (led by the United Kingdom and Russia). The war resulted in an estimated 100 million deaths worldwide. The war arose over rising anti-British and anti-Russian sentiment in Tripartite Coalition nations, deteriorating Russo-Ottoman relations, growing British influence in Europe, and the rise of Faramundism (German unification ideology) in Austria and the German realms.
The war saw the defeat of the Tripartite Coalition, with the Ottoman Empire surrendering after a string of losses and the capture of Constantinople by Russia in 1938. The Austrian Empire, facing immense pressure from the Cordial League, surrendered in September 1938, while France continued fighting defiantly until its occupation in December 1938. The Congress of Amsterdam was held from September 1938 to April 1939, determining the post-war fate of the defeated nations. The conference resulted in several new states being recognized or created within the former Austrian and Ottoman Empires, while France was divided into occupation zones, only to be reunited again in 1944.
Silent War (1939-19xx)
The Silent War was a period of geopolitical tension and proxy conflicts between the International Republican Coalition (IRC), led by Russia, and the Organization of Democratic Nations (ODN), led by Great Britain, following the Great War. The two great powers avoided direct military confrontation, but supported opposing factions in various proxy conflicts, including the Algerian-Numidian War and the East Indies Crisis. The IRC promoted national republicanism, while the ODN, led by Great Britain, advocated for liberal democracy.
