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69-494: English Wars may refer to: Anglo-Dutch Wars English Wars (Scandinavia) , between Denmark and Sweden, with British involvement List of wars involving England See also [ edit ] English Civil War (disambiguation) List of wars involving Great Britain Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with

138-633: A Dutch invasion force that landed at Torbay in Devon . From there, he marched on London and successfully deposed James II of England . While occupying London with his troops William was placed on the English throne alongside his wife Mary and ended further Anglo-Dutch conflicts. Though remaining allies, England (and after 1707, Great Britain ) quickly surpassed the Dutch in military and economic power. From roughly 1720 onwards, Dutch economic growth experienced

207-563: A combination of naval battles and irregular privateering missions would cripple the Dutch Republic and force the States General to agree to a favourable peace. The plan was for English ships to be replenished, and sailors paid, with booty seized from captured Dutch merchant vessels returning from overseas. In 1665 many Dutch ships were captured, and Dutch trade and industry were hurt. The English achieved several victories over

276-737: A conclusive British victory and exposed the weakness of the political and economic foundations of the Dutch Republic, leading to instability and revolution . During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , France reduced the Netherlands to a satellite state and finally annexed the country in 1810. In 1797 the Dutch fleet was defeated by the British in the Battle of Camperdown , but an Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland in 1799

345-567: A delegation to The Hague proposing that the Dutch Republic join the Commonwealth and assist the English in conquering most of Spanish America for its extremely valuable resources. This attempt to draw the Dutch into a lopsided alliance with England in fact led to war: the ruling faction in the States of Holland was unable to formulate an answer to this unexpected offer and the pro-Stuart Orangists incited mobs to harass Cromwell's envoys. When

414-741: A deterioration in Anglo-Dutch relations. This subsequently led to a surge of anti-Dutch sentiment in England, the country being, as Samuel Pepys put it, "mad for war". English merchants and chartered companies—such as the East India Company, the Royal Adventurers Trading into Africa , and the Levant Company—calculated that global economic primacy could now be wrestled from the Dutch. They reckoned that

483-569: A downturn when London was ravaged by plague and much of the City of London was burnt to the ground by a massive fire (which was generally interpreted in the Dutch Republic as divine retribution for Holmes's Bonfire ). A surprise attack in June 1667, the raid on the Medway , on the English fleet in its home port arguably won the war for the Dutch; British historian C. R. Boxer described it as one of

552-464: A global challenge to Dutch mercantile dominance. The mood in England grew increasingly belligerent towards the Dutch. This partly stemmed from old perceived slights: the Dutch were considered to have shown themselves ungrateful for the aid they had received against the Spanish by growing stronger than their former English protectors; Dutch fishermen caught most of the herring off the English east coast;

621-550: A new conflict with the Republic, even though the Dutch in the same period defeated his Portuguese and Swedish allies. After the English Restoration in 1660, Charles II tried through diplomatic means to make his nephew, Prince William III of Orange , stadtholder of the Republic. At the same time, Charles promoted a series of mercantilist policies aimed at encountering Dutch mercantile dominance, which again led to

690-601: A period in which England's naval position was severely weakened. Its navy was internally divided, though its officers tended to favour the parliamentary side; after the execution by public beheading of King Charles in 1649, however, Oliver Cromwell was able to unite his country into the Commonwealth of England . He then revamped the navy by expanding the number of ships, promoting officers on merit rather than family connections, and cracking down on embezzlement by suppliers and dockyard staff, thereby positioning England to mount

759-496: A secret annex, the Act of Seclusion , forbidding the infant Prince William III of Orange from becoming stadtholder of the province of Holland, which would prove to be a future cause of discontent. In 1653 the Dutch had started a major naval expansion programme, building sixty larger vessels, partly closing the qualitative gap with the English fleet. Cromwell, having started the war against Spain without Dutch help, during his rule avoided

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828-423: A significant decline, and in 1780, the per capita gross national income of Britain surpassed their Dutch counterparts, leading to rising levels of resentment from the latter. The Diplomatic Revolution brought this to light and during the following Seven Years' War the Dutch remained neutral. When Britain's North American colonies revolted against British rule in 1776, the Dutch provided indirect support to

897-593: A six month campaign. A year later saw the final conquest of the Dutch East Indies with the seizure of the whole of Java during a month-long campaign. With the signing of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 , Britain returned all those colonies to the new Kingdom of the Netherlands , with the exception of the Cape , Ceylon , and part of Dutch Guyana . Some historians count the wars between Britain and

966-542: A small number of men and cost about 50% of the usual price to build a ship. As Dutch and English trade became more prominent in the West Baltic, many governments decided to impose certain mercantilist policies that would protect the interests of their trade and national economies. Christian IV was the Danish king from 1596 to 1648. During his reign he imposed policies that threatened the development of Dutch trade in

1035-643: Is the wars against the Cossacks and the Swedes that occurred in the 1640s-1660s. The English Navigation Acts also affected Dutch trade in the eastern Baltics. Sweden established new policies that significantly affected the eastern Baltic trading system. The Swedish Tar Company was created in 1648, which greatly undermined tar exports form Finland. This resulted in the illegal transportation of Finnish goods to Livonian ports, and Dutch traders that occupied southern Sweden transported timber from Norway to other ports around

1104-828: The Batavian Republic and the Kingdom of Holland during the Napoleonic era as the Fifth and Sixth Anglo-Dutch wars. Baltic maritime trade (c. 1400%E2%80%931800) Baltic maritime trade began in the Late Middle Ages and continued to develop into the early modern period . During this time, ships carrying goods from the Baltic and North Sea passed along the Øresund , or the Sound, connecting areas like

1173-654: The Battle of Leghorn near Italy and had gained effective control of both the Mediterranean and the English Channel . Blake, recovering from an injury, rethought, together with George Monck , the whole system of naval tactics, and after the winter of 1653 used the line of battle , first to drive the Dutch navy out of the English Channel in the Battle of Portland and then out of the North Sea in

1242-647: The Battle of Trafalgar France gave up its attempt to match the British fleet, despite a strong Dutch lobby to this effect. Britain also invaded several Dutch colonies, firstly in the Americas - Essequibo was captured in 1803 and Suriname was taken the following year. Following their victory at Trafalgar, Britain was now able to strike Dutch colonies elsewhere at will. The Cape Colony was captured in Southern Africa in January 1806. The Dutch territories in

1311-554: The Battle of the Gabbard . The Dutch were unable to effectively resist as the States General of the Netherlands had not in time heeded the warnings of their admirals that much larger warships were needed. In the final Battle of Scheveningen on 10 August 1653, Tromp was killed, a blow to Dutch morale, but the English had to end their blockade of the Dutch coast. As both nations were by now exhausted and Cromwell had dissolved

1380-657: The Gulf of Finland to the Skagerrak . Over a period of 400 years, maritime powers in the east and west struggled to control these markets and the trade routes between them. The Baltic trading system of this era can be explained as beginning with the Hanseatic League and ending with the Great Northern War . In the second half of the 14th century, the Hanseatic League dominated the trading organization in

1449-639: The Spanish Empire itself were up for grabs. Cromwell feared the influence of both the Orangist faction at home and English royalists exiled to the Republic; the Stadtholders had supported the Stuart monarchs—William II of Orange had married the daughter of Charles I of England in 1641—and they abhorred the trial and execution of Charles I. Early in 1651 Cromwell tried to ease tensions by sending

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1518-698: The Spanish Empire 's global interests, exemplified by the attacks by Francis Drake on Spanish merchant shipping and colonial possessions. Partly to provide a pretext for ongoing hostilities against Spain, Elizabeth assisted the Dutch Revolt (1581) against the Kingdom of Spain by signing the Treaty of Nonsuch in 1585 with the new Dutch state of the United Provinces . After the death of Elizabeth I, Anglo-Spanish relations began to improve under James

1587-580: The fluyt sailing ship types. Soon the Dutch had one of Europe's largest mercantile fleets , with more merchant ships than all other nations combined, and possessed a dominant position in the Baltic trade . In 1648 the Dutch concluded the Peace of Münster with Spain. Due to the division of powers in the Dutch Republic , the army and navy were the main base of power of the Stadtholder , although

1656-665: The "most humiliating defeat suffered by British arms". A flotilla of ships led by Michiel de Ruyter sailed up the Thames Estuary, broke through the defences guarding Chatham Harbour , set fire to several warships moored there, and towed away HMS  Unity and the Royal Charles , flagship and second largest ship of the Royal Navy. Also in June 1667, the Dutch sailed a vessel from New Amsterdam into modern-day Hampton Roads, Virginia , destroying an English ship in

1725-767: The Baltic Sea, as trade routes opened up to the western Atlantic system. In the second half of the seventeenth century, Lübeck was replaced by Elbe harbor as the main maritime center of the League in the Baltic. This transfer of power would begin the fall of the Hanseatic League. In 1648, Sweden occupied the Pomeranian and northern German shores, which resulted in the last Hanseatic meeting in Lübeck in 1669 to confirm

1794-511: The Baltic coast and Russian lands. By the end of the sixteenth century, Russia had been secluded from Baltic trade after Sweden took control of Reval and Riga . In the 1590s, Dutch trade began to spread further into the Mediterranean and surpass that of Lübeck and Hamburg . This was largely due to Holland’s presence in the Atlantic trading system, which included Spain , Portugal , and France. This widespread trade led to Amsterdam becoming

1863-556: The Baltic reached from the Sound to Riga. During Sweden’s Baltic dominion, the Dutch navy intervened in order to protect their commercial interests. This led to a peace treaty in 1660 between Sweden and Denmark, along with negotiations between the English and Dutch. By the 1640s, Sweden had become the Dutch’s main trading partner in the Baltic region. “About 50 per cent of Sweden's imports originated from Amsterdam's staple market, whilst all copper exports and 40 per cent of all iron exports went to

1932-512: The Baltic. The policies that Sweden established at this time also aimed to control Russian trade in the Baltic region. In an effort to remove the Dutch from the market, Sweden attempted to buy grain surpluses and entire stocks of leather from Russia. The Treaty of Cardis was established in 1661 to provide free trade in Russia, but ended soon after in 1667. The Dutch proved to be the only economically developed state that could successfully deal with

2001-412: The Baltic. After the Treaty of Stralsund was signed in 1370, it reached the height of its influence. The Hanse originated in what is currently northern Germany and Westphalia and held many associations with merchants from these areas. In its prime, the Hanseatic League consisted of around 200 cities and towns and stretched from Reval in the east to Kampen in the west. The long-lasting success of

2070-456: The Baltic. In 1721, the treaty of Nystad was signed, which led to the development of Russian Baltic trade and the founding of St. Petersburg . By 1780, Russia had surpassed the Pomeranian coast under Swedish control. The rise of Russia as a seaborne trading power cause a shift in trade direction from south-north to east-west. Stockholm was now a major port in the Baltic region, backed by Denmark’s demand of goods from Sweden’s market. The end of

2139-593: The Baltics. When Denmark won the Kalmar War (1611–1613), the king imposed a ban on all Dutch traffic heading to Sweden and increased the Sound Toll duties. To combat this, the Dutch decided to form alliances with the Hanseatic League and Sweden in order to remain in access of the Sound. Christian IV was then forced to reduce these policies after the Dutch were guaranteed safe passage in the Baltic region. In 1632,

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2208-601: The Caribbean were all taken by 1807 including the largest island, Curacao . The Dutch East Indies was the only area left to be taken. Starting with the first Java campaign of 1806–1807 which saw the Royal Navy defeating the Dutch fleets to ensure British dominance in the region. After the incorporation of the Netherlands in the French Empire in 1810, the British that year captured the Spice Islands during

2277-714: The Dutch East India Company had driven English traders out of the East Indies; and Dutch merchants vociferously appealed to the principle of free trade to circumvent taxation in English colonies. There were also new points of conflict: with the decline of Spanish power at the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648, the colonial possessions of the Portuguese Empire (already in the midst of Portuguese Restoration War ) and perhaps even those of

2346-768: The Dutch had many more merchant ships, together with lower freight rates, better financing and a wider range of manufactured goods to sell – although Dutch ships were blocked by the Spanish from operations in most of southern Europe, giving the English an advantage there. To protect English commercial interests in North America, in October 1651 the English Parliament passed the first of the Navigation Acts , which mandated that all goods imported into England must be carried by English ships or vessels from

2415-792: The Dutch were both participants in the 16th-century European religious conflicts between the Catholic Habsburg Dynasty and the opposing Protestant states . At the same time, as the Age of Exploration dawned, the Dutch and English both sought profits overseas in the New World . In the early 1600s, the Dutch, while continuing to fight the Eighty Years' War with the Catholic Habsburgs , also began to carry out long-distance exploration by sea. The Dutch innovation in

2484-473: The Dutch, such as taking the Dutch colony of New Netherland (present day New York) by Charles' brother, the future James II; but there were also Dutch victories, such as the capture of the Royal Navy flagship Prince Royal during the Four Days Battle —the subject of a famous painting by Willem van de Velde . Dutch maritime trade recovered from 1666, while the English war effort and economy suffered

2553-488: The English and French and avoided Amsterdam as a main trading port. The beginning of the seventeenth century, Dutch trade dominated the eastern Baltic region with goods like spices and high-quality cloth. This Dutch control, however, began to diminish in the later decades of this century. There are a few proposed explanations for this, one being that Baltic grain lost competitiveness in the western markets because Polish-Lithuanian farms declined in efficiency. Another explanation

2622-671: The English were successful in the first major battle, with Blade defeating the Dutch Vice-Admiral Witte de With in the Battle of the Kentish Knock in October 1652. Believing that the war was all but over, the English divided their forces and in December were routed by the fleet of Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp at the Battle of Dungeness in the English Channel . The Dutch were also victorious in March 1653, at

2691-437: The First , and the peace of 1604 ended most privateering actions (until the outbreak of the next Anglo-Spanish War during the Thirty Years' War ). Underfunding then led to neglect of the Royal Navy . Later, Catholic sympathiser Charles I of England made a number of secret agreements with Spain, directed against Dutch sea power. He also embarked on a major programme of naval reconstruction, enforcing ship money to finance

2760-451: The Hanseatic trading system and began to directly supply ports in London, Amsterdam , and Antwerp . As the League began to fragment, Lübeck and the Wendish coastal towns became isolated, and trade routes between the Baltic shores, North Sea, and the western Atlantic were established. The success of Lübeck continued into the early 1600s, largely due to shipbuilding. Hanseatic towns, however, began to find themselves more and more restricted to

2829-409: The Hanseatic trading system can be attributed to Northern Europe ’s many rivers and roads that connected German markets and cities to the ports in the Baltic Sea. The city of Lübeck served as the starting point of the Hanseatic trading system. Merchant families from this area began to settle along the Wendish and Pomeranian coast. Merchants from Lübeck and the Wendish coastal towns specialized in

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2898-454: The League’s demise. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, large numbers of ships from Holland were sailing to the Baltic for grain and western France for salt. Instead of relying on the Hanseatic staple markets, the Dutch began to buy wheat and rye locally in order to drastically reduce prices. From the early to the late sixteenth century, it is estimated that the loading capacity of the merchant fleet increased by about 60,000 lasts . At

2967-402: The Low Countries, as did 75 per cent of the Finnish tar production”. In 1667, Sweden changed its mercantilist policies once again by imposing tolls on salt and wine that were shipped from foreign markets, greatly undermining trade coming from Amsterdam. The Dutch then sent their navy into the Baltic, and with the Danish, defeated the Swedes in 1679. This defeat led to a treaty that would result in

3036-446: The North Sea or the English Channel to lower their colours when encountering English warships. On 29 May 1652, Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp refused to lower the colours of his ships after encountering an English fleet led by General at Sea Robert Blake . This resulted in a skirmish, the Battle of Dover , after which the Commonwealth of England declared war on the Dutch Republic on 10 July. After some inconclusive minor fights

3105-425: The Spanish and Danish created a treaty that would reduce Dutch access to Baltic trade. At the same time, the Sound toll increased again, causing more problems for the Dutch because of the commodities they were trading. To counter these problems, the Dutch sent their navy into the Sound in 1645 as a threat to Copenhagen . Christian IV was forced to dissolve the new tolls at the Sound and in Glückstadt . An agreement

3174-507: The budget allocated to them was set by the States General . With the arrival of peace, the States General decided to decommission most of the Dutch military. This led to conflict between the major Dutch cities and the new Stadtholder, William II of Orange , bringing the Republic to the brink of civil war. The Stadtholder's unexpected death in 1650 only added to the political tensions. In the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth I commissioned several privateers to carry out long-range attacks against

3243-424: The building of such prestige vessels as HMS  Sovereign of the Seas . But fearful of endangering his relations with the powerful Dutch stadtholder Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange , his assistance to Spain was limited in practice to allowing Spanish troops on their way to Dunkirk to make use of English shipping. However, in 1639, when a large Spanish transport fleet sought refuge in The Downs anchorage off

3312-454: The center of Europe’s trading system in the seventeenth century. Exports to the Baltic such as sugar, tea, coffee, and tobacco greatly increased at this time. Around 1595, a ship known as the fluit was created in the Low Countries . This ship maximized carrying capacity and drastically cut building costs. It was built with a flat bottom and long hull that could transport a large shipment through shallow waters. This new ship could be crewed by

3381-401: The delegation returned home, the Parliament of England decided to pursue a policy of confrontation. As a result of Cromwell's ambitious programme of naval expansion, at a time when the Dutch admiralties were selling off many of their own warships, the English came to possess a greater number of larger and more powerful purpose-built warships than their rivals across the North Sea did. However,

3450-499: The exporting countries, thus excluding (mostly Dutch) middlemen. Agitation among the Dutch merchants as a result of the Navigation Acts was further increased by George Ayscue 's capture in early 1652 of 27 Dutch merchant ships trading with the royalist colony of Barbados in contravention of an embargo imposed by the Parliamentarians. The Dutch responded to the growing tensions by enlisting large numbers of armed merchantmen into their navy. In 1652, Cromwell required all foreign warships in

3519-410: The first Anglo-Dutch war, while the Dutch were successful in the second and third. However, in the century between the third and fourth war, the British Royal Navy had become the most powerful maritime force in the world, while the Dutch navy had fallen to fourth position, behind the French and Spanish. There would be more battles during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars . The English and

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3588-408: The harbour and bombarding its fort. The raid on the Medway led to widespread anger in England towards the government. This, together with the mounting costs of the war and the extravagant spending of Charles's court, produced a rebellious atmosphere in London. Charles ordered the English envoys at Breda to sign a peace quickly with the Dutch, as he feared an open revolt against him. Soon the Royal Navy

3657-498: The interests of the League. The relationship between the Kontors and main Hanse merchant settlements allowed for the establishment of a monopoly of goods. These included wax and furs from Novgorod , cod from Bergen, and high-quality wool and cloth from London and Bruges. By the beginning of the fifteenth century, western demand for Prussian and Livonian goods was growing. The Lüneburg salt exports were replaced by cheaper salt from France . Gradually, eastern Baltic merchants wore away

3726-418: The many long voyages by Dutch East Indiamen , their society built an officer class and institutional knowledge that would later be replicated in England, principally by the East India Company . By the middle of the 17th century, the Dutch joined the Portuguese as the main European traders in Asia. This coincided with the enormous growth of the Dutch merchant fleet, made possible by the cheap mass production of

3795-414: The rebels, angering the British, who eventually declared war on the Dutch in 1780. By this point, the Dutch navy had severely weakened, possessing only 20 ships of the line . The conflict consisted mostly of a series of successful British operations against Dutch colonial interests , though one fleet action took place at the battle of Dogger Bank on 5 August 1781, which was indecisive. The war ended in

3864-404: The recovery of the Dutch’s trade in the Sound. Denmark and Norway worked to maintain their mercantilist policies that would decrease their dependence on Amsterdam and the Dutch Republic as a whole. A treaty was signed in 1688 after the Danish attempted to impose tariffs on Dutch trading, but the Dutch held much less power in Denmark after this. The Dutch and the Norse began to trade directly with

3933-464: The same time, Baltic grain imports increased by 50,000 lasts. Without the middlemen that existed during the Hanseatic era, transaction costs were at an all-time low, allowing for cuts in Dutch shipbuilding costs and innovations in design. These new ships were faster, smaller, and were equipped for bulk-carrying trade. Dutch traders also developed a new business model in the fifteenth century. For larger trades, merchants would sign short-term contracts. This

4002-490: The title English Wars . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=English_Wars&oldid=1223480803 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Anglo-Dutch Wars The English were successful in

4071-415: The town of Deal, Kent , Charles chose not to protect it against a Dutch attack; the resulting Battle of the Downs undermined both Spanish sea power and Charles's reputation in Spain. Meanwhile, in the New World, forces from the Dutch New Netherlands colony and the English Massachusetts Bay Colony contested much of America's north-eastern seaboard. The outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642 began

4140-449: The trading conditions of Russia. From 1700 to 1721, Poland–Lithuania , Russia, and Denmark–Norway fought against Sweden, dramatically shifting the Baltic trading system at this time. At the beginning of the war, Dutch trade through the Sound was far outweighed by Scandinavian shipping. In 1710, when hostility between Denmark and Sweden began, trade through the Sound became inactive. In 1721, Sweden’s age of greatness came to an end and trade

4209-436: The trading of high-quality western goods, like cloth, spices, and alcohol, for minerals and products from the north and east. These included: Lübeck maintained its position as the central trading port in the Hanseatic League through its location in the Kontors. The four main Kontors were Novgorod , London , Bergen , and Bruges . Between these ports, rich merchant families kept in close contact with foreign powers and promoted

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4278-414: The trading of shares in a joint-stock company allowed them to finance expeditions with stock subscriptions sold in the United Provinces and in London. They founded colonies in North America, India, and Indonesia (the Spice Islands ). They also enjoyed continued success in privateering – in 1628 Admiral Piet Heyn became the only commander to successfully capture a large Spanish treasure fleet . With

4347-415: The warlike Rump Parliament , ongoing peace negotiations could be brought to fruition, albeit after many months of slow diplomatic exchanges. The war ended on 5 April 1654, with the signing of the Treaty of Westminster (ratified by the States General on 8 May), but the commercial rivalry was not resolved, the English having failed to replace the Dutch as the world's dominant trade nation. The treaty contained

4416-399: Was less successful. France still considered both the extant Dutch fleet and the large Dutch shipbuilding capacity very important assets. The Dutch navy was supposed to take part in the planned invasion of the United Kingdom . To this end a large flotilla of flat-bottomed boats was built in the Batavian Republic , that had to be transported over sea to Boulogne. This was successful , but after

4485-513: Was made to invade the Dutch Republic by sea. De Ruyter won a series of strategic victories against the Anglo-French fleet and prevented an invasion of the Dutch Republic. After these failures, the English parliament forced Charles to make peace. In 1688, the Dutch feared that England might align with France in the upcoming Nine Years' War , potentially repeating the crisis of 1672. To prevent this, William of Orange , making use of an invitation from seven influential and discontented Englishmen, led

4554-453: Was reached in 1649 that would return the Dutch trading power to the Baltic. The Thirty Years' War greatly hindered Denmark’s attempt at Baltic control. At this time, Sweden began to successfully campaign in Jutland and forced the Danish to give up many territories along the Sound and into the Baltic. The late seventeenth century would become known as Sweden’s Age of Greatness and would last until 1721. During this time, Sweden’s control of

4623-414: Was rebuilt. After the events of the previous war, English public opinion was unenthusiastic about starting a new one. However, as he was bound by the secret Treaty of Dover , Charles II was obliged to assist Louis XIV in his attack on the Dutch Republic in the Franco-Dutch War . When the Royal French Army was halted by the Hollandic Water Line (a defence system involving strategic flooding), an attempt

4692-502: Was restored from the Baltic Sea through the Sound. After the war ended, governmental interventionism became the forefront of all commercial policies in the powers of the Baltic. These protectionist measures were meant to decrease foreign influence on industries and trade within states. Some of examples of these policies are: After Sweden fell in the Great Northern War , Russia gained its ports from Novgorod to Riga, Reval, and Narva. These cities and ports provided Russia with direct routes to

4761-411: Was very useful in Baltic trade, as there was less individual risk for merchants. Another power in the north was also rising at this time. The Russian grand prince, Ivan III , closed the Kontor in Novgorod in 1494. By 1558, Russian merchants had reached the Baltic coasts and occupied Livonia , Dorpat , and Narva . At this time, Russia and Sweden were competing for control of the routes that connected

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