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91-686: The English were successful in 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

182-580: 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

273-905: A Prussian counter-attack in September. Otherwise this sector of the front was largely quiet over the course of the year. At sea, the French Atlantic Fleet succeeded in holding off a British attempt to interdict a vital cereal convoy from the United States on the Glorious First of June , though at the cost of one quarter of its strength. In the Caribbean, the British fleet landed in Martinique in February, taking

364-562: 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

455-610: 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

546-480: A crowd stormed the Tuileries Palace , seizing the king and his family. The Commune of Paris later assumed the powers of the municipality. On 19 August 1792, the invasion by Brunswick's army commenced, with Brunswick's army easily taking the fortresses of Longwy and Verdun . The invasion continued, but at Valmy on 20 September, the invaders came to a stalemate against Dumouriez and Kellermann in which

637-567: 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

728-741: 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

819-568: 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

910-464: 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;

1001-598: A global dimension. After a decade of constant warfare and aggressive diplomacy, France had conquered territories in the Italian Peninsula , the Low Countries , and the Rhineland due to its very large and powerful military, which had been totally mobilized for war against most of Europe with mass conscription of the vast French population. French success in these conflicts ensured military occupation and

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1092-518: A great victory over the Austrians at the Battle of Jemappes on 6 November and occupying the entire country by the beginning of winter. Spain and Portugal entered the anti-French coalition in January 1793. Britain began military preparations in late 1792 and declared that war was inevitable unless France gave up its conquests, notwithstanding French assurances they would not attack Holland or annex

1183-550: 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

1274-601: 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

1365-496: 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

1456-662: A series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted France against Great Britain , Austria , Prussia , Russia , and several other countries. The wars are divided into two periods: the War of the First Coalition (1792–1797) and the War of the Second Coalition (1798–1802). Initially confined to Europe, the fighting gradually assumed

1547-422: 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

1638-593: 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

1729-676: A year, French armies under Napoleon destroyed the Habsburg forces and evicted them from the Italian peninsula, winning almost every battle and capturing 150,000 prisoners. With French forces marching toward Vienna , the Austrians sued for peace and agreed to the Treaty of Campo Formio , ending the First Coalition against the Republic. The War of the Second Coalition began in 1798 with the French invasion of Egypt , headed by Napoleon. The Allies took

1820-458: The Apennines near Altare to attack the enemy position of Ceva . The Montenotte Campaign opened after Johann Beaulieu 's Austrian forces attacked the extreme French eastern flank near Genoa on 10 April. Bonaparte countered by attacking and crushing the isolated right wing of the allied armies at the Battle of Montenotte on 12 April. The next day he defeated an Austro-Sardinian force at

1911-1878: The Batavian Republic and the Kingdom of Holland during the Napoleonic era as the Fifth and Sixth Anglo-Dutch wars. French Revolutionary Wars First Coalition : French victory Second Coalition : French victory [REDACTED] Catholic and Royal Armies [REDACTED]   Holy Roman Empire [REDACTED]   Great Britain (until 1801) [REDACTED]   United Kingdom (from 1801) [REDACTED] Spain (1793–1795) [REDACTED]   Dutch Republic (1793–1795) [REDACTED]   Sardinia [REDACTED]   Old Swiss Confederacy (1798) [REDACTED]   Naples [REDACTED] Order of Saint John (1798) [REDACTED] Malta (1798–1800) [REDACTED]   Ottoman Empire [REDACTED] Portugal [REDACTED]   Russia (1799) Other Italian states [REDACTED] Southern Netherlands peasants ( Peasants' War ) [REDACTED] Saint-Domingue rebels ( Haitian Revolution ) (1791–94) [REDACTED] Kingdom of France (until 1792) [REDACTED] French Republic (from 1792) [REDACTED] Louis XVI   [REDACTED] Austrians (1792–97) 94,700 killed in action 100,000 wounded 220,000 captured Italian campaign of 1796–97 27,000 allied soldiers killed Unknown wounded 160,000 captured 1,600 guns French (1792–97) 100,000 killed in action 150,000 captured Italian campaign of 1796–97 45,000 killed, wounded or captured (10,000 killed) The French Revolutionary Wars ( French : Guerres de la Révolution française ) were

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2002-590: The Battle of Arcole southeast of Verona . The French then turned on Davidovich in great strength and chased him into the Tyrol. Wurmser's only sortie was late and ineffectual. The rebellion in the Vendée was also finally crushed in 1796 by Hoche , but Hoche's attempt to land a large invasion force in Ireland was unsuccessful. On 14 February, British admiral Jervis met and defeated a Spanish fleet off Portugal at

2093-535: The Battle of Cape St. Vincent . This prevented the Spanish fleet from rendezvousing with the French, removing a threat of invasion to Britain. However, the British fleet was weakened over the rest of the year by the Spithead and Nore mutinies , which kept many ships in port through the summer. On 22 February French invasion force consisting of 1,400 troops from the La Legion Noire (The Black Legion) under

2184-654: 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

2275-614: The Battle of Millesimo . He then won a victory at the Second Battle of Dego , driving the Austrians northeast, away from their Piedmontese allies. Satisfied that the Austrians were temporarily inert, Bonaparte harried Michelangelo Colli 's Piedmontese at Ceva and San Michele Mondovi before whipping them at the Battle of Mondovì . A week later, on 28 April, the Piedmontese signed the Armistice of Cherasco , withdrawing from

2366-465: The Battle of Rovereto . Then he followed Wurmser down the Brenta valley, to fall upon and defeat the Austrians at the Battle of Bassano on 8 September. Wurmser elected to march for Mantua with a large portion of his surviving troops. The Austrians evaded Bonaparte's attempts to intercept them but were driven into the city after a pitched battle on 15 September. This left nearly 30,000 Austrians trapped in

2457-592: 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

2548-580: The Battle of Valmy in September. This victory emboldened the National Convention to abolish the monarchy . A series of victories by the new French armies abruptly ended with defeat at Neerwinden in the spring of 1793. The French suffered additional defeats in the remainder of the year and these difficult times allowed the Jacobins to rise to power and impose the Reign of Terror to unify

2639-554: 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

2730-474: The Declaration of Pillnitz , which threatened severe consequences should anything happen to King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette . After Austria refused to recall its troops from the French border and to back down on the perceived threat of using force, France declared war on Austria and Prussia in the spring of 1792; both countries responded with a coordinated invasion that was eventually turned back at

2821-645: The Flanders Campaign , the Austrians and French both prepared offensives in Belgium, with the Austrians besieging Landrecies and advancing towards Mons and Maubeuge . The French prepared an offensive on multiple fronts, with two armies in Flanders under Pichegru and Moreau , and Jourdan attacking from the German border. The French withstood several damaging but inconclusive actions before regaining

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2912-692: The Mediterranean and weakening the French Navy. Napoleon's arrival from Egypt led to the fall of the Directory in the Coup of 18 Brumaire , with Napoleon installing himself as Consul . Napoleon then reorganized the French army and launched a new assault against the Austrians in Italy during the spring of 1800. This brought a decisive French victory at the Battle of Marengo in June 1800, after which

3003-639: 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

3094-646: 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

3185-632: 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

3276-664: 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

3367-415: The Austrians withdrew from the peninsula once again. Another crushing French triumph at Hohenlinden in Bavaria forced the Austrians to seek peace for a second time, leading to the Treaty of Lunéville in 1801. With Austria and Russia out of the war, Britain found itself increasingly isolated and agreed to the Treaty of Amiens with Napoleon's government in 1802, concluding the Revolutionary Wars. However,

3458-419: 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

3549-450: 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

3640-516: 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

3731-480: 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

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3822-407: 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

3913-423: 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

4004-437: 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

4095-411: The French armies. On the Alpine frontier, there was little change, with the French invasion of Piedmont failing. On the Spanish border, the French under General Dugommier rallied from their defensive positions at Bayonne and Perpignan , driving the Spanish out of Roussillon and invading Catalonia . Dugommier was killed in the Battle of the Black Mountain in November. On the northern front in

4186-455: The French king's cousin, Louis Joseph de Bourbon, Prince de Condé , the leader of an émigré corps within the Allied army , which declared the Allies' intent to restore the king to his full powers and to treat any person or town who opposed them as rebels to be condemned to death by martial law . This, however, had the effect of strengthening the resolve of the revolutionary army and government to oppose them by any means necessary. On 10 August,

4277-410: The French took Milan . Bonaparte then advanced eastwards again, drove off the Austrians in the Battle of Borghetto and in June began the Siege of Mantua . Mantua was the strongest Austrian base in Italy. Meanwhile, the Austrians retreated north into the foothills of the Tyrol. During July and August, Austria sent a fresh army into Italy under Dagobert Wurmser . Wurmser attacked toward Mantua along

4368-435: The French. The Dutch fleet was captured , and the stadtholder William V fled to be replaced by a popular Batavian Republic , a sister republic which supported the revolutionary cause and signed a treaty with the French, ceding the territories of North Brabant and Maastricht to France on 16 May. With the Netherlands falling, Prussia also decided to leave the coalition, signing the Peace of Basel on 6 April, ceding

4459-438: The Italian peninsula. The French prepared a great advance on three fronts, with Jourdan and Moreau on the Rhine, and Bonaparte in Italy. The three armies were to link up in Tyrol and march on Vienna . Jourdan and Moreau advanced rapidly into Germany, and Moreau had reached Bavaria and the edge of Tyrol by September, but Jourdan was defeated by Archduke Charles at Amberg , and both armies were forced to retreat back across

4550-423: The Low Countries. Britain expelled the French ambassador following the execution of Louis XVI and on 1 February, France responded by declaring war on Great Britain and the Dutch Republic . France drafted hundreds of thousands of men , beginning a policy of using mass conscription to deploy more of its manpower than the autocratic states could manage to do (first stage, with a decree of 24 February 1793 ordering

4641-446: 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

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4732-447: The Pillnitz Declaration as a non-committal gesture to placate the sentiments of French monarchists and nobles, it was seen in France as a serious threat and was denounced by the revolutionary leaders. France eventually issued an ultimatum demanding that Leopold renounce any hostile alliances and withdraw his troops from the French border. The reply was evasive, and the French Assembly voted for war on 20 April 1792 against Francis II ,

4823-506: The Revolution with equanimity, but became more disturbed as the Revolution became more radical, although he still hoped to avoid war. On 27 August 1791, Leopold and King Frederick William II of Prussia , in consultation with emigrant French nobles, issued the Declaration of Pillnitz , which declared the interest of the monarchs of Europe in the well-being of King Louis XVI of France and his family, and threatened vague but severe consequences if anything should befall them. Although Leopold saw

4914-481: The Rhine. Napoleon, on the other hand, was completely successful in a daring invasion of Italy . He left Paris on 11 March for Nice to take over the weak and poorly supplied Army of Italy , arriving on 26 March. The army was already being reorganised and supplied when he arrived, and he found that the situation was rapidly improving. He was soon able to carry out the plan for the invasion of Italy that he had been advocating for years, which provided for an advance over

5005-485: The armies on the Pyrenees free to march east and reinforce the armies on the Alps , and the combined army overran Piedmont. Meanwhile, in Africa and Asia, the Dutch Cape Colony and Ceylon were invaded by the British. Meanwhile, Britain's attempt to reinforce the rebels in the Vendée by landing troops at Quiberon failed, and a conspiracy to overthrow the republican government from within ended when Napoleon Bonaparte 's garrison used cannon to fire grapeshot into

5096-415: The attacking mob (which led to the establishment of the Directory ). On the Rhine frontier, General Pichegru , negotiating with the exiled Royalists , betrayed his army and forced the evacuation of Mannheim and the failure of the siege of Mainz by Jourdan . This was a moderate setback to the position of the French. In northern Italy, victory at the Battle of Loano in November gave France access to

5187-507: 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

5278-424: 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

5369-402: The city ). Quasdanovich was overcome at Lonato on 3 August and Wurmser at Castiglione on 5 August. Wurmser retreated to the Tyrol, and Bonaparte resumed the siege. In September, Bonaparte marched north against Trento in Tyrol, but Wurmser had already marched toward Mantua by the Brenta valley, leaving Paul Davidovich 's force to hold off the French. Bonaparte overran the holding force at

5460-473: The command of Irish American Colonel William Tate landed near Fishguard (Wales). They were met by a quickly assembled group of around 500 British reservists , militia and sailors under the command of John Campbell, 1st Baron Cawdor . After brief clashes with the local civilian population and Lord Cawdor's forces on 23 February, Tate was forced into an unconditional surrender by 24 February. Ship money Too Many Requests If you report this error to

5551-431: The declaration of war, French soldiers deserted en masse and in one case murdered their general, Théobald Dillon . While the revolutionary government frantically raised fresh troops and reorganized its armies, a mostly Prussian Allied army under Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick assembled at Koblenz on the Rhine . The duke then issued a proclamation called the Brunswick Manifesto (July 1792), written by

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5642-401: 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,

5733-442: The draft of 300,000 men, followed by the general mobilization of all the young men able to be drafted, through the famous decree of 23 August 1793). Nonetheless, the Coalition allies launched a determined drive to invade France during the Flanders Campaign . France suffered severe reverses at first. They were driven out of the Austrian Netherlands, and serious revolts flared in the west and south of France. One of these, at Toulon ,

5824-422: The east side of Lake Garda , sending Peter Quasdanovich down the west side in an effort to envelop Bonaparte. Bonaparte exploited the Austrian mistake of dividing their forces to defeat them in detail, but in so doing, he abandoned the siege of Mantua, which held out for another six months ( Carl von Clausewitz mentioned in On War that the siege might have been able to be kept up if Bonaparte had circumvallated

5915-439: The end of the year, large new armies had turned back foreign invaders, and the Reign of Terror , a fierce policy of repression, had suppressed internal revolts. The French military was in the ascendant. Lazare Carnot , a scientist and prominent member of the Committee of Public Safety , organized the fourteen armies of the Republic , and was then nicknamed the Organizer of the Victory. The year 1794 brought increased success to

6006-499: 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

6097-451: The fortress. This number rapidly diminished due to disease, combat losses, and hunger. The Austrians sent yet another army under József Alvinczi against Bonaparte in November. Again the Austrians divided their effort, sending Davidovich's corps from the north while Alvinczi's main body attacked from the east. At first they proved victorious over the French at Bassano , Calliano , and Caldiero . But Bonaparte ultimately defeated Alvinczi in

6188-408: 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

6279-414: The highly professional French artillery distinguished itself. Although the battle was a tactical draw, it gave a great boost to French morale. Further, the Prussians, finding that the campaign had been longer and more costly than predicted, decided that the cost and risk of continued fighting was too great and, with winter approaching, they decided to retreat from France to preserve their army. The next day,

6370-426: The hostilities. On 18 May they signed the Treaty of Paris (1796) , ceding Savoy and Nice and allowing the French bases to be used against Austria. After a short pause, Napoleon carried out a brilliant flanking manoeuvre, and crossed the Po at Piacenza , nearly cutting the Austrian line of retreat. The Austrians escaped after the Battle of Fombio , but had their rear-guard mauled at Lodi on 10 May, after which

6461-405: The initiative at the battles of Tourcoing and Fleurus in June. The French armies drove the Austrians, British, and Dutch beyond the Rhine, occupying Belgium, the Rhineland , and the south of the Netherlands. On the middle Rhine front in July, General Michaud's Army of the Rhine attempted two offensives in July in the Vosges , the second of which was successful but not followed up, allowing for

6552-668: The lingering tensions proved too difficult to contain, and the Napoleonic Wars began over a year later with the formation of the Third Coalition , continuing the series of Coalition Wars . When the French Revolution started at the end of the 18th century the European continent had five great powers, these being Great Britain , France , Austria , Russia , and Prussia . Weak European states included Sweden , Spain , Poland , Holland , and Turkey . Western Germany

6643-596: 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

6734-681: The monarchy was formally abolished as the First Republic was declared (21 September 1792). Meanwhile, the French had been successful on several other fronts, occupying Savoy and Nice , which were parts of the Savoyard state , while General Custine invaded Germany, occupying several German towns along the Rhine and reaching as far as Frankfurt . Dumouriez went on the offensive in the Austrian Netherlands once again, winning

6825-758: The nation. In 1794, the situation improved dramatically for the French as huge victories at Fleurus against the Austrians and Dutch and at the Black Mountain against the Spanish signaled the start of a new stage in the wars. By 1795, the French had captured the Austrian Netherlands and the Dutch Republic . The French also put Spain and Prussia out of the war with the Peace of Basel . A hitherto unknown general named Napoleon Bonaparte began his first campaign in Italy in April 1796. In less than

6916-630: The opportunity presented by the French effort in the Middle East to regain territories lost from the First Coalition. The war began well for the Allies in Europe, where they gradually pushed the French out of Italy and invaded Switzerland – racking up victories at the battles of Magnano , Cassano , and Novi along the way. However, their efforts largely unraveled with the French victory at Zurich in September 1799, which caused Russia to drop out of

7007-414: 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

7098-475: The short-lived Anglo-Corsican Kingdom . By the end of the year French armies had won victories on all fronts, and as the year closed they began advancing into the Netherlands. The year opened with French forces in the process of attacking the Dutch Republic in the middle of winter. The Dutch people rallied to the French call and started the Batavian Revolution . City after city was occupied by

7189-487: The spread of revolutionary principles over much of Europe. As early as 1791, the other monarchies of Europe looked with outrage at the revolution and its upheavals; and they considered whether they should intervene, either in support of King Louis XVI , to prevent the spread of revolution, or to take advantage of the chaos in France. Austria stationed significant troops on its French border and together with Prussia, issued

7280-422: The successor of Leopold II, after a long list of grievances presented by foreign minister Charles François Dumouriez . Dumouriez prepared an immediate invasion of the Austrian Netherlands , where he expected the local population to rise against Austrian rule as they had earlier in 1790 . However, the revolution had thoroughly disorganized the army, and the forces raised were insufficient for the invasion. Following

7371-804: 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

7462-592: 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

7553-731: The war. Meanwhile, Napoleon's forces annihilated a series of Egyptian and Ottoman armies at the battles of the Pyramids , Mount Tabor , and Abukir . These victories in Egypt further enhanced Napoleon's popularity back in France, and he returned in triumph in the autumn of 1799, although the Egyptian campaign ultimately ended in failure. Furthermore, the Royal Navy had won the Battle of the Nile in 1798, further strengthening British control of

7644-415: 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

7735-527: The west bank of the Rhine to France. This freed Prussia to finish the Third Partition of Poland . The French army in Spain advanced in Catalonia while taking Bilbao and Vitoria and marching toward Castile . By 10 July, Spain also decided to make peace, recognizing the revolutionary government and ceding the territory of Santo Domingo , but returning to the pre-war borders in Europe. This left

7826-600: The whole island by 24 March and holding it until the Treaty of Amiens , and in Guadeloupe in April, where they captured the island briefly but were driven out by Victor Hugues later in the year. In the Mediterranean, following the British evacuation of Toulon , the Corsican leader Pasquale Paoli agreed with admiral Samuel Hood to place Corsica under British protection in return for assistance capturing French garrisons at Saint-Florent , Bastia , and Calvi , creating

7917-456: Was divided into hundreds of tiny principalities, cities, and minor states, some of which were independents while others were effectively controlled by Austria. The great powers had agrarian industries , except for Great Britain which was wealthy because of trade . The key figure in initial foreign reaction to the French Revolution was Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II , brother of Queen Marie Antoinette of France. Leopold had initially looked on

8008-463: 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

8099-573: 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

8190-618: 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

8281-409: Was the first serious taste of action for an unknown young artillery officer Napoleon Bonaparte . He contributed to the siege of the city and its harbour by planning an effective assault with well-placed artillery batteries raining projectiles down on rebel positions. This performance helped make his reputation as a capable tactician, and it fueled his meteoric rise to military and political power. By

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