First Anglo-Dutch War - Background

Background

In the 16th century, England and the Netherlands had been close allies against the ambitions of the Habsburgs. They cooperated in fighting the Spanish Armada. England supported the Dutch in the Eighty Years' War by sending money and troops. There was a permanent English representative in the Dutch government to ensure coordination of the joint war effort. The separate peace in 1604 between England and Spain strained this relationship. The weakening of Spanish power at the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648 also meant that many colonial possessions of the Portuguese and some of the Spanish empire were effectively up for grabs. The ensuing rush for empire brought the former allies into conflict. Also the Dutch, having made peace with Spain, quickly replaced the English as dominant traders with the Iberian peninsula, adding to an English resentment about Dutch trade that had steadily grown since 1590.

By the middle of the 17th century the Dutch had built by far the largest mercantile fleet in Europe, with more ships than all the other states combined, and their economy, based mainly on maritime commerce, gave them a dominant position in European trade, especially in the North Sea and Baltic. Furthermore they had conquered most of Portugal's territories and trading posts in the East Indies and Brazil giving them control over the enormously profitable trade in spices. They were even gaining significant influence over England's trade with her as yet small North American colonies, profiting from the turmoil of the English Civil War. With their victory over the Spanish fleet at the Battle of the Downs, Dutch confidence in their naval abilities grew to such a degree, that after peace was made with Spain, they allowed their navy to deteriorate greatly. The Dutch had five autonomous admiralties and after 1648 these sold off many of their ships. By 1652, fewer than fifty ships were seaworthy and the deficiency had to be made good by arming merchantmen. All were inferior in firepower to the largest English first and second rates.

The navy of the Commonwealth of England was in better condition. It had emerged victorious from the English Civil War; supported and supplied Cromwell's army in the wars in Scotland and Ireland; blockaded the royalist fleet of Prince Rupert in Lisbon; and organised a system of convoys to protect the commerce of the Commonwealth against the swarms of privateers set upon it from every European port. On 24 September 1650 General-at-Sea Robert Blake had defeated the Portuguese fleet in a violent gale, sinking the Portuguese Vice-Admiral and taking seven prizes, compelling Portugal to cease protecting Rupert. In 1651 the royalist strongholds in the Isles of Scilly, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands had been captured, and in 1652 General George Ayscue had recovered England's colonial possessions in the West Indies and North America. The English navy had been placed on a secure financial footing by an Act of 10 November 1650, which imposed a 15 percent tax on merchant shipping and provided that the money thus raised should be used to fund the naval forces protecting the convoys. It had eighteen ships superior in firepower to the heaviest Dutch vessel, the Brederode.