Anglo-Dutch Wars Dbq Analysis

Challenges the Dutch faced were due to a series of European wars, internal disunity and conflict, and a loss of trade dominance and economic prosperity.

Threatened by the Dutch trading monopolies, France and England went to war with the Dutch and won. In all the Anglo-Dutch wars, the English defeated the Dutch and according to the "Estimated Losses to Merchant Shipping in Three Anglo - Dutch Wars 1652-1574", seized 2000-2700 ships, compared to the Dutch, who captured 500 ships. The Anglo-Dutch wars damaged the Dutch trade. According to “the Resolution of the Amsterdam City Council, 1671” the French and Other European kings' need to “take over part of it for themselves” increased, the urge for war in order to break the dutch monopoly and
Due to the constant wars and internal turmoil their Baltic Sea Trade displayed in Doc 2, the Dutch lost 50% of trade rights in the Baltic This damaged their economy, as it was based primarily on trade. Also, as seen in Doc 1, they encountered conflict with England over many trade rights in the Anglo-Dutch wars. Previously, the Dutch had superior shipbuilding technologies, but as the century turned to a close, other nations joined the ship building trade, leading to competitive shipbuilding and less of a monopoly on trade routes for the Dutch. Eventually, all major European nations came into the running for overseas trade. Soon, the Dutch East Indies company’s profits “turned to losses” due to the “commercial competition from the English, French, Portuguese, Chinese, and Muslims in Asia.” (Doc 13) Being written by a colonial administrator to the Dutch East India Company, this report is honest in the spirit of improving the company. Eventually, due to this economic competition in overseas trade, and loss of monopolies in Baltic and Atlantic trade, the Dutch economy declined, as the debt increased from 30,000,000 to 148,000,000 from 1688 to 1713. (Doc 2) This illustrates the economic crisis evident in the republic at the