Building on close contacts with American colleagues that had developed in previous decades, Dutch merchants began sending war material to ports and out-of-the-way anchorages in North America as early as 1774. This disengagement was accentuated by the decision to opt for neutrality in the Seven Years' War, a measure that paid dividends in international commerce without undermining the longstanding and mutually beneficial relationship with Great Britain.ĭutch involvement in the American War of Independence effectively ended the comfortable position into which the republic had maneuvered itself. After a decline-mostly relative rather than absolute-during the last quarter of the century, the country gradually reduced its participation in the international political arena. Wielding a vast colonial empire and maintaining maritime connections with virtually the entire world, the seven United Provinces also manifested themselves as a political power in the seventeenth century. Born of a long struggle against Hapsburg Spain, the Dutch Republic began its independent life as the world's premier commercial nation. Dutch Participation in the American RevolutionĭUTCH PARTICIPATION IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
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