Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
| Fourth Anglo-Dutch War | |||||||||
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| Part of the American Revolutionary War and the Anglo-Dutch Wars | |||||||||
The Battle of Dogger Bank, 5 August 1781 Thomas Luny, 1781 | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Great Britain | |||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (Dutch: Vierde Engels-Nederlandse Oorlog; 1780–1784) was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, contemporary with the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), broke out over British and Dutch disagreements on the legality and conduct of Dutch trade with Britain's enemies in that war.
Although the Dutch Republic did not enter into a formal alliance with the insurgent Americans and their French and Spanish allies, American envoy (and future president) John Adams had his credentials accepted as ambassador, establishing diplomatic relations with the Dutch Republic, making it the second European country to diplomatically recognize the United States of America in April 1782 as a sovereign nation. In October 1782, a treaty of amity and commerce was concluded as well.
Most of the war consisted of a series of British operations against Dutch colonial economic interests, although British and Dutch naval forces also met once off the Dutch coast. The war ended disastrously for the Dutch and exposed the weakness of the political and economic foundations of the republic. The war settled the decline of the Dutch Empire and further cemented Great Britain as the leading commercial power.