History of the Dutch Navy

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With the conquest of Brielle in 1572 , the Wassergeusen achieved their first success in the Dutch War of Independence

The history of the Netherlands Navy spans the naval history of the former Republic of the Seven United Provinces , the Batavian Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands . The Dutch Navy was one of the first great sea ​​powers of the modern age in the 17th century . After the fall of the republic, the kingdom's fleet sank in the 19th century to a second or third rank naval power. For the Koninklijke Nederlandse Zeemacht , founded in 1815, the name Koninklijke Marine prevailed from 1905 .

Beginnings and Golden Age

With the arrival in Bantam on Java, Captain de Houtman broke the Portuguese monopoly of spices in the East Indies in 1596

Originating from the waters of the Dutch War of Independence and the then five (partly rival) admiralities (Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Zeeland, North Holland and Friesland), Dutch fleets broke Spanish and Portuguese rule on all the world's seas ( Dutch-Spanish War and Dutch- Portuguese War , especially the naval battles at Gibraltar in 1607 and at the Downs in 1639 ). Dutch ships dominated not only the slave trade in the Atlantic , but also general trade in the Mediterranean (Smyrna convoys), in the Baltic Sea and with Japan (monopoly in Deshima ). In the middle of the 17th century, the republic of the united Netherlands had the largest merchant fleet and the strongest war fleet in the world. At that time the merchant fleet alone comprised 16,000 and 35,000 larger and smaller ships (including the ships of the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company ) - that was two-thirds and four-fifths of all merchant ships worldwide. Another 2,000 larger and smaller merchant and warships were built each year. Annually, 70,000 seamen and sailors are hired, including many Germans.

Then, however, the Dutch Navy became involved in constant changes of alliance with other naval powers and battles against constantly changing opponents, which finally broke the maritime domination of the Netherlands: first with England against Spain and Portugal; then with England, France and Portugal against Spain; then with France against England and Portugal; then with England and Sweden against France, then with Spain against France and England; and then with England and Spain against France and Sweden. In three Anglo-Dutch naval wars , the Dutch Navy won several victories against the Royal Navy , including in the Franco-Dutch War until the death of the legendary Admiral Michiel de Ruyter (1676) . A united English-Dutch fleets were able to prevent a French naval domination in the naval battles of Barfleur and La Hougue (1692).

One of the most profitable connections of the Dutch sea trade was the one in the Baltic Sea. From there came u. a. a large part of the timber and hemp needed for the rigging of the Dutch ships. In the middle of the 17th century the number of Dutch ships in the Baltic Sea was twenty times that of all other nations. In order to maintain control over trade in the Baltic Sea , from the Thirty Years War to the Great Northern War , the Netherlands made ever changing alliances with Sweden and Denmark: first with Denmark and England against the German Kaiser, then with Sweden against Denmark ; then with Denmark and Poland against Sweden ; with Sweden and England against France ; again with Denmark and Brandenburg against Sweden and France ; then with Sweden against France and Denmark , finally with Sweden and England against Denmark and Russia , but then with Denmark and England against Sweden. Most of the time, the war party supported by the Dutch navy remained victorious.

Dutch warships were also used as models and as "jump starters" for other naval forces. Since shipbuilding in the Netherlands was cheaper than in the rest of Europe, many ships were ordered, bought or rented there. They then drove for Venice, Genoa, France, Sweden and Brandenburg-Prussia. However, Dutch shipbuilders also worked in Swedish shipyards, and numerous Dutch naval officers served in the Swedish Navy. The Great Elector initially had two ships built in Holland, in 1675 the shipowner Benjamin Raule rented 10 frigates to Brandenburg-Prussia and from this the Kurbrandenburg Navy developed . During the war of skies , the Dutch admiral Cornelis Tromp was also commander-in-chief of the Danish-Norwegian fleet in 1674/79 . Russia's Tsar Peter I (Russia) gained experience as a ship's carpenter during his Great Embassy in 1697/98 at a Dutch shipyard in Zaandam , while the Dutch captain Cornelius Cruys became his chief naval advisor and first commander of the Russian Baltic fleet in 1698 .

Decline

Flag and jack of the Batavian Republic and its Navy 1795–1806

After the end of the Anglo-Dutch personal union (1702), the Dutch navy gradually fell into disrepair, but it made repeated attacks on the North African barbarian states and remained important until the end of the 18th century. But despite Admiral Zoutman's success in the Battle of the Dogger Bank (1781), she was no longer able to protect the Dutch colonies on her own - not least because the majority of the Admiralty supported the aristocratic party of the Pro-British Orangists ( Orangists ). The British occupied numerous Dutch possessions on the Gold Coast and in the East Indies from 1781–1784 ; only with French help could the Cape Colony be defended and Ceylon recaptured. But when France withdrew from the war in 1783, the Netherlands had to make an unfavorable peace in 1784 , which intensified the conflict between the Orange and " patriots " within the Admiralty .

Because of the handover of the Dutch fleet to France (1795), it became involved in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars . Of the 44 ships of the line and 43 frigates remaining in 1790, the British Royal Navy captured or sank at least 30 in the surrender in Saldanhabucht (1796), the sea ​​battle at Camperduin (1797) and the surrender in the Vlieter (1799) alone 1803 Tripoli and in 1804 repelled a British attack on the French Cap Gris-Nez . The Cape Colony was finally lost in 1806. Under French influence, the five rival admirals were replaced by a central admiralty, which later became a naval ministry.

Royal Navy from 1815

After three Bali Wars (1846–1849), the Dutch landed on the island again in 1906 and finally conquered it in 1908
On the " De Zeven Provinciën " in 1933 there was a mutiny between Dutch and Indonesian teams. After an air raid, the mutineers surrendered.
Maneuvers of the Koninklijke Marine, 1936.

With the division of the remains of the French fleet anchored in Texel and Antwerp, the navy of the newly created United Kingdom of the Netherlands ( Koninklijke Nederlandse Zeemacht ) was created in 1815 . As early as 1816, Dutch warships took part in the bombing of Algiers on the side of the Royal Navy , and also in 1864 in the bombing of Shimonoseki . In the years 1869/70 the Dutch Navy undertook a punitive expedition to the African Gold Coast , since 1873 it supported the four decades dragging conquest of Aceh on Sumatra.

After the defeat of Belgium in 1834, the Dutch navy numbered barely 7,000 men with a total of only 153 larger and smaller warships of which 9 ships of the line and 23 frigates (according to other information, 12 ships of the line and 40 frigates again in 1837), 17 corvettes, 16 briggs and 2 Steamships. In addition to the Home Fleet an independent squadron existed since 1838 specifically for the service in the Dutch East Indies - as even the Dutch East India Company had maintained its own fleet to 1799th By 1846, 10 steamers were initially introduced, in 1860 there were already 42 steamers in service, and in 1877 87 steamers with 386 guns. Since the beginning of the 1890s, the navy began building modern armored ships and armored deck ships; in 1906 the first submarine was put into service. After the blockade of Venezuelan ports and the seizure of some Venezuelan ships in 1908, the Dutch Navy remained neutral during the First World War.

On the eve of the Second World War it comprised 3 old coastal armored ships, 3 small cruisers, 8 destroyers and 27 submarines. A battle cruiser project from 1939 was canceled in 1940. In view of the German attack, the Dutch warships evaded German access by moving to British ports. In 1941, 3 cruisers, 6 destroyers and 13 submarines were stationed in the Dutch East Indies ( Indonesia ). As part of the Allied ABDA fleet , the Indian (Indonesian) squadron was destroyed by the Japanese Navy in the Battle of the Java Sea (1942), but after the war the entire Dutch fleet was rebuilt with British help. Ultimately, however, the Dutch gunboat policy (including the aircraft carrier " Karel Doorman " acquired from Great Britain ) could not prevent the loss of the Dutch colonial empire in Indonesia (1949/1963).

Within NATO , the Dutch naval forces are subordinate to the Atlantic High Command (ACLANT) and the English Channel (ACCHAN) and are intended to protect the sea connections in the English Channel and to achieve maritime control in the North Sea. Units of the Marine are assigned as a backup to the NATO command Northern Europe. Dutch warships have been part of the Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 since 1969 . In addition, the Dutch navy protects special maritime strategic interests in the Caribbean (Antilles) and other non-European regions. Dutch warships were also in service in the Persian Gulf in 1987/88 and 1990/91.

Since 2008, Dutch warships have participated within NATO in Operation Allied Provider , Operation Allied Protector and Operation Ocean Shield and in the EU Operation Atalanta in the fight against piracy off the Somali coast .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Brockhaus Conversations-Lexikon, supplement volume, page 549. Leipzig 1887
  2. ^ Meyers Konversations-Lexikon , Volume 15, Page 844 (Sea Power) . 5th edition, Leipzig / Vienna 1897
  3. ↑ a b Alexander Meurer : Maritime War History in Outlines , page 178. Hase & Koehler, Leipzig 1943
  4. ^ Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon, Volume 14, page 643 . Leipzig 1908
  5. ^ Gerhard Hellwig, Gerhard Linne: Daten der Weltgeschichte , page 232. Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh 1975
  6. ↑ Brockhaus Bilder-Conversations-Lexikon, Volume 3, Page 283 . Leipzig 1839
  7. ^ Willy Andreas: Die Neue Propylaen-Weltgeschichte , third volume, page 597. Propylaen-Verlag, Berlin 1941
  8. ^ Lease between Raule and the Great Elector dated January 31, 1675; Ulrich von der Heyden: Red eagles on Africa's coast. The Brandenburg-Prussian colony Großfriedrichsburg on the West African coast. Berlin 1993, p. 11; Hans Georg Steltzer: "Provided with wonderful ports" Brandenburg-Prussian seafaring three hundred years ago. Frankfurt / Main 1981. p. 45.
  9. ↑ Pierer's Universal Lexicon , Volume 11, page 909 . Altenburg 1860.
  10. ↑ Franz von Rudtorffer: Military Geography of Europe , page 103 . Haase, Prague 1839
  11. ↑ Brockhaus Bilder-Conversations-Lexikon, Volume 3, Page 287 . Leipzig 1839
  12. ^ Der Neue Brockhaus, Third Volume, page 375 (Netherlands). Leipzig 1937
  13. ↑ Harry Thürk : Pearl Harbor , page 11. Military Publishing House of the GDR, Berlin 1974
  14. ↑ Wolfgang Weber: Military Doctrines of NATO and its Member States , page 80f. Military publishing house of the GDR , Berlin 1988

literature

  • Walter Markov, Alfred Anderle, Ernst Werner:
    • Small Encyclopedia of World History , Volume 1, Pages 475 and 479 (Indonesia). Bibliographical Institute Leipzig 1979
    • Small encyclopedia of world history , volume 2, pages 82ff and 86ff (Netherlands). Bibliographical Institute Leipzig 1979

Web links

Commons : Koninklijke Marine  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files