Ahead of my upcoming trip to the Netherlands, I wanted to share this article from the September/October 2020 issue of American Spirit to learn a little more about the Dutch influence on the American Revolution. Subscribe to American Spirit magazine here. Enjoy!
The Netherlands, in decline from its 17th-century heyday as a colonial world power, made major contributions to the American cause via arms merchants and banking houses.
By Jeff Walter
Dutch sympathy. Dutch weaponry. Dutch recognition. Dutch money. American independence. Without the support of our friends in the Netherlands, the outcome of the American Revolution might have been altogether different. While such contributions have been largely overlooked by historians on this side of the Atlantic, they were indispensable to the Patriots’ efforts.
When the war was over, and for years after, the United States of America was deeply indebted—financially and figuratively—to its Dutch allies. The Dutch Republic, on the other hand, paid a heavy price for its assistance.
A Fading Power
During its peak as a major colonial trade influence in the 1600s, the Dutch Republic built a global colonial empire, fostered a vast network of maritime connections, and became an international center of finance and culture. But it had since degenerated into a decentralized state, with political control alternating between the province of Holland and a series of stadtholders, or provincial officers. At the time of the American Revolution, the stadtholder over all seven Dutch provinces was William V, Prince of Orange, who had family ties to the British royal house. But ordinary Dutch citizens, weary of the outmoded and out-of-touch oligarchy, yearned for change.
The writings of the French Enlightenment philosophers Voltaire, Montesquieu and Rousseau—a major influence on America’s Founding Fathers—also found receptive ears in the Dutch Republic. The writers’ views on liberty, separation of powers, the “general will” and related topics resonated with many progressive Dutch, who saw the American rebels as the embodiment of said social theories—and kindred spirits. The Dutch “Patriots,” unfortunately, would fare much worse than their American counterparts.
About 100,000 people of Dutch origin resided in the Colonies, where the Dutch West India Company had carried out 17th-century colonization. Roughly 85% of them remained in what was once New Netherland—comprising parts of modern-day New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Delaware. Early Dutch settlers suffered under the tyrannical governance of Peter Stuyvesant, who was appointed by the West India Company. After the British freed the settlers from Stuyvesant’s control in August 1664, many of them assumed prominent business and social roles in the Colonies. However, immigration from their mother country all but came to a stop.