Naval history of the Netherlands
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As a coastal nation, the history of the Dutch navy is a long one.
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[edit] Origins
Trade and merchants formed the basis of the Dutch economy. In order to protect national interests a navy was indispensable.
At first the Dutch navy had a private character, wealthy merchants and regents in the many ports of the republic made their own decisions and took initiative, and incidentally attacked pirates and foreign competitors. Defensive measures to protect the merchant ships could include sailing in a convoy and arming the merchants themselves. Offensive actions could include taking enemy ships by force. This was actively supported by the Dutch authorities in times of war, who send out letters of marque which allowed Dutch captains to attack and, preferably, capture enemy ships.
The central authorities tried, in vain, to increase supervision on these, in effect, private owned navies. By decree of Maximillian of Austria, on 8 January 1488 the present Dutch Navy was formed. The role of the navy was now arranged by law and the tasks of defending the country at sea was the responsibility of an admiral who now replaced the sovereign. However many provinces surreptitiously created small navies of their own, without the admiral ever knowing.
[edit] A World Power
The Dutch revolt (1568-1648) resulted in a better command structure of the Dutch navy. The Dutch government now installed 5 admiralties (de Maze, Amsterdam, Zeeland, the Noorderkwartier, and Friesland) which had offices in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Middelburg, Hoorn, Enkhuizen, and Dokkum (later Harlingen).
During the 17th century the Dutch republic was involved in countless wars, many of them at sea. The main goal of the Dutch navy was to protect the trade routes and protecting Dutch soil.
Until 1648 Spain was the enemy, a republican fleet destroyed the main part of the entire Spanish navy at Gibraltar in 1607. Other activities included blocking the Flemish coast (to prevent the Spanish troops there from getting supplies) and escorting the Dutch merchants in the Baltic.
In the course of the 17th century Dutch wealth and maritime expansion was the source of much envy across Europe, but especially in England. When they announced the act of navigation, which damaged Dutch traders in London, tensions became high. During the First Anglo-Dutch War English fleet operations were fixed on blocking the Dutch merchant fleet, an example of this is the battle of Dungeness in December 1652, in which Maarten Tromp was able to keep the channel open for Dutch trade. In the second Anglo-Dutch War 5 major battles took place, nearly all of them in English waters. It was during this period that the battle of Chatham (1667) took place, arguably the worst naval defeat in English history until this very day. The third Anglo-Dutch war was in fact a conspiracy between France, England, Cologne and Munster to attack the Netherlands and destroy the Dutch republic as the world’s superpower.
Although the Dutch fleet was the largest of the world at the time, the combined fleet of France and England quickly put the Dutch in a defensive position, but due to the tactical brilliance of Michiel de Ruyter, they managed to inflict so much damage to both fleets during the Dutch nation's most anxious moment that the offensive capabilities of France and England were reduced to almost nothing. The Treaty of Westminster (1674) marked the end of the trade wars between the rivals. A new era arrived in 1688, when the Dutch stadholder William III turned England into an ally by toppling James II and having himself proclaimed King of England. In the following decades the Dutch and the English successfully fought as allies against France, then at the height of its powers during the reign of Louis XIV. The naval war zone shifted from the North Sea and the English Channel to the French coast and Mediterranean. At the end of the War of the Spanish succession (1713) the series of wars ended.
At the start of the 17th century the squadrons of the Dutch fleet were reinforced with merchant ships adapted for battle in earlier conflicts. The introduction of the line-tactic increased the demand for ships with more manoeuvrability, speed and crew experience. In 1653 the Dutch government decided to build 60 ships, and a 10 years later they placed another order for 60 more. The flagship of the republic, De Zeven Provinciën, was fitted with 96 guns. For comparison, the British HMS Victory, built more than a century later, had only 8 guns more.
With about 4000 sailors at peacetime the Dutch navy was a relatively small employer in the maritime section, except at times of war when thousands of men more were hired. Flag officers and captains were themselves responsible for hiring the ship's crew. Usually a ship's crew were hired for only one campaign, excluding the officers. Since the early 17th century, experienced captains were employed for long periods of time by the Dutch navy; they were responsible for the ships provisions, and when they bought supplies for less money than the government provided they could keep the rest, and a smart captain could make a small fortune this way in peacetime.
The crew itself were mostly natives or foreign inhabitants of the many Dutch harbour towns. In 1665 regiments of soldiers were deployed aboard the ships. These soldiers would later become famous and feared: Dutch marines.
[edit] Decline and French domination
In the late 18th century the navy of the Dutch Republic could no longer withstand the navies of Great-Britain and France. An ambitious shipbuilding program in 1780 could not prevent the disastrous Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (1780-1784), and at the peace of Paris the Dutch had to allow free passage throughout the East Indies and effectively allowing the Royal Navy to become the new power of the seas.
Several naval reforms concerning education and marine command structure took place after the Batavian Revolution (1795) and made great changes within the Dutch navy. The federative decentralised naval command was now replaced by a central organisation in The Hague. The warships stayed in the drydocks, although a number of ships managed to follow William V to Great-Britain; others, like the ships sailing in East Asia, were later joined with the forces of William V.
After the surrender of a naval squadron near Saldanha Bay (1796) and the defeat at the battle of Camperdown (1797), the surrender of the fleet near the Vlieter in 1799 proved to be the death of the Batavian navy. In the 3 years the Netherlands were a part of Imperial France the navy was unable to operate independently.
[edit] Insurrection
The Netherlands regained their independence and on December 7, 1813, the Dutch navy was once again a part of the Dutch military. Finally in June 1815 France was defeated at the battle of Waterloo by a combined Anglo-Dutch army and its Prussian and German allies. In 1813 the present-day Dutch monarchy, coming forth from the noble line of the stadholders, was installed allowing the Dutch navy to get the predicate "royal" and become the Royal Netherlands Navy, yet this did not happen until 1905.
The Dutch navy in the 19th century experienced a constant shortage of manpower, forcing the government into hiring crew from its colonies; this increased the total employees from 5000 in 1850 to over 10,000 in 1900.
In 1917 the first airplanes were added to the navy and the first women were employed in 1944, but were not exposed to combat until 1980.
After the disappearance of the ship of the line a whole array of ship classes and types were created. The invention of the propeller launched the mass use of steam-propelled ships. Wood was replaced by iron. New developments in the field of artillery increased a gun's range and improved its accuracy. Around 1900 torpedoes and mines created a new dimension in naval warfare.
Between 1783 and 1789 naval squadrons were send to Asia to support the Dutch East India Company. After the bankruptcy of the East India Company Dutch naval tasks shifted greatly towards East Asia, until some 60% of the entire navy was situated there around 1850.
[edit] World War II
During the Second World War, the Dutch navy, due to the relatively quick conquest of the Netherlands by Nazi-Germany, was based in Allied countries: the Dutch navy had their headquarters in London and smaller counterparts in Sri Lanka and Australia.
Around the world Dutch naval units were responsible for troop transport, for example during Operation Dynamo in Dunkirk and D-Day, they escorted convoys and attacked enemy targets. During the war the navy suffered heavy losses, especially in defending the Dutch East Indies, most notably the Battle of the Java Sea in which the commander, Dutchman Karel Doorman, went down with his ships together with 1000 of his crew.
After the war, the relations between the Netherlands and its colonies changed dramatically. The establishment of the Republic of Indonesia 2 days after the Japanese surrender blocked the Dutch plans for recreating colonial authority. It took 4 years of war before the Netherlands acknowledged the independence of Indonesia. The Dutch navy was stationed in Papua until it was turned over to the Indonesians in 1962, because the action from the Military of Indonesia, supported by the modern military equipments from Soviet Union, as the order of Presiden Sukarno to integrate it into as one of Indonesian provinces.
[edit] Cold War and NATO cooperation
With the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the military focus was on the army and air force; it was not until the Korean War (1950-1953) that the navy got more recognition. The government allowed the creation of a balanced fleet consisting of 2 naval squadrons. Apart from the aircraft carrier Hr. Ms. Karel Doorman the Dutch navy consisted of 2 cruisers (De Ruyter class cruisers), 12 destroyers (8 Friesland, 4 Holland class Destroyer), 8 submarines, 6 frigates (van Speijk class frigates) and a large number of minesweepers.
As a NATO member the Netherlands developed its safety policy in close cooperation with other members. The establishment of the Warsaw pact in 1955 intensified the arms race between West and East. Technical innovations rapidly emerged, the introduction of radar and sonar were followed by nuclear weapon systems and long-range missiles. This clear enemy allowed for a fixed military strategy. From 1965 onwards the Netherlands joined certain permanent NATO squadrons like the Standing Naval Force Atlantic.
[edit] The Current Navy
After the fall of the Berlin wall in November 1989 the international military situation changed drastically. Globally, new conflicts emerged and the borders between friend and foe seemed to gradually fade. NATO's reorientation of the organisations goals created a more prominent role for the United Nations as international peacekeepers. From 1990 onwards navy units were engaged in conflicts in Cambodia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon but also the Gulf War and the Yugoslavian conflict. The new goals of the Dutch navy were now changed to an expeditionary peacekeeping and peace enforcing force.
