Dutch-Venezuela War

In 1908 a dispute broke out between the Netherlands and Cipriano Castro's Venezuela on the grounds of the harbouring of refugees in Curaçao. Venezuela expelled the Dutch ambassador, prompting a Dutch dispatch of three warships - a battleship, the Jacob van Heemskerk, and two cruisers, the Gelderland and the Friesland. On December 12, the Gelderland captured the Venezuelan coast guardship Alix off Puerto Cabello.^[2] With their overwhelming naval superiority, the Dutch enforced a blockade on Venezuela's ports. A few days later, General Castro left for Berlin, nominally for a surgical operation. In his absence, an uprising in Caracas overthrew his regime. This effectively ended the war with the Netherlands.

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