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Home Foreign Policy, 1649-1688, and the Beginnings of Greater Britain, 1603-1688 |
Foreign Policy, 1649-1688, and the Beginnings of Greater Britain, 1603-1688England, it has been said, was more warlike during the period of the Commonwealth than she had been at any other time since the Hundred Years' War with France. But, as we have seen, till the end of 1651 the military energies of the Commonwealth Government were occupied in fighting its Royalist foes. Cromwell, on land, was winning Dun bar and Worcester; Blake, on sea, was sweeping Royalist privateers from the Channel and the Mediterranean, and forcing the colonies to recognize the rule of the Republic. In 1652, however, the Commonwealth was free to interfere with its Continental neighbours; and with the best' army in Europe, composed of some forty thousand men, and a fleet to which it added two hundred and seven ships, its interference proved to be of a decisive character.Holland was England's first foe. It might have been expected that these two States, being both Republics and both Protestant, would have combined (A suggestion, indeed, for a political union was actually put forward by England, but it came to nothing.). But England and Holland were keen commercial rivals. "We are fighting", said a member of the Long Parliament, "for the fairest mistress in the world—trade." Holland had, so far, been the conqueror. The Dutch had shut the English out from trade in the East Indies. They had almost acquired a monopoly of the carrying trade; they were, it was said, "the wagoners of all seas". In the autumn of 1651, however, the " Rump" Parliament passed a Navigation Act, by which goods coming to England were to be carried in English ships, or in ships belonging to the country from which the goods came (This policy was not, however, a new one, for Navigation Acts of one sort or another had been passed ever since the reign of Richard II, but they had not been effectively carried out). If ever an Act, it has been said, did make a nation great, it was this one; and the enormous development of English shipping in the years that follow must be largely attributed to its influence. But in fostering English shipping this Act struck a heavy blow at the Dutch. Then other questions arose between the two nations. An informal "sort of a war" was going on between the English and French on sea, and England claimed to seize French goods on Dutch ships, a claim which the Dutch resisted. Finally, there was a question of honour; the English held that Dutch ships should lower their flag to English men-of-war in the Channel, and the Dutch were naturally averse to recognizing such a right. Over this point came a collision between the Dutch and English fleets near Dover, and then the war began (May, 1652). In the war that ensued the English had the advantage of more solidly built and more heavily armed ships, and, though they were without such a great tactician as the Dutch possessed in Tromp, they had in Blake a commander who combined great care in the organization of his fleet with brilliant daring in action. The war, which lasted from 1652-4, was crowded with sea battles. Tromp defeated Blake off Dungeness in November, 1652, and obtained command of the Channel (It was after this battle that Tromp was said to have put a broom at his masthead to show that he had swept the English off the sea; but such a story of so modest a man as Tromp is probably untrue). But in the following February, 1653, Blake regained the command after a three days' battle off Portland. The English ships were able to inflict great damage upon Holland's extensive commerce* In the course of the war no less than one thousand four hundred Dutch ships were captured, including one hundred and twenty men-of-war, and towards its close no Dutch merchantman could show itself in the Channel. |
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