Dutch–Portuguese War
The Dutch–Portuguese War (Dutch: Nederlands-Portugese Oorlog; Portuguese: Guerra Luso-Holandesa) was a global armed conflict involving Dutch forces, in the form of the Dutch East India Company, the Dutch West India Company, and their allies, against the Iberian Union, and after 1640, the Portuguese Empire. Beginning in 1598, the conflict primarily involved the Dutch companies and fleet invading Portuguese colonies in the Americas, Africa, and the East Indies. The war can be thought of as an extension of the Eighty Years' War being fought in Europe at the time between Spain and the Netherlands, as Portugal was in a dynastic union with Spain after the War of the Portuguese Succession, for most of the conflict.
However, the conflict had little to do with the war in Europe and served mainly as a way for the Dutch to gain an overseas empire and control trade at the cost of the Portuguese. English forces also assisted the Dutch at certain points in the war (though in later decades, the English and Dutch would become fierce rivals). Because of the commodity at the center of the conflict, this war would be nicknamed the Spice War.
Portugal repelled Dutch attempts to secure Brazil, Mozambique, and Angola, but the Dutch disrupted the Portuguese trading networks in Asia, where they captured Malacca, Ceylon, the Malabar Coast, and the Moluccas. In Africa, the Dutch conquered the Portuguese Gold Coast.
Portuguese resentment at Spain, which was perceived as having prioritized its own colonies and neglected the defense of the Portuguese, the weaker member of the union, was a major contributing factor to Portugal shaking off Spanish rule in the Portuguese Restoration War. Moreover, the Portuguese claimed that the Iberian Union was a reason for the attacks on their colonies by the Dutch.
Introduction[edit]
The war lasted from 1598 to 1663, and the main participants were the Kingdom of Portugal and the Dutch Republic.
Following the 1580 Iberian Union, Portugal was throughout most of the period under Habsburg rule, and the Habsburg Philip II of Spain was battling the Dutch Revolt. Prior to the union of the Portuguese and Spanish Crowns, Portuguese merchants used the Low Countries as a base for the sale of their spices in Northern Europe. After the Spaniards gained control of the Portuguese Empire though, they declared an embargo on all trade with the rebellious provinces (see Union of Utrecht). In his efforts to subdue the rebelling provinces, Philip II cut off the Netherlands from the spice markets of Lisbon, making it necessary for the Dutch to send their own expeditions to the sources of these commodities and to take control of the Indies spice trade. This followed the capture of Recife in which the Dutch assisted the English in capturing the Portuguese colony.
Like the French and English, the Dutch worked to create a global trade network at the expense of the Iberian kingdoms. The Dutch Empire attacked many territories in Asia under the rule of the Portuguese and Spanish including Formosa, Ceylon, the Philippines, and commercial interests in Japan, Africa (Mina), and South America.