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The Dutch-Algerian War and the Rise of British Shipping to Southern Europe (1715-1726)
In 1715, just two years after the United Provinces had been able to conclude the War of Spanish Succession, the Republic received a declaration of war from the Regency of Algiers. The disastrous results for Dutch shipping and trade in Southern Europe forced the conflict-weary Republic to wage a war of attrition. Only with great difficulties were the Dutch finally able to ‘defeat’ the Algerians after a long conflict in the Western Mediterranean and to conclude a long-lasting peace in 1726.
The war years had meanwhile allowed British shipping to rise to dominance in the profitable carrying trade between Northern and Southern Europe, a position that the British held until the outbreak of the Revolutionary wars at the end of the eighteenth century. The Dutch-Algerian war of 1715-1726 can be considered among the key conflicts of the early modern age. It was one of the main causes of a structural shift of shipping hegemony from the Dutch Republic to Great Britain.
On 8 September 1726, the Dutch Republic and the Regency of Algiers concluded a peace treaty after having been at war for more than 88 of the previous 126 years. The two states had been in conflict during the periods from February 1618 to October 1622, from August 1630 to April 1662, from July 1664 to April 1679, from March 1686 to June 1712 and from December 1715 to September 1726. The years 1600-1616 had seen a difficult phase of neither peace nor war with occasional captures of Dutch ships, whereas the time from August 1616 to February 1618 can be regarded as a time of peace when a Dutch consul had served without much trouble in Algiers. The treaty of 1726 became the watershed. Until the French occupation of 1795, the Dutch Republic endured only one more war with Algiers, from February 1755 to November 1757, a short annoyance in an otherwise generally harmonious relationship.
The war of 1715-1726 was thus decisive. Financially and economically exhausted by the War of the Spanish Succession, the Dutch Republic soon after the peace of Utrecht had to deal with an enigmatic and elusive enemy far away. In the end the success seemingly justified the sacrifices. When the ink dried on the peace treaty in the September sun of Algiers in 1726,
the leaders and inhabitants of the Dutch Republic had achieved one of their foremost goals, one that they had been pursuing for more than a decade. In contrast to the great importance contemporaries accorded to this peace, its treatment in historical writing is close to non-existent. This is perhaps due to a general neglect of Mediterranean in favor of Atlantic history in the eighteenth century. One may go even further: the importance of Algiers for European economic and political history remains underestimated to this day, to the detriment of our understanding of the importance of relations between the Mediterranean and Northern Europe
S: On the relation of economic growth and the shipping industry in the early modern age see Richard Unger and Jan Lucassen, “Shipping, Productivity and Economic Growth”, in Richard Unger (ed.), Shipping and economic growth 1350-1850, Leiden, Brill, 2011, p. 3-44.
In 1715, just two years after the United Provinces had been able to conclude the War of Spanish Succession, the Republic received a declaration of war from the Regency of Algiers. The disastrous results for Dutch shipping and trade in Southern Europe forced the conflict-weary Republic to wage a war of attrition. Only with great difficulties were the Dutch finally able to ‘defeat’ the Algerians after a long conflict in the Western Mediterranean and to conclude a long-lasting peace in 1726.
The war years had meanwhile allowed British shipping to rise to dominance in the profitable carrying trade between Northern and Southern Europe, a position that the British held until the outbreak of the Revolutionary wars at the end of the eighteenth century. The Dutch-Algerian war of 1715-1726 can be considered among the key conflicts of the early modern age. It was one of the main causes of a structural shift of shipping hegemony from the Dutch Republic to Great Britain.
On 8 September 1726, the Dutch Republic and the Regency of Algiers concluded a peace treaty after having been at war for more than 88 of the previous 126 years. The two states had been in conflict during the periods from February 1618 to October 1622, from August 1630 to April 1662, from July 1664 to April 1679, from March 1686 to June 1712 and from December 1715 to September 1726. The years 1600-1616 had seen a difficult phase of neither peace nor war with occasional captures of Dutch ships, whereas the time from August 1616 to February 1618 can be regarded as a time of peace when a Dutch consul had served without much trouble in Algiers. The treaty of 1726 became the watershed. Until the French occupation of 1795, the Dutch Republic endured only one more war with Algiers, from February 1755 to November 1757, a short annoyance in an otherwise generally harmonious relationship.
The war of 1715-1726 was thus decisive. Financially and economically exhausted by the War of the Spanish Succession, the Dutch Republic soon after the peace of Utrecht had to deal with an enigmatic and elusive enemy far away. In the end the success seemingly justified the sacrifices. When the ink dried on the peace treaty in the September sun of Algiers in 1726,
the leaders and inhabitants of the Dutch Republic had achieved one of their foremost goals, one that they had been pursuing for more than a decade. In contrast to the great importance contemporaries accorded to this peace, its treatment in historical writing is close to non-existent. This is perhaps due to a general neglect of Mediterranean in favor of Atlantic history in the eighteenth century. One may go even further: the importance of Algiers for European economic and political history remains underestimated to this day, to the detriment of our understanding of the importance of relations between the Mediterranean and Northern Europe
S: On the relation of economic growth and the shipping industry in the early modern age see Richard Unger and Jan Lucassen, “Shipping, Productivity and Economic Growth”, in Richard Unger (ed.), Shipping and economic growth 1350-1850, Leiden, Brill, 2011, p. 3-44.
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