40 Violent Realities in the Making of the British Empire

40 Violent Realities in the Making of the British Empire

Larry Holzwarth - March 25, 2019

40 Violent Realities in the Making of the British Empire
English ships raided those of their rivals on the thinnest of legal pretexts. Wikimedia

3. England conducted trade wars with its ships; more like piracy wars.

The rivalry between the Dutch and the English over trade led to British ships seizing Dutch vessels in a manner which was often piracy. Dutch ships were taken under the veneer of examining cargoes for contraband. It was during the Anglo-Dutch Wars that the Dutch colony of New Netherland was taken by the English and renamed in honor of the Duke of York. Sweden had previously been eliminated from colonial expansion in North America when the Dutch seized their colony of New Sweden and absorbed it into New Netherland. England’s main rival in colonization in the New World shifted to France.

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