What weapons did the Dutch rely on to defend Amsterdam against the French?
From ancient times to the present, many wars are not only a competition of manpower and material resources, but sometimes the help of the power of nature can often achieve miraculous results. For example, the arrogant Napoleon and Hitler were both defeated by the severe cold weather in Russia. But long before them, French King Louis XIV and his army also suffered from this. They suffered a big loss in the Netherlands and were created by the Dutch. Floods and unpredictable weather made them disgraced and miserable. It was with these two weapons that the Dutch defended Amsterdam.
Why did Napoleon France attack the Netherlands and capture Amsterdam?
In 1667, King Louis XIV of France attacked Spain and occupied a large amount of land. When he planned to swallow up the Spanish Netherlands (today's Belgium), his previous efforts were undone by the intervention of the Netherlands, Britain, and Sweden. From then on, Louis XIV has always resented the Netherlands. Louis XIV's ambition to dominate Europe was disrupted by the Netherlands, which made him angry.
Economically, Louis XIV also wanted to replace the Netherlands, especially Amsterdam, in its important position in the European economy. The seventeenth century was the golden age of the Netherlands. Amsterdam was a very important city and port in the world, and a transit point for goods. Cereals and hemp produced in the Baltic countries are transferred to Western and Southwest Europe through it. What the Baltic countries need, salt, wine and other commodities produced in France, Portugal and Spain must also be imported through Amsterdam.
The Dutch shipbuilding industry was also among the best in the world at that time. There were dozens of shipyards in the capital Amsterdam alone, and shipbuilding prices were cheaper than in other countries. Many European countries placed orders for ships in the Netherlands. Because of such convenient conditions, the merchant ships owned by the Netherlands account for more than 70% of Europe's total tonnage. Tens of thousands of Dutch merchant ships cruised the world's oceans, monopolizing maritime trade and worthy of the title of "sea coachmen." In addition, the Bank of Amsterdam was also the savings and exchange center in Europe and one of the international financial centers at that time.
Louis XIV
But the seventeenth century in which the Netherlands lived was also an era when European heroes came together. France is an established military power on the European continent. King Louis XIV was ambitious to replace the Netherlands as the economic powerhouse in Europe. In order to achieve this goal, Louis XIV began to use diplomatic means to deal with the Netherlands.
In May 1670, in order to relieve his worries about invading the Netherlands, he signed a secret treaty against the Netherlands with King Charles II of England. He also bribed and won over the Archbishop of Cologne and Munster, the rulers of the eastern Netherlands. Bishop, let them not oppose their actions. Then Louis XIV began to mobilize forces in France and formed an army of 120,000 people to prepare to attack the Netherlands.
Although the Netherlands has a high status in Europe, it is only a small country in terms of population. At that time, the Netherlands was a United Provinces Republic, a small country with a population of only one-tenth of France. Although its navy was very powerful, facing the French army attacking from land, its population disadvantage was undoubtedly exposed, and it scraped together 50,000 to 60,000 people to deal with it. But the military quality of most of these people is very poor. They can barely defend cities and fortresses, but they can't carry out offensive field operations. The number of troops that can really fight is only 15,000 at best. Compared with the French army's 120,000 elite troops, it is completely insufficient. look. The French army chose the timing of their attack cleverly. Why did the Dutch create floods to prevent the French army from attacking?
The numerical disadvantage is obvious, and the climate and environment are also very unfavorable to the Dutch defense. It turns out that in the spring of 1672, there was a drought in the Netherlands. You must know that the Netherlands is a country with a network of rivers. Rivers are also a kind of weapon, which can delay and block the enemy's attack to a certain extent. The water level of the river has dropped significantly or is close to drying up due to drought, which means that the enemy can easily cross the river to attack. At the same time, the domestic water transportation in the Netherlands has also been greatly affected.
France, which has always coveted Dutch land, certainly saw this opportunity. In April 1672, France declared war on the Netherlands. The French army was unstoppable and crossed the Rhine River in June. Cities such as Alem, Derwent, and Neumegen have all fallen. Seeing the fierce offensive of the French army, some cities disarmed themselves to avoid suffering greater losses in battle with the French army.
Drought caused the water level of the IJssel River to be extremely low. The French cavalry easily crossed the river, hoping to move back to the 15,000 Dutch troops surrounding the IJssel River. In order to avoid being surrounded by the Dutch troops Had to retreat.
Faced with the unfavorable situation of losing ground, the Dutch are also looking for ways to deal with it. Among them, artificial flooding was considered to block the French attack. How do you create artificial floods? In fact, the Netherlands has a geographical advantage in this regard.
The Netherlands is a low-lying country. More than two-fifths of its territory is below sea level. Low-lying areas are separated from the sea by a continuous sand dune belt that is tens of meters high and hundreds of meters to several kilometers wide. open. If the French enter the Dutch lowlands, they can take advantage of this feature to burst the embankments and release water to stop the French army. The question is does releasing water really work? In fact, the Dutch have already tried this trick. More than 100 years ago, in 1574, when Spain attacked the Leiden area, the Dutch caused floods to submerge the area south of Leiden, and the Spanish army had to retreat.
However, war is a double-edged sword, which will cause great losses to the Netherlands, especially the Dutch farmers who firmly disagree. The seawater floods the lowlands, and their crops, cattle and sheep are gone. Not to mention, the sea water will destroy their land.
Therefore, the Dutch high-level officials did not make up their minds. It was not until the French army crossed the Rhine River and prepared to march directly to Amsterdam that the Dutch high-level officials panicked and ordered the release of water to stop the French army. It was already June 23. Man-made floods have inundated large areas of northern Netherlands.
In early July, we entered Utrecht, an important city in the Netherlands. This city is only 35 kilometers away from Amsterdam in a straight line. Fortunately, the flood created a "moat" about 20 kilometers wide to protect Amsterdam. Despite this, facing the French army approaching the city, Amsterdam was still in chaos and panic. The Prince of Orange and other high-level leaders wanted to keep the city of Amsterdam through negotiations with the French, but the French were determined to win and set negotiation conditions that the Dutch could not accept. The two sides broke up unhappy and had to continue to "debate" with swords and guns.