Although the Dutch Republic did not enter into a formal alliance with the rebelling American colonies and their allies, American ambassador (and future president) John Adams managed to establish diplomatic relations with the Dutch Republic, making it the second European country to diplomatically recognise the Continental Congress in April 1782.

During the Second Stadtholderless Period, the Dutch Republic had more or less abdicated its pretences as a major power and this became painfully evident to the rest of Europe during the War of the Austrian Succession.

They attempted to "borrow" the mercenary Scots Brigade of the Dutch States Army for use in the Americas, in a similar manner to the Hessian and Brunswicker contingents they hired and deployed.

This was strongly opposed by the Dutch sympathizers of the American Revolution, led by Baron Joan van der Capellen tot den Pol, who managed to convince the States General to refuse the British request.

For their return cargo, the Americans purchased arms, munitions, and naval stores brought to the island by Dutch and French merchants.

In 1776 the governor of the island, Johannes de Graeff, was the first to salute the flag of the United States, leading to growing British suspicions of the Dutch.

According to the treaty naval stores, including ship's timbers, masts, spars, canvas, tar, rope, and pitch, were not contraband and the Dutch, therefore, were free to continue their trade with France in these goods.

The British then unilaterally declared naval stores to be contraband and enforced their embargo by arresting Dutch and other neutral ships on the high seas.

The States General now ordered him to provide the escorts and the first convoy, under command of Rear Admiral Lodewijk van Bylandt, sailed in December.

This led to the humiliating Affair of Fielding and Bylandt on 31 December, which enraged Dutch public opinion and further undermined the position of the stadtholder.

[9] More importantly, much was made of a draft treaty of commerce, secretly negotiated between the Amsterdam banker Jean de Neufville and the American agent in Aix-la-Chapelle, William Lee, with the connivance of the Amsterdam pensionary Van Berckel, and found among the effects of Henry Laurens, an American diplomat who had been apprehended by the British cruiser HMS Vestal in September 1780, on the high seas.

Although the States General had decided on a substantial expansion of the fleet in 1779, just before the fateful decision to offer limited convoys, and had even voted the funds for such a naval-construction program, it progressed but slowly.

Within a few weeks of the beginning of the war, more than 200 Dutch merchantmen, with cargo to the amount of 15 million guilders, had been captured by the British and 300 more were locked up in foreign ports.

Both the British and the Dutch, with varying amounts of sincerity, cooperated in these diplomatic manoeuvres, which came to nothing, but helped to keep military activities at a low level while they lasted.

[14] The British government also made overtures to the Dutch to come to a speedy conclusion of hostilities, especially after the cabinet of Lord North had been replaced by that of Rockingham and Fox in March 1782.

Admiral Rodney, the commander of the Leeward Islands station of the Royal Navy, attacked the Dutch colonies in that part of the Caribbean: St. Eustatius, Saba, and Saint Martin, as soon as he had received word of the declaration of war, in the process surprising a number of Dutch naval and merchant ships, which were still unaware of the start of hostilities.

When this proved false, the stadtholder ordered him to send the squadron, under command of Vice Admiral Count Lodewijk van Bylandt to Brest.

[20] Though, except for the Dogger-Bank skirmish, no major battles were fought in European waters, and the British blockade encountered little opposition from the Dutch fleet, the blockade itself exacted its toll on the British seamen, who were at sea for long times at a stretch (which even exposed them to the danger of scurvy) and the ships that suffered from severe wear and tear.

Also, because an appreciable number of ships had to be detached to maintain naval superiority in the North Sea, the already overstretched Royal Navy was even more strained after 1781.

In early 1782 British Admiral Sir Edward Hughes captured Trincomalee on the eastern coast of Dutch Ceylon, considered to be the finest harbour in the Bay of Bengal.

France, which had already planned to send a fleet to India, received intelligence of this, and directed its commander, the Bailli de Suffren, to try to reach the Cape before Johnstone.

The directors of the British company at Fort Marlborough received instructions from Bombay to destroy all of the Dutch outposts on the west coast of Sumatra.

[23] On 18 August, Jacob van Heemskerk, the VOC chief resident at Padang, surrendered all of the west coast outposts without a fight, unaware that Botham's force was relatively weak.

The republic involved itself in the peace congress that the French foreign minister, Vergennes, organised, negotiating separately with the British commissioners.

In the immediate aftermath of the war, the bad result was blamed on the stadholder's mismanagement (if not worse) by his opponents, who coalesced into the Patriot party.