DUTCH AMERICAN HISTORY

by Carolyn Korthals-Altes
(Cofounder of AWCA in 1927)

When the Americans and the Dutch opened diplomatic relations in 1782, the American War of Independence had been fought and won.  British and American diplomats were negotiating a peace that would acknowledge that the thirteen different states which had fought the war under the leadership of the Continental Congress were one nation and were independent of the Mother Country.

At that time, the Dutch had the misfortune to be at war with Great Britain.  They had traded with the rebellious colonies and had smuggled so much contraband into the West Indies that the British government in exasperation had declared war on them in 1780 and did not make peace with them until 1783.  From the Dutch point of view, that fourth sea war with England is always described as disastrous.  It made clear to the world that the Republic was no longer a great sea power.

The country still had great prestige.  As businessmen, bankers, financiers and investors they were still leaders, not only because they had the money, but even more, because they knew how to use it.  The loans that they were to negotiate with and for the infant republic were made with conditions and under limitations that were an education in good business.  They were daring enough to make a speculative investment in a young country and prudent enough to see that no unnecessary risks were run.  It was pure luck for the Americans to have had such useful relations with them at just this time, before the violent upheaval caused by the French Revolution put an end to Dutch freedom for many years.

In the American Revolution, the Dutch must have felt that they were reliving their own past.  Two hundred years earlier, their country had also been formed by the united efforts of separate states in a struggle against a distant tyrant.  In 1582 a price was on the head of the great Dutch leader, William the Silent, and in 1584 he was murdered by one of Philip II's assassins.  He had much in common with America's leader, George Washington.  Both were educated men from a privileged class who loved the good things of this earth but were willing to give them up and risk their lives for a cause they believed in.  Both were kind, forgiving men but William never forgave King Philip for his murderous hatred of heretics and Washington never forgave the English for their arrogance and their contempt for American advice and opinion.  Both men were given the title of Father of his Country. 

Unlike William, Washington survived to see his country acknowledged as a nation and to give it the benefit of his common sense and wisdom in the difficult, early years.