The Dutch position deteriorated rapidly during the French Revolutionary Wars. Dutch radicals and a French army displaced the House of Orange and created the Batavian Republic. The new republic was tied to France, had to pay a 25,000-man French occupation army, and became an enemy in the naval war against Britain. British privateers and the Royal Navy could then attack the trade that sustained the Dutch economy. The republic was one of the smaller powers caught between the political and military demands of Britain and France, with little control over the terms imposed by either side.
Chapter · 11:36-14:57
The Batavian Republic caught between Britain and France
The fall of the Dutch Republic left the Batavian Republic paying for French occupation while British sea power threatened its trade.