Editing North Sea (section)

===Age of sail===
[[File:Willem van de Velde (II) - De verovering van het Engelse admiraalschip de 'Royal Prince'.jpg|thumb|Painting of the [[Four Days' Battle]] of 1666 by [[Willem van de Velde the Younger]]]]
The 17th century [[Dutch Golden Age]] saw Dutch maritime power at its zenith.<ref>{{cite book
|last=Cook
|first=Harold John
|title=Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=haiG4P79gysC&pg=PA7
|page=7
|year=2007
|publisher=Yale University Press
|isbn=978-0-300-11796-7
|access-date=1 July 2020
|archive-date=17 April 2023
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417084129/https://books.google.com/books?id=haiG4P79gysC&pg=PA7
|url-status=live
}}</ref><ref name="PowerPlenty">{{cite book
|last=Findlay
|first=Ronald
|author2=Kevin H. O'Rourke
|title=Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium
|url=https://archive.org/details/powerplentytrade00rona
|url-access=registration
|publisher=Princeton University Press
|isbn=9780691118543
|page=[https://archive.org/details/powerplentytrade00rona/page/187 187] and 238
|year= 2007
}}
</ref> Important overseas colonies, a vast merchant marine, a large fishing fleet,<ref name="BrtishIsles"/> powerful navy, and sophisticated financial markets made the Dutch the ascendant power in the North Sea, to be challenged by an ambitious England. This rivalry led to the first three [[Anglo-Dutch Wars]] between 1652 and 1673, which ended with Dutch victories.<ref name="PowerPlenty"/> After the [[Glorious Revolution]] in 1688, the Dutch prince [[William III of England|William]] ascended to the English throne. With unified leadership, commercial, military, and political power began to shift from Amsterdam to London.<ref name="MacDonald">{{cite book
|last=MacDonald
|first=Scott
|others=Albert L. Gastmann
|title=A History of Credit and Power in the Western World
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5wlngm9J29kC&pg=PA134
|publisher=Transaction Publishers
|isbn=978-0-7658-0833-2
|pages=122–127, 134
|year=2004
|access-date=1 July 2020
|archive-date=17 April 2023
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417084129/https://books.google.com/books?id=5wlngm9J29kC&pg=PA134
|url-status=live
}}</ref>
The British did not face a challenge to their dominance of the North Sea until the 20th century.<ref>{{cite book
|last=Sondhaus
|first=Lawrence
|title=Naval Warfare, 1815–1914
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TKXn0IQBKCcC&pg=PA183
|year=2001
|publisher=Routledge
|location=New York
|isbn=978-0-415-21478-0
|page=183
|access-date=1 July 2020
|archive-date=17 April 2023
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417084141/https://books.google.com/books?id=TKXn0IQBKCcC&pg=PA183
|url-status=live
}}</ref>