Dutch Smugglers and the American Revolution

Discover how Dutch bankers, merchants, and smugglers helped shape the American Revolution. Professor Wim Klooster, the Robert H. and Virginia N. Scotland Endowed Chair in History and International Relations at Clark University, explores the Dutch Republic’s pivotal role in the struggle for American independence.

The lecture examines how Dutch financiers helped fund the American cause; how merchants and smugglers circumvented British trade restrictions to supply the Patriots with essential goods, tea, and military supplies; and how Dutch commercial networks challenged British authority. It also reveals how international trade, financial interests, and diplomatic relationships connected the Dutch Republic to the revolutionary movement and helped sustain the fight for independence.

An acclaimed historian of the Dutch Atlantic and the Age of Revolutions, Klooster is the author of The Dutch Moment (2016) and editor of the Cambridge History of the Age of Atlantic Revolutions (2023), among numerous other publications.

This event is sponsored by Crailo State Historic Site and the Friends of Fort Crailo.