As had happened in the previous conflict, even before the formal outbreak of war, the English try to intercept the Dutch Smyrna Fleet, a yearly convoy of Dutch merchants from the Levant sailing with a flotilla to protect them from the Barbary Corsairs.

Admiral Robert Holmes attacks the convoy in the English Channelfrom March 12, 1672 (Old Style), but is beaten back by Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest, capturing only a limited number of prizes.

Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest  reconquers New Netherland, including New Amsterdam, in August 1673, as Vice-Admiral of a twenty-one-ship fleet in service of the Dutch West India Company, at this time the largest ever seen in North America.

Anthony Colve is installed as New Netherland's first Governor (previously there had only been West India Company Directors), and the city of New Amsterdam is renamed "New Orange", reflecting the installation of William of Orange as Lord-Lieutenant (stadtholder) of Holland in 1672.

Evertsen, the second son of Lieutenant-Admiral Cornelis Evertsen the Elder, nephew of Lieutenant-Admiral Johan Evertsen and cousin of the latter's son Vice-Admiral Cornelis Evertsen the Younger, with whom he is very often confused, is nicknamed Keesje den Duvel ("Little Cornelis the Devil") for his cantankerous and hot-tempered character, which he shares with his father.

As a twenty-two-year-old privateer in 1665 during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, he had been captured by the English on April 15 of that year when his force of two ships was defeated by three English vessels.

His crew had to bodily restrain him to prevent him from blowing up his ship, the thirty-two-gun Eendragt.

Cornelis had fought after his release in the Battle of Lowestoft in 1665; in July he became captain with the Admiralty of Zealand.

He had been captain of his father's flagship Walcheren during the Four Days Battle in 1666, during the first night of which he had witnessed his father's death, the Lieutenant-Admiral being cut in two by the parting shot of the escaping Henry; he also fought in the St. James's Day Battle where his uncle was killed.

Just before the Third Anglo-Dutch War, he had repelled a treacherous English attack on the Smyrna fleet in March 1672; he had commanded the forty-four-gun Zwanenburg in the Battle of Solebay.

The Zwanenburg remains his flagship.

The Netherlands have formed an alliance with Spain and the French have withdrawn from the territory of the Republic.

The Third Anglo-Dutch War comes to an end with the signing of the Treaty of Westminster between the English and the Dutch in 1674.

England is forced to sign the treaty as Parliament will not allow more money to be spent on the war and had become aware of the secret Treaty of Dover in which Charles had promised Louis XIV of France to convert to Roman Catholicism at an opportune moment.

The English are dismayed by the unexpected fact that Dutch raiders have managed to capture more English ships than vice versa and that New Amsterdam had been retaken by the Dutch in 1673.

As such, it can easily be seen as an English defeat, as they had started the war, and the Dutch had managed to make the war so costly that the English have to withdraw.

Peace is proclaimed at 10:00 AM on February 27 (New Style at Whitehall.

The condition implies that New Netherland, retaken by Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest in 1673, will henceforth again be an English possession and that Suriname, captured by the Dutch in 1667, will remain their colony, legalizing the status quo of 1667.

These issues had been left undecided by the Peace of Breda of that year, an uti possidetis agreement.

The islands of Tobago, Saba, St. Eustatius and Tortola, taken by the English in 1672, will have to be returned also.

Evertsen is accused of disobedience when he returns to Zealand in July 1674 from his conquest of New York City, because the States of Zealand are not pleased with his actions; his real orders had been to conquer Saint Helena and Cayenne.