Basically the same Coalition, again led by the Republic and what now became Great Britain, soon fought France again in the War of the Spanish Succession, in which the States Army reached its greatest power and size: 119,000 men in 1712. It therefore formed the backbone of the Anglo-Dutch forces in the Southern Netherlands, led by the Duke of Marlborough (while the Republic also paid for many of the troops supplied by the allied German princes and Denmark, by way of subsidies); the British contribution to most of the battles fought during this conflict were larger than they had been in previous wars. The effort required from the Republic in this war almost brought it to financial exhaustion, just as France was financially brought to its knees. This, and the fact that the fruits of the allied victory over France were not reaped at all by the Dutch (that, and the British after having a change of government and unable to continue the war concluded a separate peace with the French) so disillusioned the Dutch government, that they decided to turn their back on European power politics for the remainder of the 18th century, adopting a policy of armed neutrality.
