Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1660)
Anglo–Spanish War (1654–1660) | |||||||||
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Part of the Franco-Spanish War | |||||||||
The Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1657) | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
Spain Royalists of England, Ireland and Scotland[1] |
Commonwealth of England France (1657–59) | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Caribbean: Bernardino de Meneses Cristóbal Arnaldo Isasi Spain: Pablo Fernández de Contreras Marcos del Puerto Diego de Egüés Flanders: |
Caribbean: Spain: Robert Blake Richard Stayner Flanders: Vicomte de Turenne |
Wars of Interregnum England |
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The Anglo-Spanish War was a conflict between the English Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell, and Spain, between 1654 and 1660. It was caused by commercial rivalry. Each side attacked the other's commercial and colonial interests in various ways such as privateering and naval expeditions. In 1655, an English amphibious expedition invaded Spanish territory in the Caribbean. In 1657, England formed an alliance with France, merging the Anglo–Spanish war with the larger Franco-Spanish War resulting in major land actions that took place in the Spanish Netherlands.
Although the war was terminated after
Background
When the
During the first year of the Protectorate, Cromwell conducted negotiations with the French statesman Cardinal Mazarin, resulting in the drafting of an Anglo-French alliance against Spain in October 1655. The alliance had an added benefit: France, which was currently offering refuge to the Stuarts, would now be disinclined to assist them in reclaiming the English throne.
War
Western Design
Meanwhile, Cromwell had already launched the Western Design against Spain's colonies in the
Although Cromwell had previously been interested in the possible acquisition of Hispaniola island, the expedition's commanders were given the freedom to determine their own priorities in the circumstances they faced on arrival. Several options were considered, including a landing on the coast of Guatemala or on Cuba. Both were discounted, as Penn and Venables decided to attempt to repeat Drake's attack on Santo Domingo on Hispaniola. However, the 1655 Siege of Santo Domingo failed because the Spanish had improved their defences in the face of Dutch attacks earlier in the century. Cromwell, on the other hand, saw the Hispaniola defeat as God's judgement.[2] Despite various subsequent successes, the defeat made the whole operation against the Spanish West Indies a general failure. Venables and Penn were imprisoned therefore in the Tower of London on their arrival on England.[3][4]
Jamaica was the
In April 1656 English Admiral Robert Blake with a fleet of around forty warships, fireships and supply vessels sailed to
In February 1657, Blake received intelligence that the plate fleet from New Spain was on its way across the Atlantic. Leaving two ships to watch Cadiz, Blake sailed from there to attack the plate fleet, which had docked at Santa Cruz on Tenerife in the Canary Islands to await an escort to Spain. In April in the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Blake completely destroyed the Spanish merchant convoy—the West Indian Fleet—however, the fleet had landed the bullion before the battle.[9] Blake was unable to seize it, but it was also unavailable to the government in Madrid.
The short-term effect of Blake's blockade of Spain and his victory at Santa Cruz was the disruption of the Spanish economy, which depended upon silver and gold from the Americas and thereby damaged Spain's capacity for waging war.[10][11] The English lost 1,500 to 2,000 merchant ships to Spanish privateers and instead of using captured English ships to replace their destroyed convoys, the Spanish government placed the care of Spanish trade in the hands of neutral Dutch merchantmen.[12]
Flanders
An Anglo-French alliance against Spain was established when the
The combined Anglo-French army for the invasion of Flanders was commanded by the great French Marshal
The
Restoration
The war between France and Spain ended with the signing of the
Aftermath
England and Spain had both suffered heavy economic losses; the latter suffered mainly from Blake's blockade of Cadiz. The effect of this, particularly with the action off Cadiz and at Santa Cruz, was the disruption of the Spanish economy, which depended upon silver and gold from the Americas.[17][18] This added to the difficulties of Philip's IV's overstretched armies, who for years had been campaigning simultaneously in Italy, the Pyrenees, Flanders and Portugal.[17] The Spanish answered with a privateering campaign that all but wiped out English shipping trade.[19][20][21] Consequently, the Dutch enjoyed a recovery from the losses they had suffered in the first Anglo-Dutch war and took much trade from the English.[22][23][24] Nevertheless, with the victory of the first Anglo-Dutch war and the successes in the war against Spain, England had done enough to establish itself as one of Europe's leading naval powers.[25]
Spain demanded the return of possessions taken by Cromwell's republic, which Charles had been willing to agree to. This soon changed however as Charles had become frustrated with Philip's failure to aid in his restoration. Only a week after war had ended Charles annulled the Brussels treaty and allowed English parliament to annex England's holdings (Jamaica, Dunkirk and Mardyck) despite Spanish protests. At the same time Charles sought a treaty with Spain so that England's holdings could be recognised but the terms for Spain were too harsh and there was hope that the latter would recapture Jamaica in a military campaign. In order to increase his finances Charles sold Dunkirk to Louis XIV of France in November 1662 – though less than £300,000 of the promised half million was ever paid.[26]
Anglo-Portuguese alliance
In 1662, Charles made a
In 1664 England through Sir Richard Fanshawe sought to adjust a peace between the Portuguese and Spanish crowns and then between England and Spain but to no avail. At the Battle of Montes Claros a year later another Spanish invasion was decisively defeated so much so that it ended major combat operations during the war which definitively secured Portuguese independence from Spain.[27]
Caribbean privateers
The war's Caribbean component raged on much longer.[28] With Jamaica annexed the purpose of the Western Design (although failed in its primary objective of capturing the island of Hispaniola[29]) survived the Protectorate itself, later to be revived in the raids ordered under the behest of the Jamaican governor Thomas Modyford.[30] Modyford's pretexts for licensing the buccaneers was his suspicion that Jamaica would never be secure until the Spanish government acknowledged England's possession of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands and having it named in a treaty.[31] The resulting privateer raids on the Spanish Main over the next ten years were devastating. Christopher Myngs raided Santiago de Cuba in 1662 and Campeche the following year. Henry Morgan later took over - his most notable attacks were on Portobello in 1668 and the defeat of a Spanish squadron on Lake Maracaibo the following year. The Spanish meanwhile could do little to protect themselves.[32]
In response
Madrid treaties
Spain during this time was politically, economically and militarily weakened by the decades of war and infighting.[28] Charles II saw ideal opportunities for two eventual peace treaties signed at Madrid, both of which were favourable to England.[35] Firstly the 1667 treaty was received with great satisfaction by English statesmen and merchants in terms of trade. With Portugal's restoration secure the British Brigade was subsequently disbanded but England's holdings in the Caribbean were left unsettled. Nevertheless, it was a big step for peace between the two kingdoms.[36]
Three years later at the next Madrid treaty, Spain finally ceded Jamaica and the Cayman Islands to Britain which was a major concession and a humiliation for Spain.[28] English ships were also able to roam the Caribbean Sea without hindrance and for the first time were not seen in the West Indies as intruders or as pirates.[37] Controversially the news did not arrive in time to prevent Henry Morgan's Panama expedition from plundering and burning Panama in 1671. Despite Spanish protests and his arrest, Morgan went unpunished claiming he had not known about the treaty.[34]
England and Spain would be allies during the next large European conflict the
See also
Notes
- ^ Lord Wentworth's Regiment served as part of the Spanish Army.
- ^ Rodger 2005, p. 29.
- ^ Rodger 2005, p. 24.
- ^ a b Coward 2002, p. 134.
- ^ Hart 1922, p. 44.
- ^ Marx, Robert F (1967). Pirate Port: The Story of the Sunken City of Port Royal. World Publishing Company. p. 38.
- ^ Harding, Charles (1909). The last years of the Protectorate, 1656–1658, Volume 1 The Last Years of the Protectorate, 1656–1658. Longmans, Green. p. 48.
- ^ Richmond, Herbert William (1953). The Navy as an Instrument of Policy: 1558–1727. University Press. p. 134.
- ^ Rodger 2005, p. 28.
- ^ Holberton p. 134
- ^ Manganiello p. 481
- ^ Barratt pp. 187–88
- ^ Gardiner 1901, p. 467.
- ^ Hutton 2000, p. 468.
- ^ Rommelse 2006, p. 21
- ^ Davenport pp. 57-59
- ^ a b Barratt 2006, p. 183.
- ^ Firth 1909, p. 57.
- ^ Harding 1999, p. 78.
- ^ "Commerce was depressed because of the armed conflicts and the burden became too heavy to bear" (Rommelse 2006, p. 21).
- ^ "The main effect of the war was to disrupt what remained of English commerce" (Nolan 2008, p. 12).
- ^ "About 1,000 English ships were lost as against some 400 captured by the English." (Cooper 1979, p. 236)
- ^ Rommelse 2006, p. 21.
- ISBN 978-0198730729.
- ^ Cooper 1979, p. 237.
- S2CID 144839201.
- ^ a b McMurdo pp. 419–420
- ^ a b c Pestana p. 185
- ^ "He advocated the capture of Hispaniola and Cuba as a first step, and after that, the conquest of Central America, which he considered would be completed in two years" (Taylor 1969, p. 5).
- ^ "the newly acquired Caribbean island of Jamaica would later become one of the United Kingdom's most valuable possessions for more than 150 years" (Barratt 2006, p. 202).
- ^ Gardiner 2007, p. 187.
- ^ Pestana p. 182
- ^ Paxman 2011, pp. 19–20.
- ^ a b Francis 2006, p. 663.
- ^ Davenport & Paulin pp. 98–99, 188–89
- ^ Andrien and Kuethe pp. 50–52
- ^ Fisher, Margaret Anne; Savelle, Max (1967). The origins of American diplomacy: the international history of Angloamerica, 1492–1763 American diplomatic history series Authors. Macmillan. pp. 66–67.
References
- Andrien, Kenneth J; Kuethe, Allan J (2014). The Spanish Atlantic World in the Eighteenth Century: War and the Bourbon Reforms, 1713–1796. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1107043572.
- Barratt, John (2006). Cromwell's Wars at Sea. Barnsley. ISBN 1844154599.
- Cooper, J. P. (1979). The New Cambridge Modern History: Volume 4, The Decline of Spain and the Thirty Years War, 1609–48/49. CUP Archive. ISBN 978-0521297134.
- Coward, Barry (2002). The Cromwellian Protectorate. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0719043178.
- Francis, John Michael (2006). Iberia and the Americas: Culture, Politics and History: a Multidisciplinary Encyclopaedia, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1851094219.
- Firth, Charles (1909). The Last Years of the Protectorate, 1656–1658. Vol. 1. Longmans, Green; New York.
- Gardiner, Frances Davenport (2007). European Treaties Bearing on the History of the United States and Its Dependencies to 1648. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-0548568958.
- Holberton, Edward (2008). Poetry and the Cromwellian Protectorate: Culture, Politics, and Institutions. OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0199544585.
- Gardiner, Samuel Rawson (1901). History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1649–1660. Longmans, Green.
- Harding, Richard (1999). Seapower and naval warfare, 1650–1830. Naval Institute Press.
- Hart, Francis Russel (1922). Admirals of the Caribbean. Boston.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Hutton, Ronald (2000). The British Republic 1649–1660 (2nd ed.). Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke.
- Israel, J. I. (1995). The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall, 1477–1806. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198730729.
- Manganiello, Stephen C (2004). The Concise Encyclopedia of the Revolutions and Wars of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1639–1660. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0810851009.
- McMurdo, Edward (2010). The History of Portugal – From the Reign of D. Joao II. to the Reign of D. Joao V. Volume III. Read Books Design. ISBN 978-1444695694.
- Nolan, Cathal J. (2008). Wars of the age of Louis XIV, 1650–1715: an encyclopedia of global warfare and civilization. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0313330469.
- ISBN 978-0670919574.
- Pestana, Carla Gardina (2017). The English Conquest of Jamaica: Oliver Cromwell's Bid for Empire. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674737310.
- Rodger, N.A.M. (2005). The Command of the Ocean. New York. ISBN 0393060500.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - Rommelse, Gijs (2006). The Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–1667): raison d'état, mercantilism and maritime strife. Uitgeverij Verloren. ISBN 978-9065509079.
- Taylor, Stanley Arthur Goodwin (1969). The Western design: an account of Cromwell's expedition to the Caribbean. Solstice Productions. ISBN 978-0901814029.
Further reading
- Fraser, Antonia (1909). Cromwell, Our Chief of Men. Phoenix; New Ed edition. ISBN 978-0-7538-1331-7.
- Israel, Jonathan (1997). Conflicts of empires: Spain, the low countries and the struggle for world supremacy, 1585–1713. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-85285-161-3.
- Leathes, Stanley (1906). "Chapter XXI Mazarin". In Ward, Adolphus W. (ed.). The Thirty Years' War. The Cambridge Modern History. Vol. 4. Cambridge University Press – via Mannheimer Texte Online.
- Plant, David. "The Anglo-Spanish War 1655–1660". British Civil Wars, Commonwealth and Protectorate website. Archived from the original on 2 November 2008. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
- Plowden, Alison (2006). In a Free Republic. Sutton Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7509-1883-1.
- Maland, David (1991). Europe in the Seventeenth Century (Second ed.). Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-33574-0.
- Staff (20 November 2006). "1657: The Rough Guide to Europe". The Scotsman. Edinburgh. Archived from the original on 28 March 2007. Retrieved 18 May 2007.
- Sutton, Paul (2021). The Anglo-Spanish War, 1655–1660: War in the West Indies (Vol. 1). Helion Books.
- Sutton, Paul (2021). The Anglo-Spanish War, 1655–1660: War in Jamaica (Vol. 2). Helion Books.