Spain and the American Revolutionary War

Spain, through its alliance with France and as part of its conflict with Britain, played a role in the independence of the United States. Spain declared war on Britain as an ally of France, itself an ally of the American colonies. Most notably, Spanish forces attacked British positions in the south and captured West Florida from Britain in the siege of Pensacola. This secured the southern route for supplies and closed off the possibility of any British offensive through the western frontier of the United States via the Mississippi River. Spain also provided money, supplies, and munitions to the American forces.

Beginning in 1776, it jointly funded

Spanish aid was supplied to the new nation through four main routes: from French ports with the funding of Rodrigue Hortalez and Company, through the port of New Orleans and up the Mississippi River, from the warehouses in Havana, and from Bilbao, through the Gardoqui family trading company. Spain made loans to the United States to be used to furnish war supplies through the House of Gardoqui, which "supplied the patriots with 215 bronze cannon – 30,000 muskets – 30,000 bayonets – 512,314 musket balls – 300,000 pounds of powder – 12,868 grenades – 30,000 uniforms – and 4,000 field tents during the war."^[3]

Smuggling from New Orleans began in 1776 when General

The former Spanish Diplomat and then-Ambassador to the French Court, Jerónimo Grimaldi, 1st Duke of Grimaldi, summarized the Spanish position in a letter to Arthur Lee, an American diplomat in Madrid who was trying to persuade the Spanish to declare an open alliance with the fledgling United States. Genoese by birth and a shrewdly calculating politician by nature, Grimaldi demurred, replying, "You have considered your own situation, and not ours. The moment is not yet come for us. The war with Portugal – France being unprepared, and our cargo ships from South America not having arrived – makes it improper for us to declare immediately."^[11] Meanwhile, Grimaldi reassured Lee, stores of clothing and powder were deposited at New Orleans and Havana for the Americans, and further shipments of blankets were being collected at Bilbao.

By June 1779 the Spanish had finalized their preparations for war. The British cause seemed to be at a particularly low ebb. The Spanish joined France in the war, implementing the Treaty of Aranjuez signed in April 1779.

European waters

The main goals of Spain were the recovery of

In the

At the end of the Seven Years' War, France gave the Mississippi Valley to her ally Spain, in order to prevent it from coming under British control at the Treaty of Paris (1763).^[17] The Spanish assisted the United States in their campaigns in the American Midwest. In January 1778, Virginia Governor Patrick Henry authorized an expedition by George Rogers Clark, who captured the fort at Vincennes and secured the northern region of the Ohio for the rebels. Clark relied on Gálvez and Oliver Pollock for support to supply his men with weapons and ammunition, and to provide credit for provisions. The credit lines that Pollock established to purchase supplies for Clark were supposed to be backed by the state of Virginia. However, Pollock in turn had to rely on his own personal credit and Gálvez, who allowed the funds of the Spanish government to be at Pollock's disposal as loans. These funds were usually delivered in the cover of night by Gálvez's private secretary.^[18]

The Spanish garrisons in the

The Spanish also assisted in the siege of Yorktown in 1781, the critical and final major battle of the North America theater. French General Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, commanding his country's forces in North America, sent a desperate appeal to François Joseph Paul de Grasse, the French admiral designated to assist the Colonists, asking him to raise money in the Caribbean to fund the campaign at Yorktown. With the assistance of Spanish agent Francisco Saavedra de Sangronis, the needed cash, over 500,000 in silver pesos, was raised in Havana, Cuba within 24 hours. This money was used to purchase critical supplies for the siege, and to fund the payroll for the Continental Army.^[19]

Antilles War

After Spain entered the war, Major General

Nelson was one of the first to become ill, and he was shipped downriver on April 28, the day before the Spanish surrendered the fort. About 450 British reinforcements arrived on May 15, but the blacks and the Indians abandoned the expedition because of illness and discontent. Although Dalling persisted in trying to gather reinforcements, a sickness continued to take a heavy toll, and the expedition was abandoned on November 8, 1780. The Spanish reoccupied the remains of the fort after the British blew it upon departure. In all, more than 2,500 men died, which "made the San Juan expedition the costliest British disaster of the entire war."[22]

Following these successes, an unauthorized Spanish force captured the Bahamas in 1782, without a battle. In 1783 Gálvez was preparing to invade Jamaica from Cuba, but these plans were aborted when Britain sued for peace.

Peace of Paris

The reforms made by Spanish authorities as a result of Spain's poor performance in the Seven Years' War had proved generally successful. As a result, Spain retained Menorca and West Florida in the Treaty of Paris and also regained East Florida. The lands east of the Mississippi, however, were recognized as part of the newly independent United States of America.^[23]

Contribution to victory

The involvement of France was decisive in the British defeat. Spain's contribution was important too.

Although she was attracted by the prospect of a war [against England] for restitution and revenge, she was repelled by the specter of an independent and powerful American republic. Such a new state might reach over the Alleghenies into the Mississippi Valley and grasp territory that Spain wanted for herself. Even worse, it might eventually seize Spain's colonies in the New World.[25]

Aftermath

Spain's involvement in the

The war gave a boost to the kingdom's prestige, which had suffered from the losses to Britain in the Seven Years' War. Even though Spain's single most coveted target, Gibraltar, remained out of its grasp, Spain had more than compensated by recovering Menorca and by reducing the British threat to its colonies in and around the Caribbean, all of which were seen as vital to Spanish interests.

Spain was seen to have received tangible results out of the war, especially in contrast to its ally France. The French king had invested huge amounts of manpower, funds and material resources for little clear military or economic gain. France had been left with crippling debts which it struggled to pay off, and which would become one of the major causes of the French Revolution that broke out in 1789. Spain, in comparison, disposed of its debts more easily, partly due to the stunning increases in silver production from the mines in Mexico and Bolivia.^[26]

One particular outcome of the war was the manner in which it enhanced the position of Prime Minister Floridablanca, and his government continued to dominate Spanish politics until 1792.