The Anglo-Spanish War was fought between 1796 and 1802, and again from 1804 to 1808, as part of the
Coalition Wars. The war ended when an alliance was signed between Great Britain and Spain, which was now under
French invasion.
Background
In the
War of the First Coalition
The War of the First Coalition (french: Guerre de la Première Coalition) was a set of wars that several European powers fought between 1792 and 1797 initially against the constitutional Kingdom of France and then the French Republic that suc ...
, Spain declared
war on the newly formed French Republic, and joined the Coalition in attempting to restore the Bourbon Monarchy. The main Spanish general was
Antonio Ricardos, who failed to secure a decisive victory, despite initial successes. French forces elsewhere quickly overran the
Austrian Netherlands
The Austrian Netherlands nl, Oostenrijkse Nederlanden; french: Pays-Bas Autrichiens; german: Österreichische Niederlande; la, Belgium Austriacum. was the territory of the Burgundian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire between 1714 and 1797. The pe ...
after the
Battle of Fleurus, and the
Dutch Republic
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands ( Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiograph ...
collapsed under huge pressure. The Spanish were having similarly bad times. The Spanish navy did little, with the exception of combining with the British and participating in the
Siege of Toulon
The siege of Toulon (29 August – 19 December 1793) was a military engagement that took place during the Federalist revolts of the French Revolutionary Wars. It was undertaken by Republican forces against Royalist rebels supported by Anglo-S ...
.
Following the
Battle of the Black Mountain, the French Republic gained a huge advantage, and by 1795, the
Peace of Basel was signed, forcing the Kingdom of Spain and the
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. ...
to exit the Coalition. In 1796, encouraged by massive French gains in the
Rhine campaign and the
Italian campaign, Spanish prime minister
Manuel Godoy
Manuel Godoy y Álvarez de Faria, Prince of the Peace, 1st Duke of Alcudia, 1st Duke of Sueca, 1st Baron of Mascalbó (12 May 17674 October 1851) was First Secretary of State of Spain from 1792 to 1797 and from 1801 to 1808. He received many ...
signed the
Second Treaty of San Ildefonso, establishing a Franco-Spanish alliance and common war against Great Britain. The hope was that victorious France would also win over land and money for Spain, particularly against Spain's then main naval threat, Britain. The alliance continued the longstanding cooperation between France and Spain established by the
Pacte de Famille in 1733, broken only by the French Revolution.
War
1796–1802
The war was damaging for Spain and for the Spanish Crown's revenues, with the British blockade greatly reducing the amount of wealth arriving from the colonies. A main Spanish fleet, under
José de Córdoba y Ramos, had 27
ships of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colu ...
, however, and planned to link with the French and protect coveys of valuable goods. The British Mediterranean fleet had 15 ships of the line—heavily outnumbered by Franco-Spanish threats, forcing a retreat from
Corsica
Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...
and
Elba
Elba ( it, isola d'Elba, ; la, Ilva) is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino on the Italian mainland, and the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is also part of the Arcipelago Toscano Nationa ...
by 1797. However, the Spanish Navy proved incapable of coordinating with its French Republican allies, and was heavily defeated at the
Battle of Cape St. Vincent. This left Spain in a disadvantaged position at sea for the rest of the war, even if they repulsed two British assaults on
Cádiz
Cádiz (, , ) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight that make up the autonomous community of Andalusia.
Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, ...
and
Tenerife
Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the Archipelago, archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitant ...
and a later
British expedition to Ferrol.
The war extended to the Pacific, where in early 1797 the Spanish captured a number of British merchantmen and
whaling ships
A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales.
Terminology
The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Ja ...
.
Also in 1797, the British
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sou ...
(EIC) at
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, commer ...
chartered a number of
East Indiamen and local vessels to serve as transports for a planned attack on Manila. However, the Government cancelled the invasion following a peace treaty with Spain and the EIC released the vessels it had engaged.
1804–1808
The
Treaty of Amiens
The Treaty of Amiens (french: la paix d'Amiens, ) temporarily ended hostilities between France and the United Kingdom at the end of the War of the Second Coalition. It marked the end of the French Revolutionary Wars; after a short peace it s ...
in 1802 provided for a temporary truce in hostilities, only to be broken in 1804 when, by surprise and without declaration of war,
British ships attacked a Spanish squadron of
frigate
A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat.
The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed an ...
s that was carrying gold and silver bullion to
Cádiz
Cádiz (, , ) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight that make up the autonomous community of Andalusia.
Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, ...
. Spanish frigate ''
Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes
(''Our Lady of Mercy'' in English, a title of the Virgin Mary) was a Spanish Navy frigate which was sunk by the British off the south coast of Portugal on 5 October 1804 during the Battle of Cape Santa Maria.
Loss
At the time of the naval ...
'' blew up and the British captured the rest.
The French planned an invasion of Britain in the coming year; the Spanish fleet was to be an integral part in assisting this invasion. At the
Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (1 ...
, in 1805, a combined Franco-Spanish fleet, attempting to join forces with the French fleets in the north for the invasion, were attacked by a British fleet and lost in a decisive engagement. The British victory ended the immediate threat of an invasion of Britain by Napoleon. It also seriously shook the resolve of the unpopular Godoy-led Spanish government, which began to doubt the utility of its uncertain alliance with Napoleon. Meanwhile, a
British campaign (1806–1807) to conquer the strategically important
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata (, "river of silver"), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and fo ...
region in Spanish South America met with failure.
Godoy withdrew from the
Continental System
The Continental Blockade (), or Continental System, was a large-scale embargo against British trade by Napoleon Bonaparte against the British Empire from 21 November 1806 until 11 April 1814, during the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon issued the Berli ...
that Napoleon had devised to combat Britain, only to join it again in 1807, after Napoleon had defeated the Prussians. Napoleon, however, had lost his faith in Godoy and Spanish King
Charles IV. There was also growing support in Spain for the king's son,
Ferdinand, who opposed the widely despised Godoy. Ferdinand, however, favoured an alliance with Britain, and Napoleon had always doubted the trustworthiness of any Bourbon royalty.
Aftermath
In 1807, France and Spain invaded Portugal, and, on 1 December, Lisbon was captured with no military opposition. In the beginning of 1808, the French presence in Spain was so dominating that it led to revolt. Napoleon then removed King Charles and his son Ferdinand to
Bayonne
Bayonne (; eu, Baiona ; oc, label= Gascon, Baiona ; es, Bayona) is a city in Southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine r ...
and forced them both to abdicate on 5 May, giving the throne to his brother
Joseph
Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the m ...
. This led to the
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spai ...
and the de facto end of the Anglo-Spanish War, as
George Canning
George Canning (11 April 17708 August 1827) was a British Tory statesman. He held various senior cabinet positions under numerous prime ministers, including two important terms as Foreign Secretary, finally becoming Prime Minister of the Uni ...
,
foreign secretary
The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwe ...
of His Majesty's Government, declared:
:''"No longer remember that war has existed between Spain and Great Britain. Every nation which resists the exorbitant power of France becomes immediately, and whatever may have been its previous relations with us, the natural ally of Great Britain."''
[Foy, p. 213]
With this, the Bourbon Government of Spain, along with any
Juntas
A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer.
The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...
claiming to represent it, became allies of Britain, as the Peninsular War developed.
Notes
References
* Esdaile, Charles. "Latin America and the Anglo-Spanish Alliance against Napoleon, 1808-14." ''Bulletin of Hispanic Studies'' 69.1 (1992): 55+.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anglo-Spanish War (1796-1808)
1790s conflicts
1800s conflicts
19th-century military history of the United Kingdom
Napoleonic Wars
Spain–United Kingdom military relations
Conflicts in 1796
Conflicts in 1808
Anglo-Spanish wars
Military history of Great Britain