Most people who know even a little about the American Revolution know that it was won
with crucial assistance from the French. There were as many French troops at the Battle of
Yorktown as there were Americans. Yorktown resulted in the surrender of a British army
commanded by Lord Cornwallis in 1781, the defeat which effectively gained American
independence. Cornwallis had been isolated when a French fleet defeated a British fleet and
closed off the Chesapeake Bay, preventing the British from either reinforcing or evacuating
Yorktown.
Spain never formally allied with the American rebels, but was an ally of France, and
declared war on Britain in 1779.
The political geography of that time is often forgotten. France had been thrown out of
mainland North America, defeated in what we Americans call The French and Indian War.
Britain took over the French territory in Canada (Britain already controlled the Hudson’s Bay
region and Nova Scotia). The French claimed the region between the Mississippi River and the
Rocky Mountains, and in 1763 by treaty turned it over to Spain. Spain ruled New Orleans and
everything west of the Mississippi until 1803. It’s the region later called the Louisiana Purchase.
Few Americans are aware that the British ruled Florida. In 1763, the British had invaded
Cuba, taking control of Havana. Spain traded Florida to the British to get Havana back. Florida
then extended to the east bank of the Mississippi, which is how the British came to control
Pensacola (now in Florida), Mobile (now in Alabama) and Baton Rouge (now in Louisiana).
That control also meant the possibility of a British attack up the Mississippi and its major
tributary, the Ohio. That could have led to a British offensive on the American frontier and
strategic places such as the important fort at what is now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
There is some irony in both Spain and France aiding the American rebels. Both France
and Spain were ruled by authoritarian regimes headed by kings and repressed any urges toward
democracy and rebellion at home. But aiding the American rebels was seen as a way to weaken
their archenemy, Britain. Spain did not send troops to join the fighting, like the French did, but
was an important supplier. In 1776 Spain set up a “trading company” Rodrigues Hortalez, that
was a cover for supplying the Americans. The Spanish government made loans to the Americans,
which actually went to the company to purchase a wide range of supplies. Most were shipped to
Spanish controlled New Orleans for shipment upriver. This was a very large operation. In 1776,
Spain shipped 216 cannons, 30,000 muskets with bayonets, 30,000 uniforms and 300,000 pounds
of gunpowder to Havana and then on to New Orleans.
Spanish supplies also arrived in ports like Philadelpja and Boston (New York City
remained in British hands during most of the war). Spain allowed American ships to use Havana
and to buy supplies there. Spanish blankets and Spanish muskets predominated at Valley Forge,
where George Washington and some advisers (such as the German von Steuben) were creating a
professional force, the Continental Army.
But Spain did more. There was a sizable British garrison at Pensacola, and smaller ones
at Mobile and at a place called Manchac near the Mississippi. After Spain declared war on
Britain in 1779, the governor of Louisiana, Bernardo de Galvez, organized a small army and
fleet, and systematically attacked the British forts on the Gulf Coast. The battles that ensued
were not large, but Galvez took control of Manchac, Baton Rouge and Mobile. He then attacked
the much larger fort at Pensacola, and after a siege, the British surrendered. These defeats
prevented the British from any kind of attack up the river, and it assured that the weapons and
supplies sent upriver to the Americans would not be intercepted by the British. Spanish supplies
were crucial to the campaigns of the American George Rogers Clark, whose success gained the
rebels most of the Great Lakes country (what is now the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Michigan and Wisconsin).
There was more, Galvez had turned out to be an energetic governor and fine field officer.
He began to organize a large force intended to attack Jamaica, then an exceedingly valuable
British colony, a major producer of sugar and of British wealth. Protecting Jamaica from a
Spanish attack meant that the British forces in Jamaica could not be used to reinforce British
armies fighting the rebels, and required a substantial naval force as well, warships that could not
be used in blockading the colonies. Galvez’ attack never happened, and the effort was stymied by
hurricanes, but it bought time for the Americans.
A further important kind of assistance was related to the climactic Yorktown battle. The
US was out of money to pay Washington’s soldiers and to buy food. A French appeal to the
citizens of Havana produced a very large sum of money in just 24 hours, which a French ship
carried to Yorktown. The soldiers were paid and fed, and with the surrender, 8,000 British troops
became prisoners of war (some of the troops were German—the British hired about 30,000
German troops for the war, usually called Hessians).
The war in Europe was much larger in scale, and the Spanish besieged the British at
Gibraltar, and did recover the Mediterranean island of Menorca, which had been British-
controlled for almost a century. The war in Europe also meant that the British never could use
their full strength to fight the American rebels. Defending the homeland required the majority of
British troops and most of the Royal Navy.
Spain’s assistance was important to the American cause, although French support was
larger in scale. Without French and Spanish assistance, it’s very likely that the Americans would
have lost the war. And it’s likely that many of the American leaders we Americans consider our
founders, such as Franklin, Washington, Jefferson and others would have been hanged in London
for treason against the king.
Spain regained Florida and retained it until the American general Andrew Jackson in
effect annexed in in 1818, with the formal cession in 1821. Galveston, Texas, is named after
Bernardo de Galvez, although few Texans and few Americans today know that the Spanish
general was crucially important in the American Revolution.
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