After successfully capturing the British positions in Louisiana and Mississippi, Spanish General Bernardo de Galvez, commander of the Spanish forces in North America, turned his attention to the British-occupied town of Pensacola, Florida on March 9, 1781. General Galvez and a Spaniard The naval force of over 40 ships and 3,500 men landed on Santa Rosa Island and began a two-month siege of the British occupation forces which would become the Battle of Pensacola.
Galvez’s flotilla survived a hurricane in the harbor before embarking on two months of constant artillery and cannon bombardment on British forts. By April 23, reinforcements had arrived, increasing Galvez’s total strength to 7,800, and on the morning of May 8, 1781, the 18-year British occupation of Pensacola, Florida ended in a British surrender. The British lost 105 men; the Spaniards lost 78. 198 other Spaniards were injured. Spain took 1,113 prisoners and sent 300 Britons to Georgia on the promise not to return to the British army.
Spain never officially signed an alliance with the American revolutionaries, as King Charles III was hesitant about the precedent that he could start by encouraging the people of another empire to overthrow their monarch. However, Spain also wanted to regain Gibraltar in the Mediterranean and consolidate control over its North American holdings, so it allied with France in the international war against Britain. As a result, Spain regained West Florida during the fighting and East Florida, which it traded for the Bahamas, in final peace. Although Gibraltar remained under British control, Spain held all of the land surrounding the Gulf of Mexico.
READ MORE: How St. Augustine Florida Became America’s First European Colony
