Spain actively supported the Thirteen Colonies throughout the American Revolutionary War, beginning in 1776 by jointly funding
Roderigue Hortalez and Company, a trading company that provided critical military supplies, through financing the final
Siege of Yorktown in 1781 with a collection of gold and silver in
Havana,
Cuba. Spain was allied with France through the
Bourbon Family Compact, and also viewed the Revolution as an opportunity to weaken the
British Empire, which had caused Spain substantial losses during the
Seven Years' War. As the newly appointed Prime Minister,
José Moñino y Redondo, Count of Floridablanca, wrote in March of 1777, "the fate of the colonies interests us very much, and we shall do for them everything that circumstances permit".
Aid to the Colonies: 1776–1778
Spanish aid was supplied to the colonies through four main routes: from French ports with the funding of Roderigue 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.
Smuggling from New Orleans began in 1776, when General
Charles Lee sent two
Continental Army (the army of the Thirteen Colonies) officers to request supplies from the New Orleans Governor,
Luis de Unzaga. Unzaga, concerned about overtly antagonizing the British before the Spanish were prepared for war,...
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