Spanish Naval Strategy and the United States, 1763–1819

Abstract

This article examines the naval strategies conceived by the Spanish government to deal with Anglo-American expansion in North America. The political, social and diplomatic aspects of this process have been thoroughly approached by historiography. However, its impact on Spanish naval policy has received little attention. After the Louisiana purchase, the Spanish navy made a plan for a full-scale war against the United States, involving battlefleet action, blockade, amphibious operations and guerre de course. The War of the Third Coalition prevented it from taking place, and the Napoleonic invasion of 1808 practically obliterated the Spanish Navy. After the restoration of the Spanish Monarchy there were renewed tensions with the United States, and in 1816 the project was redrawn, albeit on a more modest scale. This article examines the contents of the war plans in detail, in order to understand the objectives of Spanish grand strategy and the manner in which naval forces were to be employed. Also, it aims at understanding the intellectual origins of the ideas expressed by the authors of these plans. Finally, it aims to underline the consequences that the failure to implement an effective diplomatic, military and naval strategy had for Spain's position in North America.

Key words:

• naval strategy
• Spain
• United States
• War of the Third Coalition
• Napoleonic wars
• Louisiana
• Spanish navy
• Seven Years War
• Enrique Reynaldo Macdonnell y de Gondé

Notes

1 Griffin, The United States and the Disruption of the Spanish Empire; Graham, Empire of the North Atlantic; De Conde, Entangling Alliance; Ruigómez de Hernández, El Gobierno español; Cussik, The Other War of 1812; Hernández Franco, La gestión política.

2 Martínez Valverde, La marina; Batista, La estrategia española en América; Castillo Manrubia, La marina de guerra; José Cervera Pery La marina española en la emancipación de Hispanoamérica; Pérez Turrado La marina española; Pérez Turrado, Las marinas patriota; Alzina Torrente, Una guerra romántica; Rodríguez González, ‘Les objectifs de la marine espagnole’.

3 De Conde, Entangling Alliance, 25.

4 Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid (hereafter AHN), Sección Estado, MS 4224.

5 Hernández Franco, La gestión política, 335.

6 AHN, Sección Estado, MS 2841, 13 Jan. 1779.

7 Martínez Shaw, ‘Participación de la Armada española’, 75–80.

8 Hernández Franco, La gestión política, 349.

9 Cussik, The Other War of 1812, 42.

10 On this subject, see: Bonnel, La France, Les États-Unis et la guerre de course; De Conde, The Quasi-War; Palmer, Stoddert's War; Crowhurst,, The French War on Trade.

11 Museo Naval de Madrid (hereafter MNM), MS 315, doc. 16.

12 Cussik, The Other War of 1812, 18.

13 MNM, MS. 435, doc. 1.

14 Shiftlet, America's Line of Battle.

15 Sumida, Inventing Grand Strategy, 23, 43.

16 MNM, MS 1409–bis, doc. 12, 21 Jun. 1816.

17 On insurgent privateering and its relation with the United States, see: Winkler Bealer, Los corsarios de Buenos Aires; Faye, ‘Commodore Aury’; Currier, Los cruceros del ‘General San Martín’; Géigel Sabat, Corsarios y piratas de Puerto Rico; Long, Nothing Too Daring; Díaz, Luis Brión; Worcester, El poder naval; Samayoa Guevara, La presencia de Luis Aury; Ferro, Vida de Luis Aury; Beraza, Los corsarios de Artigas; Hartog, Almirante Luís Brion; Alzola de Cvitanovic, Los corsarios; Bidwell, The First Mexican Navy; Grummond, Renato Beluche; Arguindeguy and Rodríguez, El corso rioplatense; Grafenstein Gareis, ‘Patriotas y piratas’; Grafenstein Gareis, ‘Insurgencia y contrainsurgencia’; Laffitte, Histoire des côtes colombiennes; Davis, The Pirates Laffite; Gámez Duarte, Del uno al otro confín.

18 Gámez Duarte, Del uno al otro confín, 199–200.

19 MNM, MS 1409–bis, doc. 12, 28 Jun. 1816, 5 July 1816; MNM, MS 435, doc. 1, 4 Aug. 1816.

20 MNM, MS 1409–bis, doc. 12, 26 Jul. 1816.

21 Ibid., 2 Aug. 1816 and 14 Sep. 1816.

22 MNM, MS 1409–bis, doc. 12.

23 MNM, MS 1409–bis, doc. 12, 27 Jun. 1816.

24 Ibid., 17 Oct. 1816.

25 MNM, MS 1409–bis, doc. 12.

26 MNM, MS 1409–bis, doc. 12, 1 Nov. 1816.

27 Ibid., 15 Nov. 1816.

28 Ibid., 22 Nov. 1816.

29 On this subject, see Fontana, La quiebra de la monarquía absoluta; García Baquero, Comercio colonial y guerras revolucionarias; Teijeiro de La Rosa, La Real Hacienda Militar; Costeloe, La respuesta a la independencia; Malamud, Sin marina, sin tesoro y casi sin soldados.

30 Malamud, Sin marina, sin tesoro y casi sin soldados, 44–7.

31 On this subject, see Alemparte Guerrero, ‘La escuadra rusa vendida’; Anca Alamillo, ‘Historia de la armada española’.

32 Hernández Díaz, Baltasar Hidalgo.

33 Anca Alamillo, ‘Historia de la armada española’, 39–40.

34 Ibid., 46–61.

35 Morgan, ‘Sea Power in the Gulf of Mexico’, 106–22.

Additional information

Ivan Valdez-Bubnov PhD (Cantab) is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Historical Research, National Autonomous University of Mexico (Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México). He has previously published on Spanish naval shipbuilding policy and administration in the age of sail, and teaches military historiography at graduate and undergraduate levels.