Tema: Spain's Contribution to the American War for Independence.

Spain's Contribution to the American War for Independence

George Washington, as did many in the Continental Congress, considered the entry of Spain into the war to be the deciding factor that would secure American independence from Britain. It seems that, in many ways, the Americans had more trust in Spain than in France- even if Spanish assistance proved harder to secure because King Carlos III and his ministers had their own far-sighted agenda to pursue- to maintain Spanish territory in North America, to regain Gibraltar and Minorca from the British, and so on. In preliminary peace negotiations with the British it was Spain that insisted that the American colonies be included as equal partners (rather than as rebellious subjects as the British saw them) and that the only legitimate term for peace between the allies and Britain was American independence. Spain consistently demanded these terms of the British- often with greater force than the French (who weren't the most reliable allies to begin with).

This book has been very helpful in my understanding of the underappreciated contribution of Spain to the independence of the U.S.

http://books.google.com/books?id=cCb...ed=0CDAQ6AEwAA