Battle of Rio de Janeiro (1711)
Historical map of the bay of Rio with a list of the French ships when the city was bombarded
| date | 12-22 September 1711 |
|---|---|
| location | Rio de Janeiro , Brazil |
| exit | French victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
Governor Francisco de Moraes de Castro, Admiral Gaspar da Costa da Ataide |
|
| Troop strength | |
| 7 ships of the line, 6 frigates, 5 smaller warships, 6,000 men crew | 7 ships of the line, 2,000 marine infantry, 1,000 garrison, 4,000 militia and 7,000 armed slaves |
| losses | |
|
300 men |
4 ships of the line sunk or burned, the rest and numerous merchant ships captured by the French |
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Carpi - Chiari - Cremona - Kaiserswerth - Luzzara - Cádiz - Friedlingen - Vigo - Schmidmühlen - Ekeren - Höchstädt (1703) - Gibraltar - Speyerbach - Schellenberg - Bonn - Höchstädt (1704) - Vélez-Málaga - Cassano - Barcelona (1705) - Sendlinger Murder Christmas - Calcinato - Ramillies - Turin - Castiglione - Almansa - Toulon - Lille - Oudenaarde - Malplaquet - Almenara - Saragossa - Brihuega - Villaviciosa - Denain - Rio de Janeiro - Barcelona
The battle for Rio de Janeiro was the prelude to a multi-day occupation of the second most important city of the Portuguese viceroyalty of Brazil after Salvador by a French fleet or French landing forces under the command of the corsair René Duguay-Trouin in September 1711 .
Starting position
France and Spain had been at war with the other major European and naval powers since 1700, among others. against Great Britain and its ally Portugal. Since then, victories and defeats have alternated on land and at sea.
Exactly one year earlier, in September 1710, another French corsair, Jean-François Duclerc , had attacked Rio. The company had failed, Duclerc died in Portuguese captivity in May 1711. One aim of Operation Duguay-Trouins was to free the remaining French prisoners and to eradicate the shameful defeat of the previous year.
Conquest of Rio
With a squadron of 13 larger warships (ships of the line and frigates) with a crew of almost 6,000 men and over 700 cannons, Duguay-Trouin set out from Brest and La Rochelle . Despite a British warning in August, the arrival of the French in the port of Rio on September 12 came as a surprise. The governor Francisco de Moraes de Castro had called his militia together in August and increased the readiness to fight. Rumors of the sighting of sails off Cabo Frio in early September had further heightened the alert; but then on September 11th the militia was withdrawn. The French squadron drove straight into the bay of Rio towards the seven Portuguese warships anchored there. The Portuguese fleet commander, Admiral Gaspar da Costa, could do nothing but cut the anchor ropes and set his ships in motion. Three of the warships ran aground and were destroyed by the Portuguese themselves to prevent their conquest. The fourth was captured and burned by the French. The crews of the forts lining the harbor entrance were understaffed after orders to withdraw. The gunfire from the forts did some damage to the French fleet nonetheless, killing around 300 people before the ships could retreat and were out of range. After three days of bombardment, the French landed 3,700 men to attack the city. The governor of Rio, Castro-Morais, had fortified the city after the attacks by the French in previous years, but the defenses were very weak and collapsed under the French bombardment. After a briefing on September 21, in which Moraes ordered the city's defenders to hold the lines, parts of the militia began to desert during the night. A general escape from the city began, including the governor. It was in these disorderly circumstances that the French prisoners of the Duclerc expedition broke out of prison. The city was captured and sacked.
Only after reports of approaching Portuguese reinforcements on land and British support at sea as well as the payment of a ransom did Duguay-Trouin's fleet sail back unscathed to Brest with numerous captured merchant ships. The French fell into the hands of the entire annual income of the entire colony of Brazil.
See also
Individual evidence
literature
- Louis-Antoine de Bougainville : Journey around the world . Rütten and Loening, Berlin 1977
- Charles Ralph Boxer: The golden age of Brazil, 1695-1750: growing pains of a colonial society . University of California Press 1962
