Battle of St. Kitts (1629)

Battle of St. Kitts

Part of: Thirty Years War

The Spanish conquest of St. Kitts after beating England by Fadrique de Toledo ( Museo del Prado , Madrid ).

date	June 17 - September 7, 1629
place	St. Kitts , Caribbean
output	Spanish victory
consequences	French and English conquer the settlements of St. Kitts and Nevis

Parties to the conflict
Spain	England	France
Commander
Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo y Mendoza Antonio de Oquendo	Gov. John Wilton	unknown
Troop strength
4000 men 20 galleons	3000 men	unknown
losses
unknown	Several ships destroyed 9 ships captured 171 artillery pieces lost 3,100 prisoners	unknown

The Battle of St. Kitts or St. Cristopher was a Spanish act of war that led to the conquest of the Caribbean islands of St. Kitts and Nevis by the English and the French. It took place during the Anglo-Spanish War (1625-1630) . On a larger scale, this conflict was part of the Eighty Years and Thirty Years War .

background

In 1629 the English colony had grown significantly and posed a threat to the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean. English settlers had reached around 3,000 and had weapons and ammunition. The Spanish Armada de Sotavento in Mexico had orders to attack the heavily armed French and English colonies.

attack

The Spanish fleet under Admiral Fadrique de Toledo , held in Nevis and Pirated and sank several English ships that lay at anchor. Spanish soldiers were sent to capture the settlers and destroy their homes.

When Nevis was besieged by the Spanish, the servants of the English fled and greeted the Spanish as liberators.

On September 7, 1629, the Spaniards entered Saint Kitts and burned the entire settlement. Numerous residents fled to Tortuga and joined the privateers who had settled there and who had fled from Spanish troops on Hispaniola .

Follow up

After the surrender, the Spaniards allowed 700 settlers to return to England. Others fled into the woods (an estimated 200 to 400). After the Treaty of Madrid (1630), the Spaniards withdrew in 1630 and returned the islands to the English. Many settlers returned.

additional

In 1634 Félix Castello created the painting The Conquest of St. Cristopher , which belongs to the El Prado Museum .

literature

• Robert L. Brenner, Merchants and Revolution: Commercial Change, Political Conflict, and London's Overseas Traders, 1550-1653 , Verso (2003) ISBN 1-85984-333-6
• John H. Elliot, Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America 1492-1830 Yale University Press ISBN 0-300-11431-1
• Robert F. Marx, Shipwrecks in the Americas , New York (1971) ISBN 0-486-25514-X
• Robert L. Paquette and Stanley L. Engerman, The Lesser Antilles In The Age Of European Expansion , ISBN 0-8130-1428-X
• Robert L. Paquette, The Lesser Antilles in the Age of European Expansion , University Press of Florida (1996), ISBN 0-8130-1428-X
• Richard B. Sheridan, Sugar and Slavery; An Economic History Of The British West Indies , 1623-1775 The Johns Hopkins University Press (April 1, 1974) ISBN 0-8018-1580-0
• Timothy R. Walton, The Spanish Treasure Fleets by Pineapple Press , (1994) ISBN 1-56164-049-2
• David Marley, Wars of the Americas: a chronology of armed conflict in the New World, 1492 to the present , ABC-CLIO (1998), ISBN 978-0-87436-837-6

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Walton p. 124
2. ↑ Marx p. 30
3. ↑ Engerman / Paquette p. 92
4. ^ Marley p. 137
5. ↑ Sheridan p. 85
6. ↑ Marx p. 30
7. ↑ Marx p. 30
8. ↑ Paquette p. 93
9. ↑ Elliot, p. 103
10. ↑ Sheridan p. 85
11. ^ Pierre Gustave Louis Borde: The History of the Island of Trinidad under the Spanish Government . Paria Publishing, Port of Spain 1982, pp. 20 .
12. ↑ Sheridan p. 85
13. ↑ Sheridan p. 85