Kentuckians Find an Ally in Spain
Despite cultural differences, Spain and Americans living west of the Appalachians became natural allies in the fight against England. The welfare of both was tied to the Mississippi River and the port of New Orleans, and both wanted the British out of the region. Over the course of the war, Spain provided loans that allowed the United States to purchase over 200 cannons, 30,000 muskets and bayonets, half a million musket balls, and 150 tons of gun powder, most of it going to support George Rogers Clark’s western army. Importantly, these supplies kept America’s fragile western war effort alive when our own Congress was helpless to send Clark any munitions.
Tom Hand, creator and publisher of Americana Corner, discusses Spain’s support of Kentucky and America’s western war effort, and why it still matters today.
Images courtesy of The New York Public Library, Library of Congress, Alamy, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Libraries, Architect of the Capitol, Harvard Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Archives, Wikipedia.
Because of Spain’s numerous possessions along the Gulf Coast and in Central America, France and Spain jointly decided to have Spain fight the British throughout the southern theater and in the Mediterranean, while France would send their soldiers and navy to help the thirteen American colonies. It is the reason why the French were at Newport, Savannah, and Yorktown while Spanish soldiers were not, leaving the mistaken impression in most American’s minds that France was our only ally in the American Revolution.