Their holds were crammed with a massive quantity of gold, silver, emeralds and other jewels extracted from the Potosí mines in the Spanish colony of Peru with the two larger vessels carrying most of the treasure. The San José and its sister ship San Joaquín had been designed by naval architect, Francisco Antonio Garrote and launched together in 1698 at the height of the golden age of Spanish shipbuilding. They were to be escorted by three Spanish galleons the San José and San Joaquín both armed with 64 guns and the Santa Cruz, 44 guns. Their presence was spotted and a message sent to the commander of the Spanish fleet in Portobelo, Panama, where more than a dozen merchant ships were being loaded with produce and goods. When they eventually reached the Colombian coast they anchored off the island of Pequeña Baru, about 30 kilometres from Cartagena, to take on supplies. In April 1708 Admiral Wager left England to sail to the Caribbean with a fleet of four warships the Expedition with 70 guns, the Kingston, 60 guns, Portland, 50 guns and the Vulture, a fire ship. The role of Britain's naval forces was to prevent the ships from reaching Spain. To finance the conflict, Spain relied on extracting gold and silver from its Latin American colonies, shipping the riches across the Atlantic in its warships. The War of Spanish Succession was to last eleven years dividing Europe as well as Latin America. Great Britain, the Dutch Republic and Austria could not allow a potentially dominant Franco-Spanish allegiance and in 1702 the «Grand Alliance» declared war on France. Louis XIV of France expected his grandson, Philip, the Duke of Anjou, to take the crown, but Leopold I, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, preferred his own son Charles. When Charles II of Spain, the last Hapsburg King, died without an heir in 1700, it led to a dispute in Europe over the succession.
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