"The American Revolution Story has a Hole the Size..." Topic

… OF SPAIN

"Americans like to think of our nation as exceptional in nature, a dramatic break from all that came before it. Being exceptional, it's inconvenient to acknowledge that two European powers provided invaluable assistance in our struggle for independence from Britain. So we usually don't. The American origin story thus has scrappy colonists fighting the British alone, with little outside help except for France's Lafayette, and a cameo by General Rochambeau at the very end. But Americans could have never won the war without both France and Spain by their side. And if the French get short shrift in America's creation myth, the Spanish get no shrift at all; the names Gardoqui and Gálvez almost never appear in our history, and the important Battle of Pensacola receives at best only a passing mention. The real story is that the American nation was born as the centerpiece of an international coalition, which together worked to defeat a common adversary.

Many Americans today think of their colonial history as a purely British affair. But it was Spain that established the earliest European settlement in America in 1508, a century before the English arrived at Jamestown. By 1535, Spain had created the Viceroyalty of New Spain, which would encompass Florida, much of the American Southwest, and Mexico. France established its own American colonies in Canada and Louisiana at about the same time. Over the next two centuries, the global clashes between the three European imperial powers resulted in France and Spain losing a substantial part of their holdings. So in 1776, when the American colonists rebelled, Spain and France saw an opportunity to regain lost ground…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Growing up in Texas I heard a lot about Galvez.

Makes me think of Glen Campbell.

LOL! Great song!

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand