Después del Tratado de Basilea. Ideología, usos y costumbres de guerra en el ataque británico de 1797 a la isla de Puerto Rico

Abstract

After the fall of the island of Trinidad, almost without resistance, to General Albercroomby, this English militar turned his fleet to Puerto Rico believing that the surprise factor – hostilities had not officially started between Great Britain and Spain in the Caribbean since the signature of the Treaty of Basel between Madrid and Paris – would once again bear good fruit for Albion. This was not the case, as the Governor and General Commander of the island, don Ramón de Castro, with the Island Regiment and the help of the Creole militias, managed to contain the invaders, who attacked the city from the Laguna del Condado with a powerful navy and an equally powerful artillery. Castro, who was born in Burgos, designed an artillery defence from the heights of the Olimpia farmstead, on the other side of the lagoon, and from the fortress of San Jeronimo. This fortress had a strange garrison made up of a regular army and French citizens who lived in the island under the French flag. The defenders rejected the British landing.