Battle of Manila (1762)
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| Battle of Manila | |||||||||
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| Part of the Seven Years' War | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Great Britain |
 Spain |
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Brigadier-General William Draper Rear-Admiral Samuel Cornish |
Archbishop Manuel Rojo Simón de Anda y Salazar |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| 10,300 men[1] 15 ships |
565 regular Spanish troops 8,600 Filipino troops 200 French and British deserters[2] |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 147 killed and wounded[3][4] | ~100 Spanish killed and wounded 361 Spanish surrendered[4] |
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The Battle of Manila was fought during the Seven Years' War (known as the French and Indian War in the United States), from September 24, 1762 to October 6, 1762, between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Spain in and around Manila, the capital of the Philippines, a Spanish colony at that time.
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[edit] Prelude
British troops stationed in India were idle since the fall of Pondicherry. When war broke out with Spain, they were available to be employed against the Spanish possessions in Asia.
In June 1762, Rear-Admiral Samuel Cornish received secret royal orders for an expedition, which he communicated to the authorities at Calcutta. The inspiration for the attack was as much dreams of loot as plans for geopolitical advantage, and the expedition received limited support from the East India Company.
On August 1, 1762, a British fleet of eight ships of the line, three frigates, and four store ships, sailed away from Madras with a force of 6,839 regulars, sailors and marines. The commander of the expedition was Brigadier-General William Draper. He was assisted by Colonel Monson as Second in Command, Major Scott as Adjutant-General and Captain Fletcher as Brigade-Major of the East India Company. The expeditionary force consisted of:
- 79th Draper's Regiment of Foot (450 men)
- composite battalions of sepoys (drawn from all the Madras Sepoy regiments) under Captain DesPlans (2,000 men)
- French deserters under Lieutenant Martin (200 men)
- other assorted troops (freed African slaves, native Christian Indians who claimed to have Portuguese descent, Nawab European infantry, ...)
[edit] The battle
On September 24, after much delay owing to stormy weather and the defective condition of Admiral Cornish's ships, the expedition entered the Manila Bay and anchored off Fort Cavite. The following day, Draper landed his troops unopposed through heavy surf, about 2.5 km south of the walls of the city. A substantial number of Royal Marines and sailors were then detached from the fleet. The garrison of Manila consisted of the Royal Regiment (20 companies of 100 men each). These companies were far from being at full strength. Mortality, desertion and various detachments had reduced this regiment to some 565 soldiers. There were only 80 artillerymen, including some Filipinos. A day later Draper seized a detached fort which had been abandoned by the Spaniards within 200 meters of the glacis, and began to construct a battery, while the ships sailed up to draw the fire of the town upon themselves.
On September 30, a British storeship arrived with entrenching tools, but was driven ashore by a gale. Fortunately, she had run aground so that she screened the rear of Draper's camp from the Spanish cannon. Her stores were landed with greater speed and safety than would have been possible had she remained afloat for the gale continued for several days and forbade the passage of boats through the surf.
On October 4, the weather conditions improved. The battery and the ships opened fire and in 4 hours silenced the guns of Manila. By the next day, the British cannonade had made a practicable breach in the fortifications of Manila. During the following night, the Spaniards made a sally upon the British position with 1,000 Filipinos and were driven back with heavy loss. At dawn, Draper's regiment and a party of sailors attacked the breach and took the fortifications with little difficulty. To prevent further slaughter, acting Governor and Captain-General Archbishop Manuel Rojo surrendered the citadel and the port of Cavite as soon as the city fell, promising four million Mexican silver dollars for ransom of the town, lives, and of the property therein.
Thus, Manila fell within 10 days of the arrival of the British and on the 10th of October, Manila was placed under the authority of civilian Dawson Drake.
[edit] Aftermath
The British held Manila until it was returned to Spain according to the peace settlement. News that it had been lost did not reach Spain until after the cessation of hostilities between the two powers. During their time in the Philippines, the British found their force unable to establish British control of the Philippines. The British promised support for an uprising led first by Diego Silang and later by his wife Gabriela, but the British force never materialized and the uprising was suppressed.
The four million dollars has never been fully paid, but the expedition was rewarding nevertheless, after the capture of a treasure ship, the Santísima Trinidad, with a value of two million dollars on board.
The city remained in British hands for 18 months and was returned to Spain in April 1764 after the Treaty of Paris (1763).
[edit] See also
- British occupation of Manila
- Battle of Manila for other battles
- Military History of the Philippines
- History of the Philippines
[edit] References
- ^ Morga, Antonio (2001). The Philippine Islands, Moluccas, Siam, Cambodia, Japan, and China, at the Close of the Sixteenth Century. Adamant Media Corporation. pp. 362. ISBN 9781402195471. http://books.google.es/books?id=jFY-WTdLSjsC&dq=The+English+expedition+to+Manila+and+the+Philippine+Islands+in+the+year+1762&source=gbs_navlinks_s.
- ^ Fernández Duro, Cesáreo (2007). Sitio y conquista de Manila por los ingleses en 1762. Monografía del Sr. Marqués de Ayerbe. Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes. pp. 5. http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/FichaObra.html?Ref=22775.
- ^ Leebrick, Karl Clayton (2007). The English expedition to Manila and the Philippine Islands in the year 1762. University of California, Berkeley. pp. 52. http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/FichaObra.html?Ref=22775.
- ^ a b Blair, Emma Helen (2008). The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803. BiblioBazaar. pp. 18. ISBN 9780559253294. http://books.google.com/books?id=QvRw3aOVfgAC&dq=conquest+of+manila+1762&hl=es&source=gbs_navlinks_s.
- Manila Ransomed: The British Assault on Manila in the Seven Years War, Nicholas Tracy, University of Exeter Press 1995 (ISBN 0-85989-426-6)
- Fortescue, J. W., A History of the British Army Vol. II, MacMillan, London, 1899, pp. 544–545.
- Rojo, Journal
- The Philippine Islands
- NY Times
- British expedition against Manila
- This article was originally based on material from [1], which is licensed under the GFDL.
