Great Siege of Gibraltar 1779
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 24 June 1779 – 7 February 1783 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1779 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | Gibraltar | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | American Revolutionary War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Electorate of Hanover, Kingdom of France, Kingdom of Great Britain, Kingdom of Spain | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 36.1397, -5.3551 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Great Siege of Gibraltar was an unsuccessful attempt by Spain and France to capture Gibraltar from Britain during the American Revolutionary War. It was the largest battle in the war by number of combatants.
On 16 June 1779, Spain entered the war on the side of France with the primary war aim of capturing Gibraltar from the British. The vulnerable garrison of Gibraltar, commanded by George Eliott, was besieged from June 1779 to February 1783. Initially, the siege was carried out solely by Spanish forces under Martín Álvarez de Sotomayor. The siege proved to be a failure because two British relief convoys entered unmolested, the first under Admiral of the White George Rodney in 1780 and the second under Admiral George Darby in 1781, despite the presence of the Spanish Navy. A major assault was planned by the Spanish in late 1781, but the British garrison sortied in November of that year and destroyed many of the forward batteries.
Following the Spanish failure to defeat the garrison or prevent the arrival of relief convoys, the besiegers were reinforced by French forces under Louis de Crillon, who took over command in early 1782.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Great Siege of Gibraltar (revision 1370621817), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the American Revolutionary War
- Capture of St. Lucia 1778
- Cherry Valley massacre 1778
- Frederica naval action 1778
- Mount Hope Bay raids 1778
- Siege of Boonesborough 1778
- Battle of Baton Rouge (1779) 1779
- Battle of Beaufort 1779
- Battle of Brier Creek 1779
- Battle of Flamborough Head 1779
- Battle of Grenada 1779
All 190 battles of the American Revolutionary War →
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