Campaigns

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=82 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>TAC - Spain - CWOL V</B><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" ><B>     |     </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFF80" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="TAC Spain CWOL V"><U><B>home</B></U></A></FONT></div> <div> <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Government"><U><B>Government</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Military"><U><B>Military</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><B>Campaigns</B><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Cuba"><U><B>Cuba</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Diario de La Habana"><U><B>Diario de La Habana</B></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000"> <div> Spain's Army Campaings in the CWOL period.</div> </td> <td valign="top" height=398 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I><B>Campaigns</B></I></div> <div> Spain was very active in the mid-XIXth century. As the Queen Isabel II was not a very beloved Queen and because of the civil war, the Spanish government was trying to return some sense of pride to the spanish people. To do this, the Spanish Army and Navy was involved in a large number of operations, really romantic and exciting but of no use except the national morale.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b701180000bf00.gif" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Intervention in Portugal:</B></div> <div> In 1,847 and because of a rebelion, the Queen Maria de la Gloria of Portugal requested the help of Spain to keep her throne. Spain answered the call and the Army of Castille, under command of Captain General Manuel Gutierrez de la Concha, entered in Portugal and, after a fast campaign, captured Porto and restored the Portuguese Queen in Lisboa.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b701180000bf00.gif" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Expedition to the Papal States:</B></div> <div> In 1,849, after a revolution against the Pope Pius IX, the Spanish Army went to Italy. They were fighting there from 1,849 until 1,850 to help the Pope to keep the Papal States against the revolucionaries and Mazzini's Rome Republic. Was an expedition in coalition with the French and Spain sent more than 8,000 men, including infantry and cavalry.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b701180000bf00.gif" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Expedition to Conchinchina:</B></div> <div> Possibly the most romantic of all, the less known and the most surprising. To help you to have an idea about were the Conchinchina is, you must know that, some few years later, the Frenchs called the territory as Indochine. One century later, the Americans will discover the country under the name of Viet-Nam. Curious, isn't it?</div> <div> In 1.858, the Spanish Catholic Missions in the area of China, Tonkin and Fonkien were under continuous attacks of "bandits" and troops under orders of the Emperor Tû Dûc. The Major Priest of the Dominics in the Conchinchina area (today's Viet-Nam), were reporting "continuous attacks, a terrible prosecution and a panical terror all around that sad christiandom". The arrest and execution of the spanish bishop Jose María Diaz Sanjurjo was the excuse for the intervention. And intervention that was inmediately followed by the French, who had great interest to control the area.</div> <div> The Spanish expedition, under command of the Admiral Bernardo Ruiz de Lanzarote, was composed of the Regimiento de Infantería del Rey Nº 1, (based in Mindanao, Philippines), the Regimiento de Infantería de la Reina Nº1 (based in Luzón, Philippines) and the Regimiento de Infantería Nº3 (based in Cavite, Philippines), plus some cavalry and artillery for a total of 8,000 men. They landed in Tonkin in 20 of April of 1,858 and, after 10 months of fight against the troops of the Annamite Empire, the Spanish troops conquered Saigon and stablished a perimeter of "free nation", similar to the one of the Repblic of South Viet-Nam. </div> <div> In 1,863, having Spain no interest in the area and because of an Agreement with France, the area was ceded to the French and the rest is an story that all of you well know.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b701180000bf00.gif" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Expedition to Santo Domingo:</B></div> <div> In 1,860, the president of Santo Domingo, Mr. Pedro Santana, concerned by an strong revolutionary movement in his country, paid by the Haiti government, and under the fear of an Haitian invasion, as promised by the "Emperor" of Haiti Faustin Soulouque, requested from Spain the anexion of his Republic again as an Spanish province. Spain was a little bit surprised by the proposal but, while discussing it, was informed that, unilaterally, the Republic of Santo Domingo decided to raise the Spanish flag and declared Queen Isabel II as their Queen. Spain then accepted and sent troops to the island and Santo Domingo returns to the Spanish Crown like a province, being the formed President of the Republic promoted (or demoted? :-) to the position of Governor of the Island.</div> <div> The annexion, being peaceful, needed few troops. Less than 4,000 men. The Regimiento de Infantería Napoles Nº 4, the Batallon de Cazadores de Montaña Antequera Nº 12 and the Batallon de Infantería de Madrid Nº 2, plus some cavalry and artillery.</div> <div> The Island remained peaceful til 1,863 when a rebellion started, paid from Haiti. The Spaniards were fighting there til 1,865, sending there 10 regiments more, raising the number of soldiers to more than 25,000.</div> <div> After two years of war, Spain agreed to leave the island with the condition that Haiti never more will menace the independence of Santo Domingo.</div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b701180000bf00.gif" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Expedition to Mexico:</B></div> <div> The story is well known. In 1,861, 6,000 spanish infantrymen plus two cavalry regiments landed near Veracruz and, after some days of fight, captured the city. Some days later arrived the General Juan Prim (a catalan) as commander in chief with some reinforcements, reinforced the area and, after a serious combat, captured the fortress of San Juan de Ulua, allowing the French troops to land safely.</div> <div> At the start of April of the next year, after five months there, Spanish and British commanders have a clear idea about the real French intentions. General Prim, decided on his own to not be a puppet in Frenchs hands, send a message to Madrid and, without waiting for orders or confirmation, decided to reembark the troops and return to Cuba, after an agreement with Juarez.</div> <div> The Spanish force was about 5,000 infantrymen, with 600 riders and some artillery. The regiments were: the Regimiento Ligero Peninsular de Napoles, the Regimiento de Infantería Ligero Union and the Batallón Provisional de Cuba.</div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b701180000bf00.gif" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">War in Morocco: (1859-1860)</B></div> <div> The biggest action of the Spanish Army of the period, beside the Carlist Civil War. Because of the continuous attacks of the Sultan of Tanger, Muley-el-Abbas, against the Spanish cities in Africa (Ceuta and Melilla) the Spaniards requested and inmediate cease of fire and the retreat of the Moors away of these cities. As the Sultan not only rejected the proposal, but attacked again the city of Melilla, Spain declared the war against the Sultan.</div> <div> An Army of 40,000 infantry and a full Division of cavalry (6,000 riders) crossed the Straits and landed in Morocco, to fight against the Moor Army of 80,000 men. </div> <div> After some bloody battles (where General Prim, the same that later will command the expedition to Mexico, covered himself with glory in command of his Catalan Volunteer Regiment), the Spanish Army captured Tanger and, after receiving a new negative for a peace from the Sultan, attacked the main Moor Army in Wad-Ras and destroyed it in a fierce battle.</div> <div> The Sultan surrender and Spain cities of Ceuta and melilla were secured and received new territories, while Spain also received the area called Sidi-Ifni, currently the Moroccan Sahara.</div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b701180000bf00.gif" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">War against Peru and Chile:</B></div> <div> Another absurd war, more for honor than for other reason.</div> <bR> <div> In 1.863, the Pacific Squadron of the Spanish navy was in Peru, in the fortified harbor of El Callao, with two Frigates and two Schooners. Some unexplained incidents happened and some spanish workers were killed . Spanish requested an investigation and, as the Government of Peru was unable to find solve the crime, Spain sent an Special Commissar to investigate the affair. As the title Commissar was a colonial one, the Government of Peru refused to receive the Envoy. As a mesure of pressure, the Spanish Admiral captured the islands of Chinchas, in front of the harbor. As Peru continued to refuse to solve the problem and being the Squadron reinforced with 4 Frigates and 3 Schooners more, the Admiral Pareja, recently arrived, captured the harbor of El Callao. Then, the Peruvian Government inmediately accepted negotiations and accepted to pay 3 millions of pesetas (a great amount of money) in change for the islands and the harbor.</div> <bR> <div> As soon as Spain retired their ships, the peruvian Government changed and refused to pay the money, signed an alliance with Chile and declared war to Spain in January 1,866. As this is out of our historic period, no need to explain more, but Spain grouped there a fleet with more than 20 ships (including the famous "Numancia"), destroyed the city and harbor of Valparaiso (Chile) and destroyed the harbor and fortificacions of El Callao (Peru) and also destroyed more than 40 Chilean ships and ending with the biggest fishing and merchant fleet of South America. The war ended undecisedly, because Spain never sent there infantry for a serious land campaign and their ships abandoned the area, with a peace agreement between Spain, Chile and Peru in 1871, with the British and Americans as mediators (some years before, just before the destruction of Valparaiso, the American Consul menaced the Spaniards with the intervention of the American fleet based near the harbor. The Spanish Admiral, Mendez Nuñez, pronounce an historical sentence: "The Queen, Spain and the Spaniards prefer honor without ships, than ships without honor. Retire your ships because we will bombard the city even if only one of us survives".)</div> <bR> <div> There is another interesting story. In 1866, the peruvians, worried about the war, searched for a new commander for their fleet. After some searching, they decided to hire the Commodore John Randolph Tucker of the defeated CS Navy. Tucker was a Virginian and commanded the CSS Patrick Henry, (a little Confederate SOL), commanded the Squadron of Charleston and commanded the Naval brigade of the ANV.</div> <bR> <div> Tucker, as Admiral of the peruvian Fleet, had a lot of problems with the morale of their commanders (they don't wanted an stranger as Admiral) but tried to prepare an interesting plan to use the peruvian Fleet to attack the spanish Philippines. However, he lost his job when the US Navy in Peru refused to salute the Admiral and requested and forced his ressignation because Tucker, for the US Government, was only a bandit and a rebel.</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>