ABSTRACT

The handful of British traders who woke to find Spanish soldiers at their gates that morning, historians of the American Revolution might find themselves caught off guard by the appearance of a Spanish show of force along the Great Lakes frontier. Threats of Spanish actions northeast of St. Louis animated British officers from Michilimackinac to Montreal during the war, and after peace came, similar fears of Spanish influence in the Northwest troubled American officials. Even after American insurgents launched their revolution in 1776 and France joined the war against Britain in 1778, Spanish officials in the northern borderlands continued to avoid open aggression against their British rivals. British commanders in the Great Lakes, such as Arendt Schuyler DePeyster at Michilimackinac, were aware of Spanish aid to the American forces operating in Illinois. The geopolitical implications of the Spanish raid worried American officials.