TheCaribbean campaign of 1803–1810 was a series of military contests mainly in theWest Indies spanning theNapoleonic Wars, involving the European powers ofNapoleonic France, theBatavian Republic,Spain, theKingdom of Portugal and theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Eventually British naval forces dominated the seas and by 1810 every French, Dutch and Danish colony was firmly under allied (mainly British) control.
By 1804, France had lost control of the colonies ofSaint-Domingue andLouisiana, with the former declaring its independence as theFirst Empire of Haiti and the latterbeing sold to the United States. However, France stillmaintained control over theCaptaincy General of Santo Domingo, which it had acquired from Spain in 1795 in thePeace of Basel, in addition to the island colonies ofMartinique andGuadeloupe along withCayenne inSouth America. TheBatavian Republic, allied to France, also maintained control over several colonies in the West Indies and South America.[citation needed]
In 1803, British forces began working alongside the rebelIndigenous Army in Saint-Domingue, sending naval squadrons to blockade French-controlled ports and block off the reinforcements Napoleon planned to send to defeat the rebels following Britain's declaration of war on France in May 1803. The British provided extensive material aid, including arms, to the rebels, and theRoyal Navy engaged in theblockade of Saint-Domingue, ending in the defeat of the French and Haitian independence on 1 January 1804. Surviving French troops who surrendered to the British were shipped off the island, desperate not to surrender to the vengeful rebels.[citation needed]
The United Kingdom's campaign in the Caribbean began shortly after the breakdown of theTreaty of Amiens. Hostilities with France resumed in May 1803 but official notification did not arrive in theWest Indies until mid-June, along with orders to attack France's valuable sugar islands,Martinique,St Lucia andTobago. Martinique was rejected as too well defended but the commanders in chief,William Grinfield andSamuel Hood, thought attacks against the other two islands feasible, and the expedition set out fromBarbados on 20 June with 3,149 soldiers, two ships-of-the-line, two frigates, converted totroopships, and two sloops.[1][2]St Lucia was captured on 22 June 1803, after the island's main fortress,Morne Fortune had been stormed, and Tobago nine days later and, after leaving men to hold these islands, the expedition returned to Barbados.[3]
On 10 August, Grinfield received orders to call on the surrender of the colonies of Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice. The Dutch colonies, unhappy with the rule of theBatavian Republic had applied to the British government for a peaceful take over. A large portion of Grinfield's forces had since been used up as garrisons of the newly captured French islands but by supplementing his force withRoyal Marines, he was able to amass some 1,300 men.[4] Light winds delayed their arrival offGeorgetown until 18 September when a summons was immediately dispatched to the Dutch governor. A party arrived on 20 June and terms of surrender were agreed. Another deputation had to be sent to the separately governed colony of Berbice which was eventually taken, without a fight, on 27 September.[4]
In 1804, the British captured Surinam. The invasion force comprised CommodoreSamuel Hood's flagshipHMS Centaur,Emerald, the 44-gun heavy frigatesPandour andSerapis, the 28-gunsixth-rateAlligator, the 12-gunschoonerUnique, the 12-gun corvetteHippomenes, and the 8-gunDrake, together with 2,000 troops underBrigadier-General SirCharles Green.[5]
By this time Spain a former enemy of the British and ally of the French was now invaded by French forces which led to thePeninsula war. Once the news of the invasion had reached the island, thecriollos of Santo Domingo revolted against French rule and were later assisted by the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom who were now Spain's new ally.
By 1808 French colonial territories in the Caribbean were a drain on both the French and British navies. The fortified harbours on the islands and coastal towns provided shelter for French warships andprivateers that could strike against British trade routes at will, forcing the Royal Navy to divert extensive resources to protect their convoys.[6] However, the maintenance and support of these bases was a significant task for theFrench Navy. It had suffered a series of defeats during the war that left it blockaded in its own harbours and unable to put to sea without attack from British squadrons waiting off the coast.[7] Cut off from French trade and supplies, the Caribbean colonies began to suffer from food shortages and collapsing economies, and messages were sent to France in the summer of 1808 requesting urgent help.[8]
Some of these messages were intercepted by the patrolling Royal Navy. Based on the description in those messages of the low morale and weak defences of the Caribbean territories, the decision was taken to eliminate the threat from the French colonies for the remainder of the war by seizing and occupying them in a series of amphibious operations. Command of this campaign was given to Rear-AdmiralSir Alexander Cochrane, who focused his initial efforts onMartinique, gathering a substantial force of ships and men atBarbados in preparation for the planned invasion.[9] While the main British forces concentrated in theLeeward Islands, smaller expeditionary forces were sent to watch other French colonies.
The fall of Guadeloupe marked the end of the final French territory in the Caribbean; the entire region was now in the hands of either the British or the Spanish, except the independent state ofHaiti.[10] The lack of French privateers and warships sparked a boom in trade operations, and the economies of the Caribbean islands experienced a resurgence. It also made a significant reduction in French international trade and had a corresponding effect on the French economy.[11] Finally, the capture of the last French colony struck a decisive blow to theAtlantic slave trade, which had been made illegal by the British government in 1807 and was actively persecuted by the Royal Navy. Without French colonies in the Caribbean, there was no ready market for slaves in the region and the slave trade consequently dried up.[12]