Portugal in the War of Spanish Succession

Towards the end of the 17th century, Spain was in decline and King Charles II had no direct heirs, which led the European powers to anticipate a conflict over the Spanish throne. Portugal embarked on intense diplomatic activity with various powers and negotiated contingencies in the event of a new military confrontation. Charles II died in 1700 and in his will named Duke Phillip of Anjou as his successor, who thus ascended the throne as Philip V of Spain. King Peter II of Portugal wished to secure the border of Brazil by expanding it to the River Plate, which was a much clearer and safer boundary with Spanish America, and acquire the Spanish towns of Tui, Vigo, Baiona, A Guarda, Badajoz, Albuquerque and Valencia de Alcántara to strengthen Portugal's defences in Europe. As England did not support this expansionist project and the main Portuguese diplomat, the Duke of Cadaval, was pro-French, the Portuguese king recognised Philip V against the opinion of his advisers and Portugal initially aligned with France. The war between France and the allied powers began throughout Europe and the Mediterranean in 1701. French defeats the following year and the fact that France failed to produce a fleet that would help Portugal defend its colonies and shipping routes as per the agreement led king Peter to reconsider his position. He did not wish to antagonize Britain and the Netherlands, and furthermore Philip V insisted on addressing King Pedro II insultingly as Duke of Bragança only, which exposed his intentions to reannex Portugal into Spain. All this led Portugal to abandon the pro-Bourbon bloc in September 1702. A brief period of Portuguese neutrality followed. In return, the allies would support Portugal with 12,000 soldiers and also pay for the recruitment of 13,000 more, in annual instalments of one million patacas. The defences at the mouth of the Tagus were reinforced, the navy was put on alert and warnings and signals were tested on land. Judge António Rodrigues da Costa was instructed to write up a "Justification" in Spanish and Latin of the reasons for Portugal's intervention in the conflict to be published abroad. The number of men in each terço was increased from 660 men to 800 and then 1000. By a royal decree dated 14 November 1702 every regular army terço was to have two companies of grenadiers. The number of men in cavalry companies was increased from 80 to 120, while the artillery corps was increased from 500 men to 1000. The reasons for Portugal's involvement in the war were poorly understood by most of the population however, and few believed in the outbreak of hostilities. In August of that year, a fleet of 40 merchant ships called at Lisbon with a large cargo of cod, cheese, and butter, and loaded Portuguese products in a peaceful atmosphere. On 7 March 1704, Archduke Charles landed at Lisbon accompanied by allied troops, as Portugal had insisted during negotiations. This event represented an unprecedented international recognition of the House of Braganza and was celebrated lavishly. The English troops were commanded by the Duke of Schomberg and the Dutch by François Nicolas Fagel. ==The Iberian theater==

Spain declared war on Portugal on 30 April 1704. Salvaterra do Extremo, Segura and Zebreira were occupied without a shot, while Monsanto and Idanha-a-Nova put up resistance and were taken by storm. King Pedro II and Archduke Charles met in Guarda and in September moved from there to Almeida, where most of the allied troops had been concentrated. Archduke Charles then left for Lisbon, and there he re-embarked for Catalonia. Back in Portugal, the presence of foreign troops caused unrest in the country. Soares da Silva wrote that the movement of troops in Beira and Alentejo was a cause of ‘unrepentant, irredeemable and unpunished violence’. In early 1705, he stated that: The military situation in Portugal would nevertheless improve greatly in 1705 as a result of preparations made by the Marquis of Minas in Beira and the Count of Galveias in Alentejo. The Portuguese gathered their troops in Estremoz and Arronches, and entered Spain from there to attack to Valencia de Alcántara, which surrendered on 8 May after a week of siege. Influenced by these events most Portuguese officers proposed the occupation of the border regions but the English favored a daring march to Madrid. The siege of Alcántara resulted in significant casualties among the senior officers, but the Duke of Berwick withdrew with his troops and the city was occupied on April 14. Heated discussion among the allied command regarding which steps to take next followed, which delayed the campaign, but when news of allied success in Catalonia arrived, the Marquis of Minas decided to advance with a daring march to Madrid. The Marquis of Minas decided not to waste time occupying territory in order to prevent the Spanish from organizing their defenses at the Tagus and once he got news of allied successes in Catalonia, he began the march to Madrid on 12 June. After meeting virtually no resistance, on 25 June the allied army camped on Villacastin. On 24 of June at Retamar the Marquis of Minas received envoys and deputations of citizens of Madrid, Segovia, Ávila, Toledo and Talavera, offering to submit and requesting protection and the nomination of magistrates to run the cities. The opportunity to chase the Bourbon troops stationed in Guadalajara presented itself, however, the allies decided to wait until reinforcements had arrived from Valencia. Miranda do Douro was occupied by the Spanish in 1710. ==The Atlantic theater==

Once hostilities had broken out, Portuguese possessions in the Atlantic were subject to attack by Spanish forces and French privateers. On the 1st of January 1705 the Spanish governor of Buenos Aires laid siege to Portuguese held Colonia del Sacramento in modern-day Uruguay, with an army of 5700 men among soldiers and native American auxiliaries, embarked on three ships. As Portugal lacked the necessary manpower in Brazil to effectively defend the stronghold in the event of an all-out war, captain-of-war-and-sea Amaro José de Mendonça was dispatched to the River Plate with two ships of the line, one frigate and one patache, tasked with its evacuation. By chance, on his way to Cadiz he encountered a Portuguese convoy of 153 merchantships bound to Portugal from Brazil, escorted by five ships-of-the-line and three Indiamen, twenty nautical miles west of Lisbon on 23 May. After the encounter with the Portuguese navy near Lisbon, French privateer René Duguay-Trouin drew up an ambitious plan to capture the yearly convoy that usually left Brazil every year on July bound to Portugal under heavy escort, and spent the winter of 1707-1708 putting together a fleet eight well-armed ships. Still in 1708, two pirate ships were engaged and chased off by the Portuguese warships Nossa Senhora das Portas do Céu and Bom Jesus de Mazagão on their way from Goa to Lisbon near Salvador in Brazil, probably in May. Battle of Rio de Janeiro, 1710 Shaken by successive defeats at sea, France and Spain adopted a policy of privateering instead of trying to openly contest the control of the sea from the English, Dutch and Portuguese. A fleet of five warships and one merchant ship bearing 800 soldiers, under the command of Jean-François Duclerc departed Brest bound to Rio de Janeiro, which the French intended to sack. Attack on Cape Verde, 1712 , Cape Verde. Santiago in Cape Verde was attacked on 12 May 1712 by a French fleet led by the privateer Jacques Cassard, who commanded eleven ships manned by 3,000 sailors and 1,200 soldiers. The French landed at Praia Negra, near Praia, and captured Fort São Filipe, before moving on to plunder Ribeira Grande. ==Peace of Utrecht and aftermath==

Peace negotiations began on 29 January 1712. The Treaty of Utrecht was signed on 11 April 1713. France renounced its claims to the Amapá on the north bank of the Amazon River while Spain returned Colónia do Sacramento to Portugal. The war resulted in widespread devastation in the border regions however, but it was followed by fifty years of peace and neutrality, which allowed Portugal to focus on its overseas commitments and reap the benefits of trade. At the end of hostilities, the Portuguese army at home numbered 20,400 infantry and 9600 cavalrymen in 1715, not including provincial troops or troops committed overseas. Post-scriptum: the Battle of the Straits of Malacca, 1714 The Treaty of Utrecht was signed in 1713, but while news of the peace did not reach all of Portugal and France's overseas territories, a naval battle still took place between the two countries. ==See also==