Britain's Bad Day in Argentina

The British are traditionally reluctant to dwell on the defeats and disasters during their long imperial experience, especially when defeated by black and/or indigenous peoples.

 

The death in battle at the hand of native Americans in 1755 of their commander-in-chief rates barely a footnote. The five-year attempt to incorporate Haiti within the empire in the 1790s, ending in humiliating retreat, is largely forgotten, as is the decade-long resistance of the kingdom of Kandy in the early 19th century. So it is hardly surprising that Britain's failed attempt to seize Latin America in that period is not part of Britain's great imperial pageant. Chile, Mexico, and Nicaragua, were all British targets, but to secure Spanish-ruled Argentina was their principal ambition.

 

This month marks the 200th anniversary of the defeat of Britain's second attempt to capture the city of Buenos Aires, when British troops commanded by General John Whitelocke were seized in the heart of the city in July 1807 and dragged through the streets. Their defeat by a Spanish-led militia of Indians and blacks was bleakly recorded in the diary of Colonel Lancelot Holland: "Nothing could be more mortifying than our passage through the streets amidst the rabble who had conquered us. They were very dark-skinned people, short and ill-made, covered with rags, armed with long muskets and some a sword. There was neither order nor uniformity among them."

 

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