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.
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