Hello, I start the blog of the store with one of the grandfather’s war stories.
Actually, I am going to tell you something that I read a long time ago, and that I found shocking. Not because I like battles or anything like that, but because of how curious it seems to me that everyone has heard of Nelson and the battle of Trafalgar in Spain (and that we lost), and yet hardly anyone has heard talk about this battle of Cartagena and Blas de Lezo.
I must admit that since I read this story the first time, the public’s sensibility has changed, and many more people know this character, but anyway, I’m going to do the minimum tribute, remembering his exploits.
This legend is part of a very curious war called the Jenkins ear war.
You have to see if it has a literary name, and yet, nothing, they don’t tell this in schools…
This Jenkins was an English smuggler, intercepted by the Spanish and apparently had his ear cut off as punishment. The English warmongering side used it in the House of Commons to get the declaration of war.
Since the end of the War of the Spanish Succession, England had had the “permission ship” which was allowed to trade with the Spanish colonies (before that, trade was an exclusive privilege of the metropolis through the house of contracting). , but because it was insufficient, the English continued to resort to smuggling. English commercial power had really reached a point where they could aspire to dominate the entire American continent, and that is what they tried in this war.
His plan was to put an end to Spanish rule, through the conquest of the main ports of Spanish America, Havana, Portobelo, Veracruz and Cartagena.
In the action against Cartagena, they would find such a big stumbling block that they would be forced to end the war (well, it was finally framed within the war of the Austrian succession, ending the hostilities in America).
The numbers are incredible, some 27,000 English, distributed in 186 ships of various types, compared to 3,600 on the Spanish side and 6 ships of the line, plus of course the magnificent defenses of Cartagena.
It was the largest amphibious attack in history before the 20th century (Gallipoli and Normandy), and yet as I say, few people know about it. The fact is that surprisingly, the English did not achieve their objective, which caused the fall of the English prime minister Walpole.
Who achieved such a feat? Well, the Spanish admiral, Blas de Lezo y Olabarrieta, from Pasajes to be exact, and therefore Basque 😉
Great soldier and a peculiar guy of course, his nickname was legpalo or mediohombre (oneleg for the English). The battle of Cartagena is his last military action, since he died of illness at the end, but the man was made a chrome, without an eye, a leg, and with his right arm disabled (not from this battle, but from those that had fought throughout his life). Let’s go men like before… 😀
In short, such a victory over the English, and hardly mentioned in Spain, neither the battle nor the architect of it. Of course, we have to learn a couple of marketing things from the English…
I hope you liked the story. For more information