By: HISTORY.com Editors

Spain declares war against Great Britain

Published: November 13, 2009Last Updated: May 27, 2025

On June 21, 1779, Spain declares war on Great Britain, creating a de facto alliance with the Americans.

Spain’s King Charles III would not consent to a treaty of alliance with the United States. For one imperial power to encourage another imperial power’s colonies in revolt was a treacherous game, and he was unwilling to play. However, French Foreign Minister Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, managed to negotiate a treaty with Spain to join their war against the British. As the ally of the United States’ ally, Spain managed to endorse the revolt at a critical diplomatic distance.

The American Revolution had already spawned a world war between the two international powers of Britain and France. Spain’s entry into the imbroglio ensured that the British would have to spread their resources even thinner. King Charles wanted to reclaim Gibraltar for Spain and secure Spanish borders in North America and the Spanish immediately laid siege to Gibraltar at the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea. The British managed to drive the Spanish from Gibraltar on February 7, 1783, having constructed an 82-foot-long tunnel into the north face of the rock of Gibraltar, known as the “Notch,” in order to supply it with cannon. However, King Charles succeeded in his North American goals. The Spanish took West Florida by force and attained East Florida by cession when the War for Independence ended; they were also able to secure the Gulf of Mexico.

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By: Becky Little

Timeline

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Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on June 21st

1788

U.S. Constitution ratified

New Hampshire becomes the ninth and last necessary state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, thereby making the document the law of the land.

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1810

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1813

France pushed out of Spain in the decisive battle of the Peninsular War

At Vitoria, Spain, a massive allied British, Portuguese and Spanish force under British General Arthur Wellesley routs the French, pushing them out of Spain in the decisive battle of the Peninsular War. On February 16, 1808, under the pretext of sending reinforcements to the French army occupying Portugal, French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Spain. Thus […]

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1876

General Santa Anna dies in Mexico City

Embittered and impoverished, the once mighty Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna dies in Mexico City. Born in 1792 at Jalapa, Vera Cruz, Mexico, Santa Anna was the son of middle-class parents. As a teen, he won a commission in the Spanish army and might have been expected to live out an unspectacular career as a […]

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1916

U.S. General John J. Pershing’s force attacked by Mexican troops

The controversial U.S. military expedition against Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa brings the United States and Mexico closer to war when Mexican government troops attack U.S. Brigadier General John J. Pershing’s force at Carrizal, Mexico. The Americans suffered 22 casualties, and more than 30 Mexicans were killed. Against the protests of Venustiano Carranza’s government, Pershing’s force […]

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1920

Hollywood stars Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks mobbed by crowds

Swarms of admirers mob the Hollywood film actors Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, who arrive in London on their honeymoon on June 21, 1920. Two of film’s earliest stars, Pickford and Fairbanks had been business partners since 1919, when they teamed up with Charlie Chaplin and director D.W. Griffith to form United Artists. As a […]

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1942

Allies surrender at Tobruk, Libya

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1956

Arthur Miller refuses to name communists

Playwright Arthur Miller defies the House Committee on Un-American Activities and refuses to name suspected communists. Miller’s defiance of McCarthyism won him a conviction for contempt of court, which was later reversed by the Supreme Court. His passport had already been denied when he tried to go to Brussels to attend the premiere of his […]

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1964

The KKK kills three civil rights activists

Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are killed by a Ku Klux Klan mob near Meridian, Mississippi. The three young civil rights workers were working to register Black voters in Mississippi, thus inspiring the ire of the local Klan. The deaths of Schwerner and Goodman, white Northerners and members of the Congress of Racial Equality […]

1965

“Mr. Tambourine Man” is released, and the folk-rock revolution is on

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1975

A teenage girl’s boyfriend murders her parents

On June 21, Jim and Naomi Olive are brutally killed by their high school-aged daughter’s boyfriend, a waterbed salesman. Their bodies are later cremated in a barbeque pit. Police were called to the home of Jim and Naomi Olive in Terra Linda, California, after Jim Olive’s business partner reports that the couple had not been […]

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1982

John Hinckley Jr., who attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan, found not guilty

John W. Hinckley, Jr., who on March 30, 1981, shot President Ronald Reagan and three others outside a Washington, D.C., hotel, is found not guilty of attempted murder by reason of insanity. In the trial, Hinckley’s defense attorneys argues that their client was ill with narcissistic personality disorder, citing medical evidence, and had a pathological […]

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1990

Earthquake devastates Iran

An earthquake near the Caspian Sea in Iran kills an estimated 50,000 and injures another 135,000 people on June 21, 1990. The 7.7-magnitude tremor wrecked havoc on the simply constructed houses in the area. Thirty minutes past midnight, with most people sleeping in their homes, a violent quake, centered along the shores of the Caspian […]

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2004

First privately owned spacecraft, SS1, travels beyond the earth’s atmosphere

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