Gálvez and Spain in the American Revolution

Calleja Leal, Guillermo
Calleja Leal, Gregorio

General Washington and the Founding Fathers of the United States acknowledged that Spain sustained the American Revolution by supporting it financially, providing intelligence over its information network and protecting and supplying in its territories. They also considered Spain’s intervention in the war vital. By fighting England in America and Europe, Spain obstructed London's strategy to crush the Revolution.
Gálvez's victorious campaigns, the capture of huge British convoys by Admiral Córdova in the Atlantic and the threat of a Spanish-French invasion of Jamaica or England all reduced British pressure on the Continental Army. They helped enable the victories of Washington where there had been frequent defeats. They made it difficult for Britain to provide troops, weapons and supplies to its forces in the Thirteen Colonies.
Once independence was won, most Americans forgot both the immense financial and military help that Spain and Spanish America had provided, and the sacrifice that it had required. Not until 1996 did a Resolution of the State of Maryland officially recognized the role played by Spain and Gálvez in the American Revolution. In 2014 Galvez's portrait was hung in the U.S. Capitol, and that same year Congress awarded him Honorary American Citizenship