Capture of Havana
In the summer of 1762, a British expedition of 200 ships and 26,000 men under the Earl of Albemarle besieged and captured Havana, the capital of Spanish Cuba and the most heavily fortified port in the Western Hemisphere. Spain had entered the war in January 1762 under the Family Compact with France; the British response was immediate. The siege lasted two months; the principal obstacle was not Spanish resistance but disease — yellow fever and dysentery killed more than 10,000 of Albemarle's men, approximately 40% of the expedition. Havana controlled access to the Gulf of Mexico and served as the assembly point for Spain's annual treasure fleets from Mexico and Peru; its capture gave Britain temporary control of the Caribbean's most strategically important harbour and an enormous financial prize from its warehouses and shipping. The city was returned to Spain in the Treaty of Paris in exchange for Florida.
- Year: 1762 CE
- Category: Military
