Britain could never hold onto the 13 colonies even after 178,000 to 224,000 USA deaths to 23,775 approximately in the new world. 500 voluntary native American laid down their life's with Britain with no evidence that any native American joined or tried helping the 13 colonies. The natives suspected they would be no more if Britain lost the their New world colonies which they were not wrong. Even after Britain armed what they could of the 5 civilised tribes but that only bought them time till their eventual capitulation, subjugation & in effect non-existence. Britain was the most reasonable side in this period even shown in your video of how mercy was shown to rescue 400 sailors from burning or drowning after they were bombarding them only moments prior. On a seperate note I doubt India would even exist if the Imperial life line did not allow HEIC=honourable east India company to expand to form the former British RAJ/ Holding Gibraltar was the correct choice for the eventual emergence of the USA which though a mixed bag is better then many of the alternatives & India as a single nation would not exist without the eat India company that later was incorporated into the empire after the Sepoy uprising.
if somebody told me shrapnel was invented in the 18th century by Henry Shrapnel I'd laugh at the obvious joke. Sometimes truth is funnier than fiction 🤣
You can take the rock. You just have to have enough man power and naval technology to outlast the garrison. Till date no force either France or Spain have that much manpower or naval capability to fight there but now since the British capabilities are significantly reduced a combined military will can take over the rock within 48-72 hours.
15:45 "Despite Mrs. Green's great dissatisfaction with what was shaking her bed..:" I have long since made peace with my incurable lack of maturety, so I can shamelessly say: "nice one" :D
RPG game. Where the R part is so limited, you cannot say back a single fukkn word to that dude. Not even in the best and fully enchanted dragon gear. a PG game? similarly: "you still need to prove yourself... whelp"
The portable furnaces the British used were designed by a Prussian engineer who sold it to Britain in return for "enough alcohol to drink himself to death"
Unrelated to this video, this reminds me of the story of Orban, the Hungarian Engineer who built the Siege Bombard. The guy offered his services to the Byzantines a year before the Ottomans besieged Constantinople, the Byzantine emperor of the time Rejected his plans deeming that the whole thing would cost a fortune to make, and they can't do it. Orban then went to the Ottoman Sultan and offered the Bombard to him instead, the Sultan accepted gave him whatever treasure he wanted and then used the Bombard to capture Constantinople.
something I always wonder with these sieges is how much powder, cannonballs/ammo in general did they have? we often hear about food running out but I would expect guns to consume quite a bit of powder over the span of 2 years as well
True. I'm guessing balls of iron and barrels of gun powder are a lot easier to store en mass than food. As not even rats can eat iron or gun powder and neither spoils (actually a big advantage gun powder has over more modern propellants: As long as you keep it from sepearating - easy done by granulating it - gun powder remains chemicaly stable for centuries, while smokless propellants degrade within a few decades). This will make it easier to amass truly vast stores of the stuff. Further, with Gibralter being a major base, it would have had stores of weapons and ammunition not only for its own defence, but also to resupply royal navy ships operating in the aerea.
A rule of thumb with gunpowder is that a gallon (unit of volume) weighs around 14 pounds, and 50 gallons was a common capacity for bulk-transfer barrels at the time. That means something like 700 pounds of powder in a fairly common barrel size. Now, a typical musket uses something like 70 grains of powder, which works out to nearly a hundred loads per pound (a pound being 7,000 grains) and that means close to 5,000 shots from ourl 50-gallon barrel. A cannon could use anywhere from one to ten pounds of powder per shot, but most cannons are using something near 7 pounds. That still means nearly a hundred shots per barrel. A typical cargo ship could easily carry dozens of barrels, and fortresses could store hundreds of barrels because, as noted by others, gunpowder stored correctly could last indefinitely. This makes powder one of the less problematic things to source in a siege of a sea port with access to the sea. A single supply ship could provide days and even weeks of ammunition. If you see forts running out of ammunition, it is usually because they lacked water access.
@@utilityseptember Norman, Earl of Sandwich. He loved to play cards, and so had his meals served between two pieces of bread so that he didn't have to leave the game to eat. It's thought that he didn't invent this idea, but it still took on his name.
I appreciate that this is a part of American history as much as it is a part of World history. I never knew that this was the reason that the French fleet was able to sail to Yorktown.
Me neither. And for a reason the british and british colonists loyal to the crown were right to be enraged as the war would make britain having to decide what to save as of course no empire can succesfully protect all its colonies
Fun fact. Such was the nationalistic fervor and relief, the four British regiments that had served the length of the sieges, the 12th, 39th, 56th & 58th were awarded the distinction of displaying the word 'Gibraltar ' on their colours and 'appointments' i.e. drums, belt-plates, etc.. Allowing for a couple of instances when individual regiments were favoured by the monarch in recognition of distinguished conduct in battle ( Royal Irish in 1695 and 15th Light Dragoons in 1768) this was the first official campaign honour awarded in the British army, paving the way for similar awards during the Great French War 1793-1815 and on down to the present. Given the timing and the circumstances, it is possible the successful defence of Gibraltar offered a degree of welcome distraction after the recent debâcles in America, It is notable no such honorary distinctions were ever awarded for the fighting in North America. Regimental badges did not exist as we understand them today but in 1836, when the four regiments had become 12th East Suffolk, 39th Dorsetshire, 56th West Essex & 58th Rutlandshire, Royal approval was confirmed for the regiments to add the 'Castle and key' emblem from the arms of Gibraltar as a badge on their colours and appointments. It would later be seen on officers' forage caps and then on regimental cap badges after 1881 when descendants of the above regiments would include the Gibraltar distinctions on insignia. Other regiments who had served during the siege were later awarded 'Gibraltar' and dates without the badge. Three Hanoverian regiments present were also awarded new regimental flags with a representation of the siege. Two descendant regiments in the Imperial German Army, IR73rd and IR79th, still bore 'Gibraltar' as a cuff distinction on their tunics in 1914. And so it goes
That's actually pretty cool to think about, I'm sadly guessing IR 73rd and 79th removed those due to "certain events"? I know another regiment that kept up their traditions through 3 different empires/countries, Austria's IR4's "Hoch und Deutschmiester" has traditions going back from the 1600's and kept them up to current day in Jgr. B1. Regimental lineage and traditions are some pretty interesting subjects, I hope this channel has the time to look at some of them.
@@legoeasycompany As far as I am aware the 'Gibraltar' titles were still being worn during the Great War. Ernst Jungr, an officer in the 73rd refers to the distinctions being removed before a raid and identifiying casualties from his regiment by the "blue Gibraltar badge." This was in 1916.
Spain played a major role in the independence of the United States, diverting forces and attracting the attention of the Royal Navy, providing guns, uniforms, and other logistics through the Spanish Louisiana and the Mississippi River. A helping hand rarely recognized.
I'll be damned, I was aware of the history of Gibraltar and Great Britain but I never knew that it played such a key roll in splitting the attention of Great Britain in two. I learned something new tonight! Drinks are on me tonight, everyone!!
Spain made the mistake (one repeated all too often) of thinking "foreign is better", so french floating batteries (supposedly unsinkable, "supposedly" being the operating word here) replaced the less flashy, but more effective gunboats designed by Barceló.
One mistake was that Spain tried one tactic at the time instead of various like assisting the french batteries with the Spanish ships, so that alone would worry the british about where to fire first. Another mistake was to not assemble enough Spanish and french fleet to counter and destroy incoming british naval supplies. The british were not yet the undisputed masters of the sea until trafalgar, so good Spanish admirals could had organized to destroy a british fleet coming to rescue. Or even to have started the war about taking Menorca, it might even dragged british from gibraltar to rescue the island and then exposes itself
Casterly Rock from a song of ice and fire was based off of gibratar. In the books Casterly Rock is a castle dug out of a rock similar to gibratar rock.
History is even more inspirational than fantasy honestly. There was so much to take from historical events that George R. R. Martin was smart to use them as models in his work
@@stevecooper7883 In regards to the red wedding he based them off a couple Scottish events and said that no matter how brutal he tries to make his stories history has always got something worse
I visited Gibraltar on a tour in 2018. Aww inspiring place. The tunnels are haunting and beautiful. The people are friendly and still very British. Patriotism runs deep.
The tunnels were dug by the Company of Soldier Artificiers led by Sgt Major Ince and the first gun emplacement was dug in by accident when a ventilation 'window' accidentally offered and excellent firing positon. today these are known as the Upper Galleries or the Great Siege Tunnels.
This was really cool! Yall should cover the sieges of Charleston, Yorktown, or Pensacola. Those were some of biggest sieges of the war and are fascinating. Charleston represents some of the fascinating difficulties of North American Logistic Operations Yorktown represented the last major battle of the war and had a series of unique circumstances leading up to and going on during the siege. Such as German Auxilliaries on both sides fighting each other in hand to hand combat. Pensacola is a not well known siege that was part of a fascinating campaign that involved Germans, natives, Spaniards, Americans, and the British. I'm always looking forward to the next video on this channel!
Ironically, the loss of the American colonies resulted in Great Britain realizing that colonies were not particularly economically beneficial to the home economy, and that trade could continue without Great Britain having to pay for their defense and governance. Which was economically beneficial to GB.
This video shows how the Siege of Gibraltar was a pivotal event in shaping the outcome of the American Revolution. I hope you continue to explore more connections between European battles and the global impact of American independence.
Amazing video loved it. Honestly it's crazy how close they were to take it so many times. Had they rushed with hundreds of small fire ships when reinforcement arrived that could have been devasting to the British overall
@17:00 The cannons couldn't fire at such an extreme downward angle, so they engineered a solution. This Gibraltar siege feels like I'm watching someone play Dwarf Fortress. When does the alcohol and wild animals get involved?
@@greywolf7577 wadding. The wadding was stuffed in the cannon as the last step of the loading process, holding the entire load in place. gravity alone was not enough to remove it. The ka-Booom, of course, was.
as An American this is the first ive ever heard of the siege of gibraltar having too do with our independence, but i learn something new every day lol..maybe it was a deciding factor idk
The guns in the cliff were accidental. they were blasting to get to a flat area and needed to vent the gasses from the explosives. When they did they realised they had a perfect gun position. And so began the tunnelling of Gib.
What a coincidence that Henry Shrapnel had such a fitting name for developing a grenade that burst into lots of shrapnel. Some guys are lucky bastards😄
I consider myself an above ave. history buff especially this time period. How the hell did I miss this amazing piece of history?? Guess I am not such the history buff after all LOL!! This is perfectly done. SUBSCRIBED!!! Thank you for the education made my day!
Very interesting. It has always surprised me that the British were unable to defeat the Colonial armies but this helps to understand why. Meanwhile Britain even if it had won the revolutionary war is unlikely to have maintained the US colonies until the present day whereas it still owns Gibraltar and is likely to do so for a long time to come.
The Siege of Gibraltar demonstrates the strategic significance of geography in warfare. Gibraltar was not only a symbol of British power but also a crucial gateway connecting the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
Yes, Britain took it during the War of Spanish Succession in 1704 but Spain formally ceded it to Britain under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. This makes Gibraltar British.
Y las Islas Canarias? etc My word, were there really once expansionist Imperial nations reaching out across the world? Once again, we see two bald men arguing over a comb.
Amazing work, i am Gibraltar born, and i can tell you this is the best documentary i have seen on the Great sieges. please make a part 2. (World War 2) ironically a few hundred years later the USA came to save it for the British. from the fascist in Europe ...... :) Even USA President Eisenhower Started the Europe invasion from the Nazis in Gib...Thanks Again and Merry Xmass from The Rock to youall....:)
There was also the Battle Of The Saints, a naval battle where the British retook their position in the Caribbean by defeating a combined Spanish and French fleet, allowing the British to bow out of the US war of Independence without losing too much
@@javiervicedo4201 I stand corrected. The French fleet was on their way to combine with a Spanish fleet when the British intercepted them at the Battle of the Saintes (which I also mispelled), the Franco-Spanish plan had been to conquer Jamaica as their combined plans in Gibraltar werent succeeding. The larger point I made holds, though. Thank you for the correction Not bad, though, considering that was off the top of my head after having read about this 20 years ago.
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The result of this war is bittersweet for the Kingdom of Spain due to its two very contrasting realities: _ The sweet part is that despite the failure of Gibraltar, the Spanish navy managed to successfully accomplish most of its objectives in a direct amphibious offensive confrontation against the British (something unusual, since Spain was generally on the defensive and the closest previous attempt was a disaster in the Seven Years' War): such as reconquering Menorca and Florida, hindering and capturing the Royal Navy's supply convoys to its American colonies (such as the convoy of 1780) and most importantly, strongly helping the independence of the 13 colonies with weapons, supplies and soldiers from Europe, Cuba and Mexico (which avenged the Bourbon defeat in Canada, with the loss of the most important colony that the English had on the continent). _ The bitter part is that, even though Spain was the one that made the greatest economic and military effort to help the United States, it usually omits the Spanish contribution to the war in social media and annual tributes; but also repaid it in a treacherous way by declaring war in 1898 to take Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines from them. As if that were not enough, the example of the independence of the 13 colonies was a dangerous precedent that encouraged future independence revolts and the support of external powers to those movements (mainly the United Kingdom), with negative results for Spain and France (the case of Haiti). P.S: Since you are narrating sieges of the 18th century, I would like to see the one of Cartagena de Indias in 1741 or the Siege of Pensacola in 1781.
I am grateful for the information on the Spanish, but observe that America gives scant gratitude to France, and we can hardly expect gratitude to Spain by comparison. I do not blame individuals, but the absurd institutionalised hagiography surrounding e.g. minutemen. Enormous harm has been done to America by indulging fanfiction.
@@tamlandipper29 Literally what? I understand "Americans bad and also dumb" is a popular take now, and I will freely admit that few know about the Spanish and Dutch contributions, but we absolutely learn about French help in school. The fact that we learn more about the battles that actually happened on our current territory is by no means "fanfiction".
@@bamainguy Well, it's not exactly a positive for Spain as stated by OP, in Spain's perspectives of those revolts is it?
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@@bamainguy What good did Bolivar's "achievements" do for us? In my country he led us to a century of misery and civil wars for following his ideals, he led the countries of South America to kneel before the economic monopoly of the English master (for whom he worked, with the Freemasonry as a link) and to lose power until we became a handful of third world nations. Look, sooner or later independence was going to happen because of how the 19th century was all over the world, but because of Bolivar, we went from having a controlled emancipation like Brazil did with Portugal (and like San Martin wanted in the interview he had with the "Libertador"), to ending up with several proto-countries ruined by constant fights between brothers. Without Bolivar, surely something would have happened that served the interests of Hispanic America better and less the interests of the French and the British; I'm almost certain that if we had become independent 20 or 30 years after what actually happened, we would currently have something closer to the British Commonwealth than to the left and right blocks that exist today, full of corruption.
Both the Caribbean, financially more valuable and also being fought over and Gibraltar (strategically), were more important at that time than the 13 colonies. The cost of defending the colonies during the French and Indian war on put a financial strain Britain, the colonies were beginning to cost more than they were worth.
@@JDealer18 For a time they did. At different times both Tobacco from the 13 colonies and sugar from the Caribbean became so valuable they were used as currency, Silver from Spanish mines in Bolivia soon became the driver of global trade and made Spain rich. The loss of a Spanish treasure fleet to a storm was enough to cause a recession in Europe. But as with everything the economics changes. They started to grow tobacco and sugar elsewhere and new sources of precious metals were found, so the economic values of the colonies changed. Same thing happened to the Confederacy during the civil war. They thought the UK's reliance on southern cotton would be enough to get them to side with Confederacy but the UK just developed new sources of cotton.
I was there two months ago and it was great. IMO it's worth the 50 £ to take the tour minibuses. The driver was very knowledgeable and you don't have to walk up and down the Rock.
As nice as the British perspective was, it would be interesting to hear some more comments from the Spanish perspective, especially some of the decisions they deigned not to make
@@ignacio4159Exactly, the war was in general a total success for Spanish arms on all fronts and even more so if it had lasted a little longer, since Bernardo de Galves was preparing an invasion of Jamaica. Simply no one could compete with British naval superiority and that marked the course of the entire siege, added to the fact that they could not afford to send so many troops to suicide in an assault on such a strong position without gaining some advantage with hunger or artillery.
the siege was a british victory;thanks to the british fleet which broke the blockade,Lord Elliott received supplies and the Spaniards and the French were compelled to retire
Trading Gilbralta for 13 Colonies was a correct move. With how GB treated their subjects, revolutions would still happens anyways, while The Rock was the backbone for GB international policies And salute Curtis. What a heroic move from him, tried to save even his enemies from their demise
@@dat_toonie That is a ridiculous statement and one that could not have been made at the time. The 13 colonies were the entry gate to a much bigger territory and worth intrinsically much more as a base with which to threaten the Spanish empires which was a big objective as proved with the siege of Cartagena. The fact that subsequently the emphasis of expansion was changed eastwards as a result of the loss of the 13 colonies does not alter that fact.
@@CarlosRomero-u6h The colonies for Gibralta would have been the correct play IF the colonies were still winnable..... but I don't think they were. The US colonies were too far gone at that point.
Definitely one of the most interesting sieges in history and it's surprising how little people know of it. One of histories longest sieges and most unlikely defensive victories considering the wider war and the amount of men and material the attacker could call on being quite literally on the doorstep of their own country. The British innovated, quite literally creating whole new variants of weaponry and ammunition and showed great initiative in striking at the Spanish rather than waiting for them to come to them. I suppose it being part of the American revolution is why not many people know about it despite it's incredible impact on history, Americans weren't involved so they don't care. But then again that's the revolution in a nutshell. The closer you look the closer you realise the only reason it succeeded was because of literally everyone other than America, i.e. France and Spain XD.
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Britain could never hold onto the 13 colonies even after 178,000 to 224,000 USA deaths to 23,775 approximately in the new world.
500 voluntary native American laid down their life's with Britain with no evidence that any native American joined or tried helping the 13 colonies.
The natives suspected they would be no more if Britain lost the their New world colonies which they were not wrong.
Even after Britain armed what they could of the 5 civilised tribes but that only bought them time till their eventual capitulation, subjugation & in effect non-existence.
Britain was the most reasonable side in this period even shown in your video of how mercy was shown to rescue 400 sailors from burning or drowning after they were bombarding them only moments prior.
On a seperate note I doubt India would even exist if the Imperial life line did not allow HEIC=honourable east India company to expand to form the former British RAJ/
Holding Gibraltar was the correct choice for the eventual emergence of the USA which though a mixed bag is better then many of the alternatives & India as a single nation would not exist without the eat India company that later was incorporated into the empire after the Sepoy uprising.
I'm curious whether this service is even legal in Hungary, considering how much things have changed in 2015 after what happened in Paris.
if somebody told me shrapnel was invented in the 18th century by Henry Shrapnel I'd laugh at the obvious joke. Sometimes truth is funnier than fiction 🤣
And not even to mention the grandfather of 70's pop singer, Roberta Flack
wait till you hear how the sandwich was invented in the 18th century by a guy with the title "The Earl of Sandwich"
And the WC was invented by Thomas Crapper
I always just assumed the word Shrapnel was derived from French.
Handheld shrapnel grenades go back to at least the Middle if not High Middle Ages.
"One does not simply take The Rock"
You can take the rock. You just have to have enough man power and naval technology to outlast the garrison. Till date no force either France or Spain have that much manpower or naval capability to fight there but now since the British capabilities are significantly reduced a combined military will can take over the rock within 48-72 hours.
Famous last words.
The English and Dutch didn't know and took it in 1704.
Tell that to General Hummel
Its about drive! Its about power! We stay hungry, we devour! 🤨🤨
15:45 "Despite Mrs. Green's great dissatisfaction with what was shaking her bed..:"
I have long since made peace with my incurable lack of maturety, so I can shamelessly say: "nice one" :D
LOL
Deadpool would like to have a word with you
"Do you get to the sky battery very often?
Oh what am I saying?
Of course you don't."
RPG game. Where the R part is so limited, you cannot say back a single fukkn word to that dude. Not even in the best and fully enchanted dragon gear.
a PG game?
similarly:
"you still need to prove yourself... whelp"
The portable furnaces the British used were designed by a Prussian engineer who sold it to Britain in return for "enough alcohol to drink himself to death"
wow i had no idea of that, the narrator didnt mentionned it. Yeah it did sounded quite prussian lol
He then did indeed drink himself to death within a year of this deal
Unrelated to this video, this reminds me of the story of Orban, the Hungarian Engineer who built the Siege Bombard. The guy offered his services to the Byzantines a year before the Ottomans besieged Constantinople, the Byzantine emperor of the time Rejected his plans deeming that the whole thing would cost a fortune to make, and they can't do it. Orban then went to the Ottoman Sultan and offered the Bombard to him instead, the Sultan accepted gave him whatever treasure he wanted and then used the Bombard to capture Constantinople.
As one normally does 😂
@@dbcooper-101 and then said bombard blew up and tore Orban to pieces during the siege
Kinda poetic
something I always wonder with these sieges is how much powder, cannonballs/ammo in general did they have? we often hear about food running out but I would expect guns to consume quite a bit of powder over the span of 2 years as well
It’s easier to stock gunpowder and canon balls than food and water since they hardly spoil.
True. I'm guessing balls of iron and barrels of gun powder are a lot easier to store en mass than food.
As not even rats can eat iron or gun powder and neither spoils (actually a big advantage gun powder has over more modern propellants: As long as you keep it from sepearating - easy done by granulating it - gun powder remains chemicaly stable for centuries, while smokless propellants degrade within a few decades).
This will make it easier to amass truly vast stores of the stuff.
Further, with Gibralter being a major base, it would have had stores of weapons and ammunition not only for its own defence, but also to resupply royal navy ships operating in the aerea.
Maybe the suplies ships from englend
A rule of thumb with gunpowder is that a gallon (unit of volume) weighs around 14 pounds, and 50 gallons was a common capacity for bulk-transfer barrels at the time. That means something like 700 pounds of powder in a fairly common barrel size.
Now, a typical musket uses something like 70 grains of powder, which works out to nearly a hundred loads per pound (a pound being 7,000 grains) and that means close to 5,000 shots from ourl 50-gallon barrel.
A cannon could use anywhere from one to ten pounds of powder per shot, but most cannons are using something near 7 pounds. That still means nearly a hundred shots per barrel.
A typical cargo ship could easily carry dozens of barrels, and fortresses could store hundreds of barrels because, as noted by others, gunpowder stored correctly could last indefinitely.
This makes powder one of the less problematic things to source in a siege of a sea port with access to the sea. A single supply ship could provide days and even weeks of ammunition.
If you see forts running out of ammunition, it is usually because they lacked water access.
@@genericpersonx333 700 pounds in a barrel, 100 shots per pound. That's 700 x 100 = 70,000 shots, not 5000?
7:00 I did not know at all that "shrapnell" was named after a guy. I always assumed it was just a normal word.
yea, like Sandwich :-D
@@mandranmagelan9430 sandwich is named after a guy?!
@@utilityseptember yep :-D
@@utilityseptemberEarl of Sandwich?
@@utilityseptember Norman, Earl of Sandwich. He loved to play cards, and so had his meals served between two pieces of bread so that he didn't have to leave the game to eat. It's thought that he didn't invent this idea, but it still took on his name.
I appreciate that this is a part of American history as much as it is a part of World history. I never knew that this was the reason that the French fleet was able to sail to Yorktown.
Me neither. And for a reason the british and british colonists loyal to the crown were right to be enraged as the war would make britain having to decide what to save as of course no empire can succesfully protect all its colonies
a truly staggering and great siege! excited and hyped for the video!
When ships were made of wood and men were made of steel
@@clintmoor422 Well thats certainly not what the super rich siege tourists said!
Fun fact. Such was the nationalistic fervor and relief, the four British regiments that had served the length of the sieges, the 12th, 39th, 56th & 58th were awarded the distinction of displaying the word 'Gibraltar ' on their colours and 'appointments' i.e. drums, belt-plates, etc.. Allowing for a couple of instances when individual regiments were favoured by the monarch in recognition of distinguished conduct in battle ( Royal Irish in 1695 and 15th Light Dragoons in 1768) this was the first official campaign honour awarded in the British army, paving the way for similar awards during the Great French War 1793-1815 and on down to the present.
Given the timing and the circumstances, it is possible the successful defence of Gibraltar offered a degree of welcome distraction after the recent debâcles in America, It is notable no such honorary distinctions were ever awarded for the fighting in North America.
Regimental badges did not exist as we understand them today but in 1836, when the four regiments had become 12th East Suffolk, 39th Dorsetshire, 56th West Essex & 58th Rutlandshire, Royal approval was confirmed for the regiments to add the 'Castle and key' emblem from the arms of Gibraltar as a badge on their colours and appointments. It would later be seen on officers' forage caps and then on regimental cap badges after 1881 when descendants of the above regiments would include the Gibraltar distinctions on insignia. Other regiments who had served during the siege were later awarded 'Gibraltar' and dates without the badge. Three Hanoverian regiments present were also awarded new regimental flags with a representation of the siege. Two descendant regiments in the Imperial German Army, IR73rd and IR79th, still bore 'Gibraltar' as a cuff distinction on their tunics in 1914.
And so it goes
That's actually pretty cool to think about, I'm sadly guessing IR 73rd and 79th removed those due to "certain events"? I know another regiment that kept up their traditions through 3 different empires/countries, Austria's IR4's "Hoch und Deutschmiester" has traditions going back from the 1600's and kept them up to current day in Jgr. B1. Regimental lineage and traditions are some pretty interesting subjects, I hope this channel has the time to look at some of them.
@@legoeasycompany As far as I am aware the 'Gibraltar' titles were still being worn during the Great War. Ernst Jungr, an officer in the 73rd refers to the distinctions being removed before a raid and identifiying casualties from his regiment by the "blue Gibraltar badge." This was in 1916.
"Great French War" lmao
Spain played a major role in the independence of the United States, diverting forces and attracting the attention of the Royal Navy, providing guns, uniforms, and other logistics through the Spanish Louisiana and the Mississippi River. A helping hand rarely recognized.
30:09 A great show of empathy and humanity.
Yes, very. Did they rescued French only or Spaniards? As the batteries could had Spanish crew as well
@@saguntum-iberian-greekkons7014I don't think they would of been to good at distinguishing, so likely whoever they could help.
Henry Shrapnel would be FAR more famous if not for the existence of his cousin, Ralph Thermonuclear Warhead.
Negasonic teenage WHAT THE SHIT? That's the coolest name ever.
As someone who lives in Gibraltar, I thoroughly enjoyed your video.
I'll be damned, I was aware of the history of Gibraltar and Great Britain but I never knew that it played such a key roll in splitting the attention of Great Britain in two.
I learned something new tonight! Drinks are on me tonight, everyone!!
Spain made the mistake (one repeated all too often) of thinking "foreign is better", so french floating batteries (supposedly unsinkable, "supposedly" being the operating word here) replaced the less flashy, but more effective gunboats designed by Barceló.
One mistake was that Spain tried one tactic at the time instead of various like assisting the french batteries with the Spanish ships, so that alone would worry the british about where to fire first.
Another mistake was to not assemble enough Spanish and french fleet to counter and destroy incoming british naval supplies.
The british were not yet the undisputed masters of the sea until trafalgar, so good Spanish admirals could had organized to destroy a british fleet coming to rescue.
Or even to have started the war about taking Menorca, it might even dragged british from gibraltar to rescue the island and then exposes itself
Spain was just a junior player to France at that time
@@saguntum-iberian-greekkons7014 The mistake was to ally with the French.
Outstanding and fascinating video, can't get enough of your work!
Felicitari pentru episod si multa sanatate amandurora! 🇷🇴
Not just a siege, a Great Siege.
Thank you!
Casterly Rock from a song of ice and fire was based off of gibratar. In the books Casterly Rock is a castle dug out of a rock similar to gibratar rock.
History is even more inspirational than fantasy honestly. There was so much to take from historical events that George R. R. Martin was smart to use them as models in his work
@@stevecooper7883 In regards to the red wedding he based them off a couple Scottish events and said that no matter how brutal he tries to make his stories history has always got something worse
This was an awesome video to see the effects of every action causes a ripple that changed the world
i spent an afternoon there touring the tunnels.. the strait is so small you could swim across in the right condition.
Supporting the algorithm!
- Great video, amazing content and invaluable knowledge all in one amazing channel!
I absolutely love your videos, staggering sieges especially
another amazing video, your work is outstanding
2:41 the rotating compass is an amazing touch
Fascinating, keep up the great work!
History Rebels and SandRhoman posting in the same week! A most welcome moment!
Nice video. Watched some of yours when you were just starting ,and your storytelling has improved enough for a subscruption.
I love these brilliant videos.
Good stuff. I love history, and your videos bring history to life.
It's good to know more about this Siege. I've known precious little till this video. Nice job.
I visited Gibraltar on a tour in 2018. Aww inspiring place. The tunnels are haunting and beautiful. The people are friendly and still very British. Patriotism runs deep.
Awesome information. Awesome video
The tunnels were dug by the Company of Soldier Artificiers led by Sgt Major Ince and the first gun emplacement was dug in by accident when a ventilation 'window' accidentally offered and excellent firing positon. today these are known as the Upper Galleries or the Great Siege Tunnels.
This was really cool!
Yall should cover the sieges of Charleston, Yorktown, or Pensacola. Those were some of biggest sieges of the war and are fascinating.
Charleston represents some of the fascinating difficulties of North American Logistic Operations
Yorktown represented the last major battle of the war and had a series of unique circumstances leading up to and going on during the siege. Such as German Auxilliaries on both sides fighting each other in hand to hand combat.
Pensacola is a not well known siege that was part of a fascinating campaign that involved Germans, natives, Spaniards, Americans, and the British.
I'm always looking forward to the next video on this channel!
The probably is that American Sieges are pretty boring compared to european ones
Ironically, the loss of the American colonies resulted in Great Britain realizing that colonies were not particularly economically beneficial to the home economy, and that trade could continue without Great Britain having to pay for their defense and governance. Which was economically beneficial to GB.
Sounds like an excuse for getting ass kicked by fledgling country when gb been empire over 200 yrs
26:10 😂 so they pioneered the red hot nickel ball in a sense...well not exactly nickel, but the same idea
This video shows how the Siege of Gibraltar was a pivotal event in shaping the outcome of the American Revolution. I hope you continue to explore more connections between European battles and the global impact of American independence.
Amazing video loved it. Honestly it's crazy how close they were to take it so many times. Had they rushed with hundreds of small fire ships when reinforcement arrived that could have been devasting to the British overall
@17:00 The cannons couldn't fire at such an extreme downward angle, so they engineered a solution. This Gibraltar siege feels like I'm watching someone play Dwarf Fortress. When does the alcohol and wild animals get involved?
many young men at war? I am sure that alcohol was pretty involved
How did they stop the cannon balls from rolling out before they were fired downward?
@@greywolf7577 wadding. The wadding was stuffed in the cannon as the last step of the loading process, holding the entire load in place.
gravity alone was not enough to remove it. The ka-Booom, of course, was.
@@greywolf7577stuffed with wadding maybe?
Britain fought a lot other wars while fighting the American Revolution and War of 1812 with America
It's crazy how this one siege led to so many military innovations.
Very nice video, learnt a lot, thanks!
This was a great siege, glad you made this video 👍
as An American this is the first ive ever heard of the siege of gibraltar having too do with our independence, but i learn something new every day lol..maybe it was a deciding factor idk
Amazing work! I knew there were more staggering seiges to cover.
Your style and knowledge background I can only imagine you doing an episode about Vicksburg
Sweet, new history channel. Thanks, Captain Algorythym 💙
The guns in the cliff were accidental. they were blasting to get to a flat area and needed to vent the gasses from the explosives. When they did they realised they had a perfect gun position. And so began the tunnelling of Gib.
What a coincidence that Henry Shrapnel had such a fitting name for developing a grenade that burst into lots of shrapnel. Some guys are lucky bastards😄
21:06
-Town Crier: "Yorktown is lost!"
-Dog: "No shit!?"
I consider myself an above ave. history buff especially this time period. How the hell did I miss this amazing piece of history?? Guess I am not such the history buff after all LOL!! This is perfectly done. SUBSCRIBED!!! Thank you for the education made my day!
Thanks, I am glad you enjoyed it!
Excellent video.
Good content and well delivered
Excellent work, well done
So many innovations in one battle
Fantastic video. Thanks and subbed.
Impressive documentary!
great video, you did a great job
Very interesting. It has always surprised me that the British were unable to defeat the Colonial armies but this helps to understand why. Meanwhile Britain even if it had won the revolutionary war is unlikely to have maintained the US colonies until the present day whereas it still owns Gibraltar and is likely to do so for a long time to come.
Fireships inspired the one of the main events in the novels of Horatio Hornblower. A real threat at the time!
I believe it's also the title of one of the tv adaptations
i had no idea this even took place. thanks for the info
Thanks sandroman for this epic history
The Siege of Gibraltar demonstrates the strategic significance of geography in warfare. Gibraltar was not only a symbol of British power but also a crucial gateway connecting the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
Fantastic video again.
Yes, Britain took it during the War of Spanish Succession in 1704 but Spain formally ceded it to Britain under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. This makes Gibraltar British.
Gibraltar Español
@@josealedodiz5799 What about Ceuta and Melilla?
@mickuljatheseagull ¿ Y Malvinas e Irlanda del Norte?
Y las Islas Canarias? etc
My word, were there really once expansionist Imperial nations reaching out across the world?
Once again, we see two bald men arguing over a comb.
@@josealedodiz5799 Yes, The Falklands and Northern Ireland are British.
Shrapnel is a name?? That's crazy. I always assumed it was just a word that described a lot of small explosive projectiles
Mr Hoover says thank you
One large explosive projectile, containing a lethal quantity of small inert ones.
Amazing work, i am Gibraltar born, and i can tell you this is the best documentary i have seen on the Great sieges. please make a part 2.
(World War 2) ironically a few hundred years later the USA came to save it for the British. from the fascist in Europe ...... :) Even USA President Eisenhower Started the Europe invasion from the Nazis in Gib...Thanks Again and Merry Xmass from The Rock to youall....:)
There was also the Battle Of The Saints, a naval battle where the British retook their position in the Caribbean by defeating a combined Spanish and French fleet, allowing the British to bow out of the US war of Independence without losing too much
No Spanish at that battle
@@javiervicedo4201
I stand corrected.
The French fleet was on their way to combine with a Spanish fleet when the British intercepted them at the Battle of the Saintes (which I also mispelled), the Franco-Spanish plan had been to conquer Jamaica as their combined plans in Gibraltar werent succeeding.
The larger point I made holds, though.
Thank you for the correction
Not bad, though, considering that was off the top of my head after having read about this 20 years ago.
The result of this war is bittersweet for the Kingdom of Spain due to its two very contrasting realities:
_ The sweet part is that despite the failure of Gibraltar, the Spanish navy managed to successfully accomplish most of its objectives in a direct amphibious offensive confrontation against the British (something unusual, since Spain was generally on the defensive and the closest previous attempt was a disaster in the Seven Years' War): such as reconquering Menorca and Florida, hindering and capturing the Royal Navy's supply convoys to its American colonies (such as the convoy of 1780) and most importantly, strongly helping the independence of the 13 colonies with weapons, supplies and soldiers from Europe, Cuba and Mexico (which avenged the Bourbon defeat in Canada, with the loss of the most important colony that the English had on the continent).
_ The bitter part is that, even though Spain was the one that made the greatest economic and military effort to help the United States, it usually omits the Spanish contribution to the war in social media and annual tributes; but also repaid it in a treacherous way by declaring war in 1898 to take Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines from them. As if that were not enough, the example of the independence of the 13 colonies was a dangerous precedent that encouraged future independence revolts and the support of external powers to those movements (mainly the United Kingdom), with negative results for Spain and France (the case of Haiti).
P.S: Since you are narrating sieges of the 18th century, I would like to see the one of Cartagena de Indias in 1741 or the Siege of Pensacola in 1781.
I am grateful for the information on the Spanish, but observe that America gives scant gratitude to France, and we can hardly expect gratitude to Spain by comparison. I do not blame individuals, but the absurd institutionalised hagiography surrounding e.g. minutemen. Enormous harm has been done to America by indulging fanfiction.
@@tamlandipper29 Literally what? I understand "Americans bad and also dumb" is a popular take now, and I will freely admit that few know about the Spanish and Dutch contributions, but we absolutely learn about French help in school. The fact that we learn more about the battles that actually happened on our current territory is by no means "fanfiction".
Bolivar's name will live forever, as will Louverture's. To call their acheivements "negative" is ridiculous
@@bamainguy Well, it's not exactly a positive for Spain as stated by OP, in Spain's perspectives of those revolts is it?
@@bamainguy What good did Bolivar's "achievements" do for us? In my country he led us to a century of misery and civil wars for following his ideals, he led the countries of South America to kneel before the economic monopoly of the English master (for whom he worked, with the Freemasonry as a link) and to lose power until we became a handful of third world nations.
Look, sooner or later independence was going to happen because of how the 19th century was all over the world, but because of Bolivar, we went from having a controlled emancipation like Brazil did with Portugal (and like San Martin wanted in the interview he had with the "Libertador"), to ending up with several proto-countries ruined by constant fights between brothers.
Without Bolivar, surely something would have happened that served the interests of Hispanic America better and less the interests of the French and the British; I'm almost certain that if we had become independent 20 or 30 years after what actually happened, we would currently have something closer to the British Commonwealth than to the left and right blocks that exist today, full of corruption.
Great video. Love your channel!
Both the Caribbean, financially more valuable and also being fought over and Gibraltar (strategically), were more important at that time than the 13 colonies. The cost of defending the colonies during the French and Indian war on put a financial strain Britain, the colonies were beginning to cost more than they were worth.
the colonies always costed more than they were worth, I'm pretty sure the crown never made a profit off any of them
@@JDealer18 For a time they did. At different times both Tobacco from the 13 colonies and sugar from the Caribbean became so valuable they were used as currency, Silver from Spanish mines in Bolivia soon became the driver of global trade and made Spain rich. The loss of a Spanish treasure fleet to a storm was enough to cause a recession in Europe.
But as with everything the economics changes. They started to grow tobacco and sugar elsewhere and new sources of precious metals were found, so the economic values of the colonies changed.
Same thing happened to the Confederacy during the civil war. They thought the UK's reliance on southern cotton would be enough to get them to side with Confederacy but the UK just developed new sources of cotton.
Defending colonies greatly weakened Spain & later repeated itself as England became weak defending hers.
Wheres this dude at? Havent seen him post anything since last year!
I´m missing him to, hope he is ok.
Great video, thank you!
Great video. I get to see Gibralter in person in about 4 months.
You wont be disappointed. The people are great and take a tour of the tunnels
I was there two months ago and it was great. IMO it's worth the 50 £ to take the tour minibuses. The driver was very knowledgeable and you don't have to walk up and down the Rock.
Oh, Shrapnel was an actual dude? I learn new things every day.
Legendary video.
Maybe you could make a vídeo about Bernardo de Gálvez and the Florida during the American Revolution. ….🤔🤔🤔
Nah, that was no English win.
It would be extremely boring
Sand Sand the Seige Man strikes again
As nice as the British perspective was, it would be interesting to hear some more comments from the Spanish perspective, especially some of the decisions they deigned not to make
Excellent
This could be material for an amazing movie
I’ll really never understand how the French & Spanish royally fucked this up.
Well, there is this emerging nation, the United States of America, plus Minorca is no longer a English base.
There does seem to be a great deal of incompetence. Especially on the part of the Spanish commander.
Spain got all its war goals except Gibraltar.
@@ignacio4159Exactly, the war was in general a total success for Spanish arms on all fronts and even more so if it had lasted a little longer, since Bernardo de Galves was preparing an invasion of Jamaica. Simply no one could compete with British naval superiority and that marked the course of the entire siege, added to the fact that they could not afford to send so many troops to suicide in an assault on such a strong position without gaining some advantage with hunger or artillery.
@@ignacio4159 So except the important one.
the siege was a british victory;thanks to the british fleet which broke the blockade,Lord Elliott received supplies and the Spaniards and the French were compelled to retire
Trading Gilbralta for 13 Colonies was a correct move. With how GB treated their subjects, revolutions would still happens anyways, while The Rock was the backbone for GB international policies
And salute Curtis. What a heroic move from him, tried to save even his enemies from their demise
@@dat_toonie That is a ridiculous statement and one that could not have been made at the time. The 13 colonies were the entry gate to a much bigger territory and worth intrinsically much more as a base with which to threaten the Spanish empires which was a big objective as proved with the siege of Cartagena.
The fact that subsequently the emphasis of expansion was changed eastwards as a result of the loss of the 13 colonies does not alter that fact.
@@CarlosRomero-u6h The colonies for Gibralta would have been the correct play IF the colonies were still winnable..... but I don't think they were. The US colonies were too far gone at that point.
17:25 I’m now wondering if Spain could’ve significantly weakened the defenders by sending rats to Gibraltar
It wouldn't have worked... the rats were already there...
They would just turn into rations.
Definitely one of the most interesting sieges in history and it's surprising how little people know of it. One of histories longest sieges and most unlikely defensive victories considering the wider war and the amount of men and material the attacker could call on being quite literally on the doorstep of their own country. The British innovated, quite literally creating whole new variants of weaponry and ammunition and showed great initiative in striking at the Spanish rather than waiting for them to come to them.
I suppose it being part of the American revolution is why not many people know about it despite it's incredible impact on history, Americans weren't involved so they don't care. But then again that's the revolution in a nutshell. The closer you look the closer you realise the only reason it succeeded was because of literally everyone other than America, i.e. France and Spain XD.
Very interesting
great one
NICE
Ooh, that intro string riff would make for an absolutely KILLER intro to a symphonic black metal song ! Can anyone tell me the name of the piece ?
A video on Child's war would be interesting especially siege of mumbai by Mughal forces.
incredible
War was so interesting
Incredible video! It's mind-blowing how close they came to victory multiple times. A fleet of small fire ships could have been a game-changer.
Who tried so hard but it was imposible. The rock was very well defended and the península is a tower.
Holy, first other than sandroman!
Henry Shrapnel, got it👍