Tag Archives: British Colonies

Sir Henry Morgan

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Sir Henry Morgan has a very bad press here in Panama, blamed for the
capture and ransacking of Porto Bello, the ruthless destruction of the
Spanish fleet that attempted to relieve the city and then burning the
original Panama City. With the recent discovery of what might be
Morgan’s flagship, the ‘Satisfaction’ by archaeologists from Texas
State University, maybe it is time to reconsider Henry Morgan’s
reputation.
Not much is known about Henry Morgan’s early life, even his birth date
is unknown (but estimated to be around 1635), he was related to the
English nobility, but had to make his own way in life. Te first
records of him date from around 1655, when he travelled to Barbados as
a servant to a cutler. He might have been involved in the capture of
Jamaica from Spain during the Anglo-Spanish war of 1654-1660.
At this time, the Spanish Empire was the largest in the world, while
England, though still major world power, with colonies in North
America and trading links throughout the world, was recovering from a
civil war which had cost hundreds of thousands of lives. In order to
fight wars, particularly in distant parts, the English (and other
nation’s) government created ‘privateers’, private vessels and crews
who were authorized to attack foreign vessels belonging to hostile
powers. Morgan became just such a privateer, and although England and
Spain were formally at peace after 1660, worries that the Spanish
might try to reclaim Jamaica resulted in the English colonies in the
region maintaining the privateer fleet and encouraging them to harass
the Spanish. The English government tried to end the practice, such
was the paranoia at the time, that new governors appointed to end the
practice, soon supported it.
It was against this background that Morgan led a number of attacks on
Spanish vessels and settlements, capturing vessels and eventually
becoming admiral of the privateer fleet. Throughout this period,
Morgan took commissions from the governor of Jamaica. However, by
1668, these raids were not producing the expected financial returns,
and so Morgan independently led his fleet against Porto Bello,
capturing and holding the city for several months and ambushing and
destroying the Spanish fleet sent to relieve the city. Although such
acts were piracy, rather than state-sanctioned, Morgan was always
pardoned and offered further official commissions (since he controlled
the most effective fleet in the Caribbean, and was essential to the
defense of Jamaica.
In 1671, Morgan discovered that Panama was defended by a force of less
than 1,500 soldiers and launched his infamous attack. The Spanish,
although untrained, were prepared, and had evacuated much of Panama
City’s wealth to a ship safely out at sea. Further inexperience was
evident when the Spanish commander ordered the magazines set alight,
causing the fire that destroyed the city. Although Morgan was
subsequently tried in London for piracy (his actions had violated the
peace treaty of 1670), he successfully argued that he was unaware of
the peace treaty and was set free.

How Panama Created the British Empire

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Everyone knows of Panama’s involvement in the Spanish Empire, but it was only when a Scottish friend asked why half of Panama was named after his country that I became aware of he key role that Panama played in creating the British Empire. My friend was exaggerating, half of Panama is not named after Scotland, but still you don’t have to travel too far to find a street or area named ‘Caledonia’ (the Ancient Roman’s name for Scotland). He was rather disappointed to discover that “Alba” is the Spanish for dawn, and nothing to do with the old Scottish Gaelic name for their own country!

The reason for so many places being named ‘Caledonia’ dates back to the 1690s and an attempt by the independent Kingdom of Scotland to compete with it’s European neighbors and found a foreign colony. In the late 17th Century, Scotland was in a poor position, it had no overseas colonies, as England and Spain did, it had few exports, a small economy and was at risk of being overshadowed by its powerful English neighbor to the south. As a result, the country welcomed the scheme presented by William Paterson to establish a colony in Darien in Panama. Unfortunately, it was not well thought through, and although the first colonists to arrive in November 1698 were able to establish a fort and begin clearing land for agriculture, they had arrived ill-prepared to take advantage of the natives hostility to the Spanish and agriculture proved much harder than expected. The heat and disease also took its toll, and while there seemed to be some agreement not to let those at home know how bad things were, when the colony was eventually abandoned, only 300 of the original 1,200 settlers returned to Scotland.

News of the colony’s failure did not reach Scotland before a second expedition set sail. Finding an almost totally abandoned settlement, attempts to rebuild were hindered by Spanish attacks and disillusionment. Eventually, this expedition surrendered to the Spanish and were forced to leave.

The failure of the scheme affected almost everyone in lowland Scotland, everyone had invested or seen someone they knew sail of for the Americas, never to return. Almost 25%of the Scot’s currency was invested in the scheme, and after its failure the economy was almost bankrupt. Within a decade, Scotland had signed the Act of Union with England and became part of Great Britain, which would go on to build the largest empire the world has ever seen.