The British in Manila, 1762-1764
During the Seven Years' War with France and Spain, writes A.P. Thornton, a British expedition from India captured and held the Philippine capital.
“The reduction of the Manilas [Philippines],” commented an enthusiastic contemporary reporter, “will be handed down as a memorable event to the latest posterity.”1 But the bequest has been somehow mislaid, and the oddly raffish “combined operation,” which resulted in the capture of the centre of Spain’s Pacific empire, has managed to escape adequate mention in most of the text-book accounts of the doings of the British on far horizons.
The culmination of the Seven Years’ War saw Britain on a tide of success, and her fighting machine in first-class order. The measure of the French had been taken in North America and in India, while in Europe the resourceful Frederick the Great was pursuing plans of his own at the expense of the British Treasury.
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