Spanish Alarm

The Spanish Alarm was a period from 1739-1748 in which the Spanish Government sanctioned forces to raid and pillage English port towns along the Province of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The Kingdom of Great Britain without an adequate military presence in these provinces facilitated the provinces to devise local militias to combat the Spanish attacks.

At the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession the Province of North Carolina raised four companies of one hundred men each to join other colonial troops in the siege of Cartagena. In addition to the four hundred men raised for the Cartagena expedition, it was necessary for the colonies to raise forces for the defense of their coastal towns and ports. Spanish attacks the eastern seaboard were meant to disrupt shipping and raid port towns. These raids were continuous from 1741 to 1748.

The raids in the Province of North Carolina were made on the towns and ports of Beaufort Town and Brunswick Town.

The Spanish Alarm occurred from 1739-1748 because of tensions between Britain and Spain rooted in the War of Spanish Succession and the struggle for a balance of power that accompanied it. This increased tension over disagreement of Britain and Spain’s territorial boundaries of Georgia and Florida. Additionally Spain disagreed of English trafficking in the West Indies and of illegal hewing in Honduras. Britain disliked the Spanish Guarda-costas, the Spanish coastal police force, because of their harsh methods to manage and inspect shipping in Spain. “Hostilities between the rival settlements in Georgia and Florida were inevitable” (1). Ultimately, their differences resulted in the War of Jenkins Ear, which began in 1739, which was fought in Europe, the West Indies, Americas, and both sides of the Atlantic.

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