Old Fort Nassau | |
---|---|
Old Fort Nassau, The Bahamas | |
Coordinates | 25°04′42″N77°20′44″W / 25.078333°N 77.345556°W |
Type | Defense |
Site information | |
Condition | Destroyed and replaced by British Colonial Hilton Nassau |
Site history | |
Built | 1697 |
Built by | William III |
The Old Fort of Nassau, also known as Fort Nassau, was a fort in Nassau, Bahamas, first built in 1697. The fort lasted for nearly two hundred years with a rich legacy of history until it was finally demolished in 1897. [1] It was located on the north side of Marlborough Street, on the site of the current British Colonial Hilton Nassau. [2] Remnants of the old walls can be seen on the hotel grounds. [2] For many years it was the only fort in Nassau. [3]
Even though Columbus was the first to think of building forts in his newfound islands in Bahamas to secure it for Spain, the idea was put into action only in 1687 by private people with intent on piracy oriented actions, with the tacit compliance of the then governors of the islands, in the Caribbean. The reason for establishing the fort at Bahamas was the sacking of the town and killing of the British Governor by the Spanish with support from French ships which had caused the islanders to flee. In order to prevent further such attacks, at the intervention of Charles II, in 1684 the town was resettled. In order to make the town more secure, an Act was passed in 1695 not only for building of the town but also a defensive fort. This fort was built in 1697 and named Fort Nassau, after King William III (House of Orange-Nassau). It underwent several invasions, rebuilding and eventual dismantling in 1897. [1]
When built in 1697 the fort was fortified with twenty-two cannons. In just three years, part of the fort was damaged in an attack by the Spaniards in 1700, and two years later in 1702 Governor Elias Haskett was imprisoned in the fort. The allied forces of Spain and France attacked New Providence when the fort suffered severe damages with the guns getting immobilized and the inhabitants forced to leave the town. Soon pirates operating from the fort became a common event. [1]
However, on the urgings of the business community of London, George I sent forces, in 1718, to govern the island and to get rid of piratic operations. The governor set to action by restoring the island to normalcy when only one nine pounder cannon was found in the fort in total disrepair. It was only in 1741 that a serious effort was made to get the fort restored under the guidance of an experienced engineer. The fort was renovated in 1744 with fifty-four cannons and twenty-six brass mortars. The process of neglect and frequent repairs followed and in 1776 the fort was attacked by the American Colonies who were fighting the British forces, to capture the ammunition stored here. The American naval forces found only one hundred guns, since the ammunition had been stealthily moved to Boston before the attack. However, the Governor had been taken hostage in the bargain. [1]
The last act of attack on the fort was by the Spaniards in 1782, when they took control of the fort and held it until the war with England ended in 1783. During this time, the valiant effort made by Colonel Deveaux to recapture the fort was fruitful, bringing an end to the saga of repeated attack and destruction of the fort. The fort was garrisoned in 1787 and a new fort (Fort Charlotte) was ordered to be built to defend the island. In the French Revolution that followed, the old fort was allowed to remain in a state of disrepair until it was decided to fully demolish it in 1897. [1]
It was at the ruins of this fort on its western wing that the British Colonial Hilton Hotel was built. [1]
The fort was built of stone in the shape of a 4-pointed star with its two high walled ends projecting northward into the harbor. The fort guarded the western end of the port. [4] However, the reasons for the repeated damages suffered by the fort were attributed to its strategically poor location on a hill promontory which could be easily attacked from the higher hills to its south from where it was subjected to frequent and effective bombardments even with smaller sized guns. [5]
Nassau is the capital and largest city of The Bahamas. It is located on the island of New Providence, which had a population of 246,329 in 2010, or just over 70% of the entire population of The Bahamas. As of April 2023, the preliminary results of the 2022 census of The Bahamas reported a population of 296,522 for New Providence, 74.26% of the country's population. Nassau is commonly defined as a primate city, dwarfing all other towns in the country. It is the centre of commerce, education, law, administration, and media of the country.
The earliest arrival of people in the islands now known as The Bahamas was in the first millennium AD. The first inhabitants of the islands were the Lucayans, an Arawakan language-speaking Taino people, who arrived between about 500 and 800 AD from other islands of the Caribbean.
The era of piracy in the Caribbean began in the 1500s and phased out in the 1830s after the navies of the nations of Western Europe and North America with colonies in the Caribbean began hunting and prosecuting pirates. The period during which pirates were most successful was from the 1650s to the 1730s. Piracy flourished in the Caribbean because of the existence of pirate seaports such as Port Royal in Jamaica, Tortuga in Haiti, and Nassau in the Bahamas. Piracy in the Caribbean was part of a larger historical phenomenon of piracy, as it existed close to major trade and exploration routes in almost all the five oceans.
New Providence is the most populous island in The Bahamas, containing more than 70% of the total population. On the eastern side of the island is the national capital city of Nassau; it had a population of 246,329 at the 2010 Census, and a population of 292,522 at the 2022 census. Nearly three-fourths of The Bahamas's population lives in New Providence.
The Battle of Fort Charlotte, also known as the Siege of Fort Charlotte, was a two-week siege conducted by Spanish general Bernardo de Gálvez against the British fortifications guarding the port of Mobile, during the Anglo-Spanish War of 1779-1783. Fort Charlotte was the last remaining British frontier post capable of threatening New Orleans, Louisiana. Its fall drove the British from the western reaches of West Florida and reduced the British military presence in West Florida to its capital, Pensacola.
The Raid of Nassau was a naval operation and amphibious assault by American forces against the British port of Nassau, Bahamas, during the American Revolutionary War. The raid, designed to resolve the issue of gunpowder shortages, resulted in the seizure of two forts and large quantities of military supplies before the raiders drew back to New England, where they fought an unsuccessful engagement with a British frigate.
Charles Vane was an English pirate who operated in the Bahamas during the end of the Golden Age of Piracy.
Fort Burt is a colonial fort that was erected on the southwest edge of Road Town, Tortola in the British Virgin Islands above Road Reef Marina. The site is now a hotel and restaurant of the same name, and relatively little of the original structure remains. However, one of the original cannons has survived and stands on the veranda of the hotel, vigilantly looking over the harbour.
Fort Montagu is a small fort of four cannon on the eastern shore of New Providence Island (Nassau) Bahamas. Peter Henry Bruce oversaw the construction of the fort that began in 1741 to defend the British possession from Spanish invaders.
The Raid on Nassau was a Spanish military expedition that took place in February 1720 during the War of the Quadruple Alliance wherein Spanish forces assaulted the British settlement of Nassau in an attempt to seize the island of New Providence. Although the Spanish managed to raid outlying posts, the assault on Nassau itself was repelled and the invasion was a failure.
Fort Charlotte is a British-colonial era fort built on a hill overlooking the harbor of Nassau, the capital and largest city of the Bahamas. The fort sits a short walk west of downtown Nassau and the cruise ship terminal. The fort was constructed in the late 18th century by British colonial governor Lord Dunmore after the end of the American Revolutionary war. The fort has never been used in battle. It is one of several English forts that are still standing in Nassau. These forts were to be used as battle stations, to attack the invading Spaniards.
The Capture of the Bahamas took place in April 1783, late in the American Revolutionary War, when a Loyalist expedition under the command of Andrew Deveaux set out to retake the Bahamas from the Spanish. The expedition was successful and Nassau fell without a shot being fired. It was one of the last actions of the entire war.
The Raid on Nassau, on the Bahamian island of New Providence, was a privately raised Franco-Spanish expedition against the English taking place in October 1703, during the War of the Spanish Succession; it was a Franco-Spanish victory, leading to Nassau's brief occupation, then its destruction. The joint Bourbon invasion was led by Blas Moreno Mondragón and Clause Le Chesnaye, with the attack focusing on Nassau, the capital of the English Bahamas, an important base of privateering for English corsairs in the Cuban and Saint Domingue's Caribbean seas. The town of Nassau was quickly taken and sacked, plundered and burnt down. The fort of Nassau was dismantled, and the English governor, with all the English soldiers were carried off prisoners. A year later, Sir Edward Birch, the new English governor, upon landing in Nassau, was so distraught at the ruin he found, that he returned to England after only a few months, without "unfurling his company-issued commission".
The Raid on Charles Town, or Spanish raid on New Providence, was a Spanish naval expedition on 19 January 1684 (O.S.) led by Cuban corsair Juan de Alarcón against the English privateering stronghold of Charles Town, capital of the Bahamas.
The British Colonial Hotel is a historic resort hotel in downtown Nassau, Bahamas, located on the only private beach in Nassau, on the site of the Old Fort of Nassau. The hotel, originally opened in 1924, has been described as "the Grand Dame of all Nassau hotels", "the most elegant and most expensive hotel in town", and "the most distinctive and pleasant of the island's large hotels".
The Spanish–Moro conflict was a series of battles in the Philippines lasting several centuries. It began during the Spanish Philippines and lasted until the Spanish–American War, when Spain finally began to subjugate the Moro people after centuries of attempts to do so. Spain ultimately conquered portions of the Mindanao and Jolo islands and turned the Sultanate of Sulu into a protectorate, establishing geographic dominance over the region until the Spanish-American War. Moro resistance continued.
The siege of Fort Pilar was fought between April and May 1898 on then-town of Zamboanga in Mindanao as a part of the Philippine Revolution. One of the only few actions against Spanish colonials forces in Mindanao, the victory brought about by the Zamboangueño Ethnolinguistic Nation, after their capture of Fort Pilar several weeks later, paved way for the foundation of the short-lived Republic of Zamboanga.
The Republic of Pirates was the base and stronghold of a loose confederacy run by privateers-turned-pirates in Nassau on New Providence island in the Bahamas during the Golden Age of Piracy for about twelve years from 1706 until 1718. While it was not a republic in a formal sense, it was governed by an informal pirate code, which dictated that the crews of the Republic would vote on the leadership of their ships and treat other pirate crews with civility. The term comes from Colin Woodard's book of the same name.
John Cockram was a pirate, trader, and pirate hunter in the Caribbean, best known for his association with Admiral Benjamin Hornigold.
The invasion of the Spice Islands was a military invasion by British forces that took place between February and August 1810 on and around the Dutch owned Maluku Islands also known as the Spice Islands in the Dutch East Indies during the Napoleonic wars.