Prussia, Portugal, the Two Sicilies, and the Holy Roman
Empire subsequently pronounced their adherence to the Armed Neutrality,
and Great Britain was confronted by a unanimously hostile Europe.
[Sidenote: The War in Europe]
In the actual operations only three nations figured--France, Spain, and
Holland; and of the three the last named gave little trouble except in
the North Sea. More to be feared were France and Spain, for by them the
British Empire was attacked in all its parts. For a while in 1779 even
the home country was threatened by a Franco-Spanish fleet of sixty-six
sail, convoying an army of 60,000 men; but the plan came to naught.
Powerful Spanish and French forces, launched against Great Britain's
Mediterranean possessions, succeeded in taking Minorca, but were
repulsed by the British garrison of Gibraltar.
[Sidenote: The War in America]
On the continent of North America the insurgent colonists, aided by
French fleets and French soldiers, gained a signal victory. An American
and French army under Washington and Lafayette and a French fleet under
De Grasse suddenly closed in upon the British general, Lord Cornwallis,
in Yorktown, Virginia, and compelled him to surrender on 19 October,
1781, with over 7000 men.
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