The Invasion of Jamaica took place in May 1655, during the 1654 to 1660 Anglo-Spanish War, when an English expeditionary force captured Spanish Jamaica. It was part of an ambitious plan by Oliver Cromwell to acquire new colonies in the Americas, known as the Western Design.
Although major settlements like Santiago de la Vega, now Spanish Town, were poorly defended and quickly occupied, resistance by escaped slaves, or Jamaican Maroons, continued in the interior. The Western Design was largely a failure, but Jamaica remained in English hands, and was formally ceded by Spain in the 1670 Treaty of Madrid.
The Colony of Jamaica remained a British possession until independence in 1962.
1655May, 19
The Invasion of Jamaica begins during the Anglo-Spanish War.
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Events on 1655
- 8Mar
Thirteen Colonies
John Casor becomes the first legally-recognized slave in England's North American colonies where a crime was not committed. - 25Mar
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Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christiaan Huygens. - 31Jul
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Edict of Expulsion
The Whitehall Conference ends with the determination that there was no law preventing Jews from re-entering England after the Edict of Expulsion of 1290.