Attack on Saint Martin

Attack on Saint Martin
Part of the Eighty Years' War
Date 20 March – 17 April 1644 Location Fort Amsterdam, Sint Maarten, Caribbean Sea Result Spanish victory[1]
Belligerents
United Provinces	Spain
Commanders and leaders
Peter Stuyvesant	Gov. Diego Guajardo Fajardo
Strength
8 ships 400~600 men	120 men

The Attack on Saint Martin was a failed attempt by the Dutch Republic to recapture the island and former base of the Dutch West India Company (WIC) from the Spanish. In 1633 the Spanish had invaded Saint-Martin (Sint Maarten) and Anguilla, driving off the French and Dutch inhabitants. The French and Dutch banded together to repel the Spanish and it was during a 1644 sea battle that the Dutch commander Peter Stuyvesant, later the governor of New Amsterdam, unsuccessfully besieged Fort Amsterdam and was forced to retreat with the loss of hundreds of men. A stray Spanish cannonball shattered his leg, which had to be amputated.^[2] But luck was on the Dutch side, and when the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Netherlands ended, the Spanish no longer needed a Caribbean base and just sailed away in 1648.^[3]