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Initially supported by the French, a group of the colonists plotted a revolt, which was officially repudiated by France in 1794 when its governing power changed hands. The Anglo-Saxons continued the conspiracy, quietly encouraged by the French. Eventually arrested and tried by the Spanish, many of these men were landowners who had sworn loyalty to Spain. Bennett has recreated this intriguing scenario through translations of the original Spanish documents of the criminal proceedings against these revolutionaries and through their personal correspondence.
Bennett places these events in the contemporary scene of European and American affairs: the United States playing the careful and ambiguous role of a neutral, marking the beginnings of an American foreign policy; France, in revolt at home and at war with Spain, struggling to gain a foothold in the New World; and Spain, trying to maintain its weakening hold in North America. The territorial ambitions of these three nations mirrored ideological and political conflicts in Europe and helped to shape the two-party system in the United States.
