The Anglo-Spanish War was a limited war fought between the rival European powers of Great Britain and Spain from 1727 to 1729.
Spain's loss of Gibraltar and Menorca to Britain in 1714 at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession created tensions between the Spanish Empire and the British Empire that survived even beyond the War of the Quadruple Alliance, when Spanish revanchism was defeated by an alliance of Britain, France, Austria, and Holland. In 1725, Spain formed an alliance with the Holy Roman Empire in the Treaty of Vienna, while Britain formed an alliance with France and Prussia in response. As both alliances braced for war, in 1726, the British sent a fleet to the Caribbean to disturb Spanish shipping without starting a war.
Britain's goal was to prevent the Spanish treasure fleet from leaving Panama and reaching Iberian Spain with its precious cargo, thus applying economic pressure on King Felipe V of Spain and cowing Spain into abandoning its anti-English alliance. However, tropical disease wiped out over 4,000 of the 4,750 Royal Navy sailors sent to blockade Porto Bello from 1726 to 1728, even killing Vice Admiral Edward Hopson and the rest of the British naval command. The British fleet was forced to withdraw in order to recrew, thus ending the blockade.
In retaliation, the Spanish laid siege to Gibraltar, with 25,000 Spanish Army soldiers besieging 1,500 British Army troops. However, the Spanish retreated after several costly attacks, losing over 1,400 men, while the British lost 300. Spain's plan to utilize its alliance with Austria fell through due to British diplomacy, which kept the Austrians out of the war. In February 1728, a truce was declared, and the 1729 Treaty of Seville restored trading privileges for British and French merchants in Cadiz in exchange for Britain recognizing the right of Spanish queen Elisabeth Farnese's son Carlo to inherit the Duchy of Parma and the Tuscany. However, the war failed to resolve the dispute over Gibraltar, and the lapse of the Anglo-French alliance in 1731 led to Britain allying with Austria and the Spanish realigning towards France; this led to the outbreak of the War of Jenkins' Ear in 1739.