Catalonian Volunteers

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Catalonian Volunteers

The Free Company of Catalonian Volunteers was formed in Barcelona in 1767 as part of the Bourbon reorganization of the Spanish military in the Americas. The company participated in the Sonora expedition of 1767–1771, the establishment of California in 1769, the Colorado River Campaign of 1781–1782, the voyage of the expedición de los limites to the Pacific Northwest and Alaska during 1790–1793, as well as the royalist effort to quell the movement for Mexican independence. From 1767 to 1815, the Compañía Franca de Voluntarios de Cataluña assisted in Spain's last great push to secure the northwestern portion of its empire in the Western Hemisphere.

See alsoMexico, Wars and Revolutions: War of Independence .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Joseph P. Sánchez, Spanish Bluecoats: The Catalonian Volunteers in Northwestern New Spain, 1767–1810 (1990).

Additional Bibliography

Soler Vidal, Joseph, and Martín Olmedo. California: La aventura catalana del noroeste. Tlalpan, D.F.: Colegio de Jalisco, 2001.

                                        Joseph P. SÁnchez