florida, that they contribute a measly 20%. if it weren't for the florida inland navigation district, we wouldn't have a beautiful atlantic coast intercoastal waterway. >> next on our tour of the history of fort lauderdale, author martha gutierrez steinkamp on her book "spain: the forgotten alliance" about how spain helped america gain independence from great britain. martha: i decided to write this book because every time i mentioned whatever roles gameplay in our, people look at the with a strange face. as a matter of fact, sometimes teachers would say, i've never been this in my entire life. or they would take, oh, sure, sure, you are saying this is you

are spanish and you want to tell this story. i said, no i'm saying it because it really happened. that is why i decided to write it. spain's role was quite significant, because in the very early years, 74 75, also in 76 and in 77, spain was covertly assisting the colonies. why covertly? for two reasons. the first one is the most important, because spain had multiple colonies. how is spain going to support colonies getting beaten by their master? it was a very tricky situation. also at the time, there were situations between spain and england and france after the seven years war, and things were

really complicated. in the beginning actually some of the records in some instances, the moneys bank gave to buy armaments, etc., are registered in the official registries in spain. this is the bank of spain. in their archives, they are titled "expenses of the royal treasure." well, that could be anything. they were just afraid to let the secret out that they were helping the colonists. there were envoys, most of them were in france. they would travel to spain and to america and then back to france so that no one would ever know. in 1775, a company from the

north of spain from buildout -- bilbao would transport gunpowder, all kinds of supplies to the colonies. those were paid by the spanish crown. however, how it was done is the ship would leave -- and this takes a fair amount of knowledge of geography. because the ships would leave and go all the way down to havana and then from there go to spain and boston -- and from there go to boston. no one would ever know. the reason they give this is because this was a family that founded this company, a shipping company. it was import/export, very reputable people who had connections with people in the

colonies, like john cabot and so forth. there has always been this sort of conflict between spain and england. and spain also at the time spain owned most of our country. so they wanted to have a voice or a part in keeping what they had, helping those folks that wanted to get rid of england but they wanted to keep what they had. there were many interests that played into this. getting spain to cooperate with the colonists, but also equally important, in spain and in france, they were kings. and there had been family impacts of you do this and i do this. one of them was, if i go to war you have to go with me. if some attacks me, you have to

attack them. that kind of family relationship existed at that time. the 18th century is a glorious time of the spanish armada. it has been destroyed through history many times. and it was that's just to never have been seen again. that is not so. spain under the reign of charles the third invested a lot into the there are model. and it was a fantastic armada. there were ships of different kinds, the ones with the bigger guns, frigates, all kinds of ships. the idea was to set up a strategy where not only would they go to fight face to face with the english, but they would create strategies that would make the english really not know where to go. because they would be

blocking access to gibraltar, to the colonies, to the caribbean. and the most interesting that i find is that they somehow created, i suppose, an illusion. i don't know what else to call it. the allies, in this case france and spain, would attack -- actually, the united kingdom would attack their country, so they have part of their fleet always guarding their coast. there are just so many places you can be at one time, and this was the case. it took time to plan that strategy to say, yes, we are joining france against england. that was the thing they never said, we are fighting for the colonies. because that was not in their own interest. but they say, we are joining france in the fight against england. that is how they gradually developed. it is such a broad topic, and

wanting to write a small book written for the average reader, not for the scholar, i had to select certain issues that i felt i had to bring to light about the role of spain and make people understand exactly what happened. i focused a little bit on the armada. i focused a little bit on the people that really stepped up. there was the first ambassador from spain to the colonies and so forth. and then i selected the first battle where the british are defeated by what they used to call a bunch of thugs and farmers. that caught everybody's attention. the second was the battle of pensacola, because that drove them out of louisiana and so forth. in the third was yorktown, because yorktown was the battle that defined the triumph of the

colonies. however, the battle of yorktown is not fought by french people like it is mostly believed. at the time, a spanish general was in charge of all troops of the caribbean, french and spanish. and a strategy is agreed upon between the general and the french admiral and also with a minister that was sent from spain to coordinate the french and the spanish. the general -- the strategy that the general decides upon is he will protect the french in the caribbean with his spanish fleet. he is sending with their fleet of two yorktown up to the

chesapeake bay to block the entrance to the bay so the british cannot assist their troops that are there. at that time, george washington had a tremendous number of french soldiers fighting with him, but they were in terrible shape. they had no food. you've probably seen documentaries where people were eating grass and flees. it is true. -- and fleas. it is true. the general decides he's going to go up and protect the french provisions in the caribbean. of course, like every good plan, it needs funding. where does the funding come from? first, the general tries to obtain funds from france. nobody wanted to pay up.

france was in a difficult financial situation. the special envoy to the caribbean decides he's going to get the funding. he goes to cuba and talks the governor into raising the money. and within hours, that money is raised. however at the same time, the minister to the indies gives the order to the mexican viceroy to raise the money and send it. so in fact, the french troops -- or george washington, because he was the person in charge at the time, they got double moneys. they were able to get the supplies and get their people paid. some of them had never been paid and they enlisted. it was a difficult -- since they enlisted. it was a difficult situation. that is when the english troops realized they couldn't win this.

it was impossible and they brought the war to an end. it is interesting to me when i watch these documentaries that they say how the french won the war. no, the french did not win the war. the commoners really won the war -- the colonists really won the war, because those people suffered more than anybody. but if it had not been for the money that came from spain, from colonies in cuba and mexico, and the strategy that the general decided upon, then he would not have happened. france could not by itself confront the english and beat them. and george washington writes early on a letter to governor morris and he said, if the spanish fleet would join, my doubts with side. otherwise i'm just afraid that the french do not have it in their power to defeat the english. eventually, they would have gained independence, because the machinery was rolling and they

would have become independent. they would not have become independent and the time. it would have taken longer, and perhaps the conditions under which they became an independent -- they became independent would not have been the same. they possibly would not have agreed to certain things. possibly, they would have been more discontent among different parties. eventually yes, we would have been distant -- we would have been independent. and not as quickly and not with the results that happened. >> the seminole tribe has six reservations in florida. while we were there, c-span spoke with kathy west. >> kathy west have worked