21. Hostilities in the war did not cease after Yorktown
Following the surrender of the British Army at Yorktown, peace talks in Paris between the American and British commissioners intensified. Great Britain had come to accept that its American colonies were lost, and were concerned with the global extent of the catastrophe which had befallen. The Spanish besieged Gibraltar, a critical outpost which protected British trade in the Mediterranean. French troops fought British colonial interests in India. French fleets threatened the West Indies colonies and other possessions. American independence became a side issue for the French and the Spanish.
France and Spain discussed and began planning for a joint operation to seize the British Colony of Jamaica in 1782. The French fleet which had thwarted the British plans in Virginia returned to the West Indies to take part in operations against the British there. The Windward Islands were targeted, but the real prize was Jamaica, for the value of its sugar plantations, which made it more valuable to the British than the 13 North American colonies combined. The governments of France and Spain agreed on the taking of Jamaica, since the siege of Gibraltar had been a costly drain on resources with little hope of success.
