The Raid on Manila of January 1798 was a Royal Navy false flag military operation during the French Revolutionary Wars intended to scout the strength of the defences of Manila, capital of the Spanish Philippines, capture a Manila galleon and assess the condition of the Spanish Navy squadron maintained in the port. Spain had transformed from an ally of Great Britain in the War of the First Coalition into an enemy in 1796. Thus the presence of a powerful Spanish squadron at Manila posed a threat to the China Fleet, an annual convoy of East Indiaman merchant ships from Macau in Qing Dynasty China to Britain, which was of vital economic importance to Britain. So severe was this threat that a major invasion of the Spanish Philippines had been planned from British India during 1797, but had been called off following the Treaty of Campo Formio in Europe and the possibility of a major war in India between the British East India Company and the Kingdom of Mysore.
To ensure the safety of the merchant ships gathering at Macau in the winter of 1797–98, the British commander in the East Indies, Rear-Admiral Peter Rainier, sent a convoy to China escorted by the frigates HMS Sybille and HMS Fox and commanded by Captain Edward Cooke. After completing his mission Cooke decided to investigate the state of readiness of Spanish forces in Manila himself. He was also intrigued by reports that a ship carrying treasure was due to sail from Manila, which would make a valuable prize. Sailing in Sybille and accompanied by Captain Pulteney Malcolm in Fox, Cooke reached the Spanish capital on 13 January 1798.
Anchored in Manila Bay, Cooke pretended that his ships were French vessels and successfully lured successive boatloads of Spanish officials aboard, taking them prisoner in turn. Once he had determined from his captives the state of defences in Manila, that the treasure ship had been unloaded at Cavite and that the Spanish squadron was undergoing extensive repairs and thus unavailable for operations, he sent a raiding party against a squadron of gunboats in the mouth of the Pasig River. Capturing the gunboats in a bloodless attack, Cooke then released his prisoners and sailed southwards, unsuccessfully assaulting Zamboanga before returning to Macau.
Background
In 1796, after three years of the French Revolutionary Wars, Spain and the French Republic signed the Treaty of San Ildefonso. The secret terms of this treaty required Spain to renounce its alliance with Great Britain and subsequently to declare war on its former ally. In the East Indies this shift of political allegiance meant that the dominant British forces in the region were faced with the threat of attack from the Spanish Philippines to the east. Britain dominated the East Indies in 1796, controlling the trade routes through the Indian Ocean from the ports of Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. Dutch Ceylon, the Dutch Cape Colony and parts of the Dutch East Indies had been captured in 1795, and the French presence in the region had been confined to Île de France and a few subsidiary islands in the Western Indian Ocean.
Some of the most important trade routes began at Canton and Macau in Qing Dynasty China. Early in each year a large convoy known as the "China Fleet", composed of large East Indiaman merchant ships in the employ of the British East India Company, sailed westwards to Europe from Macau laden with tea and other commercial cargo. This convoy was economically significant to Britain: one convoy in 1804 was valued at over £8 million (the equivalent of £ as of ). In January 1797 the convoy had been attacked by the French squadron in the East Indies, comprising six frigates commanded by Contre-amiral Pierre César Charles de Sercey. In the ensuing Bali Strait Incident the commander deceived Sercey into believing that the unescorted convoy contained disguised ships of the line and the French admiral retreated, only learning of his error on his return to Île de France. There was considerable concern in India that Sercey might try again in 1798, or that the Spanish, who maintained a powerful squadron at Cavite, might make an attempt of their own.