Bernardo Vicente de Galvez y Madrid, 1st Count of Galvez was a Spanish military leader and government official who served as colonial governor of Spanish Louisiana and Cuba, and later as Viceroy of New Spain. Although Spain had not yet joined the American cause, when an American raiding expedition led by James Willing showed up in New Orleans with booty and several captured British ships taken as prizes, Galvez refused to turn the Americans over to the British. In 1779, Spanish forces commanded by Galvez seized the province of West Florida, later known as the Florida Parishes, from the British. Spain's motive was the chance both to recover territories lost to the British, particularly Florida, and to remove the ongoing British threat. Galvez carried out a masterful military campaign and defeated the British colonial forces at Fort Bute, Baton Rouge, and Natchez in 1779. In 1782, forces under Galvez's overall command captured the British naval base at Nassau on New Providence Island in the Bahamas without a shot being fired. n 1783, Bernardo de Galvez was ennobled to the rank of count, promoted to lieutenant-general of the army, and appointed governor and captain-general of Cuba.