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 .