Spain's role in the American Revolutionary War was part of a conflict over colonial supremacy between the Kingdom of Spain and the Kingdom of Great Britain while Spain supported the Thirteen Colonies during the War of American Independence. It was a conflict that lasted from 1779 to 1783. In 1776, Spain began joint funding Roderigue Hortalez and Company, a trading company which provided crucial military supplies to the American Revolutionaries. Spain also financed the 1781 Siege of Yorktown with a collection of gold and silver from Havana. Like France, Spain saw the Revolution as an opportunity to weaken the British Empire because it had given Spain substantial losses in the Seven Years' War. However, many in Spain believed that the new country (a descendant of Great Britain) would share the British Empire's aggression and imperial ambitions, trying to capture long-held Spanish territories. As a result, the Spanish did not forge a direct military treaty with the United States, instead, allying with France through the Bourbon Family Compact.