Built in 1589 in response to raids on the city, el Morro protected the entrance of the harbor with a chain strung out across the water, known as the boom defense to the fort at La Punta.

[5] Havana's inability to resist invaders was dramatically exposed in 1628 when a Dutch fleet led by Piet Heyn plundered the Spanish ships in the city's harbor.

[8] When Havana surrendered, the admiral of the British fleet, George Keppel, the 3rd Earl of Albemarle, entered the city as a new colonial governor and took control of the whole western part of the island.

The arrival of the British immediately opened up trade with their North American and Caribbean colonies, causing a rapid transformation of Cuban society.

[8] In 1781, General Bernardo de Gálvez, the Spanish governor of Louisiana, reconquered Florida for Spain with Mexican, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Cuban troops.

After Spain abandoned its former policy of neutrality by signing the family compact with France, resulting in a British declaration of war on Spain in January 1762, the British government decided to mount an attack on the critical Spanish fortress and naval base of Havana, to weaken the Spanish presence in the Caribbean and improve the security of its own North American colonies.

A strong British naval force consisting of squadrons from Britain and the West Indies and the military force of British and American troops it convoyed were able to approach Havana from a direction that neither the Spanish governor nor the Admiral expected and were able to trap the Spanish fleet in the Havana harbour and land its troops with relatively little resistance.

The fortress eventually fell after the officer in charge of Morro Castle, Luis Vicente de Velasco, was mortally wounded by a stray bullet.

The capture of Morro Castle led to the eventual fall of the rest of the fortifications and the surrender of the city, the remaining garrison, and the naval forces present before the hurricane season began.

The surrender of Havana led to substantial rewards for the British naval and military leaders and smaller amounts of prize money for other officers and men.

[11] With the arrival of their siege train the next day, the British began erecting batteries among the trees on La Cabana hill overlooking the Morro (some 7 metres (23 ft) higher) as well as the city and the bay.

[12] Charles III of Spain had earlier instructed Prado to fortify this hill, a task that he considered the most urgent of those relating to the fortifications.

By 22 June, four British batteries, totaling twelve heavy guns and 38 mortars, opened fire on the Morro from La Cabana.

Mackellar gradually advanced his breastworks towards the ditch under cover of these batteries, so by the end of the month, the British had increased their daily direct hits on the Morro to 500.

The next day, however, British breastworks around the Morro caught fire, and the batteries were burned down, destroying the product of much of the work undertaken since mid-June.

The debris of the explosion partly filled the ditch, but Albemarle judged it passable,[33] and launched an assault, sending 699 picked men against the right bastion.

[36] Artillery batteries were brought up along the north side of the entrance channel from the Morro fort to La Cabana Hill, where they could be trained directly on the town.

[38] A total of 47 guns (15 × 32-pdrs, 32 × 24-pdrs), ten mortars, and five howitzers pounded the city from a distance of 500–800 m. By the end of the day, Fort la Punta was silenced.

[45][46] In addition, two small frigates or corvettes and two 18-gun sloops, including the Marte commanded by Domingo de Bonechea, and several smaller vessels were captured either along the Cuban coast or in Havana harbour.

The commission placed most of the blame on Prado and Hevia, finding them to have failed to fortify the Cabana hill properly and to have abandoned it too easily, to have crippled the Spanish fleet by sinking blockships that prevented the remainder taking action against the British and surrendered them intact rather than burning them; they had not mounted any significant counterattacks and, finally, had not removed the royal treasury before the surrender.

The regular garrison of about 3,200 would be backed by a disciplined militia of eight infantry battalions and one regiment each of cavalry and dragoons, totaling 7,500 soldiers, with many of the officers from prominent Cuban families.

Still, the British occupation lasted until two months later, when a newly appointed Captain General of Cuba, Alejandro O'Reilly, arrived to re-establish Spanish rule.

A plaque dedicated by the ambassador of the United Kingdom commemorates the 1762 siege, and a small memorial is located between two strong powder rooms in the northeast bastion.

[citation needed] A small turret at the end of the wall offers views of the sea crashing onto the rocks 20 meters below and of the substantial dry moat.

The opposite side of the moat holds more modern guns and cannons, La Bateria de Velasco, and offers a sweeping view down to Cojimar.

[citation needed] A cannon is fired at 9 pm nightly; the "El Cañonazo de las 9" is a leftover custom kept from colonial times signaling the closure of the city gates.

Morro Castle appears in the movie The Ghost Breakers (1940) in the background as Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard enter the harbor by ship.

During his life, the Castro regime imprisoned the Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas (1943-1990) at El Morro Castle for criticism of the government.

The film version of Arenas's autobiography, Before Night Falls (2000), starring Javier Bardem, features scenes set in El Morro Castle prison.

)[citation needed] The Cuban writer José Antonio Echeverría (1815-1885) published his only novel, Antonelli (1839), in the periodical La Cartera Cubana in three parts.