During the War of the Spanish Succession, the island was taken by the French in 1707 with no military action, but in 1708 it was captured by the British, whose sovereignty was recognised in the Treaty of Utrecht (1713). The French returned in 1756, beating the British at sea, and capturing Fort St Philip. In 1763, at the end of the Seven Years' War, the French ceded the island back to Britain. During the American Revolutionary War, the French sided with Spain and invaded Minorca in 1781. It was a part of Spain until being reconquered by the British in 1798, during the French Revolutionary Wars. Britain handed Minorca back to Spain under the Treaty of Amiens (1802), having chosen to keep Malta as a Mediterranean base instead.