After the British victory in the Mauritius campaign of 1809–1811, all French possession in the Indian Ocean were at the hands of Britain. France had already lost the use of Cape Town in 1806 after the Battle of Blaauwberg, and of Batavia in 1811 with the British Invasion of Java. Thus, in 1813, the French Navy lacked the advanced bases it needed to support the commerce raiding frigate squadron that it had operated in the previous decade. It was therefore decided to send a force off the Western coast of Africa to disrupt British shipping closer to the metropole, but still far enough to be unreachable to the powerful British naval divisions that blockaded the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay.