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Where the French and Spanish were squarely defeated (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

trafalgar

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'where the french and spanish were squarely defeated' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how they can define each other.

'where the french' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is present in the answer.
'french' could be 'f' (abbreviation) and 'f' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for trafalgar that I've seen before include "Eighteen zero five naval battle" , "Cape" , "Nelson battle and London Square" , "Nelson's eighteen hundred and five victory" , "Nelson's last battle" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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