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Spanish Armada Essay
In this essay I am going to look at why the Spanish armada wanted to invade Britain and why they failed to do so, was it down to luck or were the British too smart for the Spanish. And was it all England's glory?
The Spanish wanted to invade England was mainly to turn England back into a catholic country, and to get Queen Elizabeth of the throne and to get a queen who was for the catholic monarch on the throne. However there are many other reasons: Firstly Philip II couldn?t accept that was not the king of England, as he was married to Queen Mary I, who was the Queen before Elizabeth. Secondly, when Philip proposed to Elizabeth she turned him down. Another reason is Elizabeth wouldn?t stop the privateers from robbing and sinking Spanish ships, which were carrying gold over the ocean, however it is to be said that Elizabeth ?turned a blind eye to it?, which means that she knew it was happening but wasn?t taking any notice. The last straw was when Elizabeth executed Mary Queen of Scott?s, who would have been Philips choice of queen to rule England, in 1587.
The battle at first sight looked at it should have been a complete walkover for the Spanish, as there army was much stronger, however if you want a successful battle you must have a successful plan. Before the fleet even set off Sir Francis Drake, Vice-Admiral of the English fleet, damaged many of the Spanish ships in Cadiz, this is just one of the reasons why the Spanish failed to invade England. The Spanish set-sail in May 1588 with 131 ships, this was after the bad weather held them back. One of the main downfalls of the plan is when the Spanish were supposed to be landing in the harbour at Calais, on the 6th August 1588, the Spanish were not sure...
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...t of the ships got shipwrecked. The weather was an enemy to the Spanish around 6 times during the whole duration of the battle. So this can go down to luck for the English.
It would be easy to give the glory to England, however the Dutch rebels, who were rather good sailors, gave the English a helping hand to finish off the remains of the Spanish fleet.
I conclusion, it is clear that there was some good smart moves by the English, however most of the battle was down to luck, mainly the weather ,that was on England?s side. It is also quite easy to pick out a number of faults in the plan, the Spanish should have planned better and been more prepared e.g. firing the correct size cannonballs. Also it wasn?t just the English who were attacking the Spanish, the Dutch rebels were good sailors so that would back up the English when perusing the Spanish round Scotland.
In the second half of the eighteenth century, the British were faced with rebelling colonies. Finally realizing that they had to fight to keep their colonial possessions, the British sent troops to America. Once the battles began in America, the British were not impressed with the colonial military, but the weak militias soon proved to be effective. With foreign aid from France, American devotion, and the lack of British vigor, the Americans soon discovered the open doors of independence. In my opinion, the American advantages and the British disadvantages proved to be the downfall of the English in the American Revolution.
The Control of England in North America and Demise of the Spanish Power in the Atlantic
...battle marked the end of the fighting in Northern France. After being pushed out of northern France, Henry VI sent an army to Bordeaux in an attempt to gain at least some territory in France. The French responded by besieging the town of Castillon. In an attempt to lift the siege, the English attack the French force besieging the town. The English are defeated once more and are driven out of both Castillon and Bordeaux. The only remaining English territory in France was the coast of Calais, which remained in English control until the mid 1500s.
Every schoolchild knows that “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” This voyage was the gateway to an age of exploration, triumph, and ruin. Columbus’s voyage introduced the world to a new land and many opportunities. Powerful countries immediately scrambled to grab as much of it for themselves as they could. Two of the most powerful ones were England and Spain. Both wanted a piece of the new land, a way to grow economically or to escape persecution. Even though they had similar goals in mind, England and Spain had vastly different strategies.
In the Battle of Saratoga Horatio Gates along with Benedict Arnold defeated John Burgoyne. Arnold and Gates erected formidable defenses immediately South of Stillwater and then forced the British Army to surrender. This defeat revealed the failure of British strategy. This victory also helped convince France that it could safely enter the war on the American side.
...ing both flanks the remaining infantry moved to attack the Tercio of Naples (the best unit in the Spanish army). The German infantry failed horrendously, and the Spanish veterans held their ground due to some help from the musketeers in the woods. The spanish managed to wound Brunswick and drove his army off the field. The Protestants lost 3,000, 500 were wounded, and 1,500 captured. The spanish couldn’t have asked for a better fight. The Spanish suffered 300 dead and 900 wounded. The following day the Spanish cavalry obliterated the remaining Protestant infantry as they marched. Of the 24,000 men that left the Palatine that day only 3,000 Protestant cavalry managed to reach the next town (Thomas). As shown many times in historical past battles like the persians vs. the greeks numbers don’t matter its the strategy and will of the people to protect their way of life.
Looking back into history, at around the 1500s to the 1600s, people were very much the same in the sense that many countries were looking to aggrandize their economy and appear the greatest. It was this pride and thinking that motivated many of the superpowers of the world’s past. Two such monarchies in the European continent included England and Spain, which had at the time, the best fleets the world has ever seen. Because both were often striving to be the best, they conflicted with one another. Although England and Spain had their differences, they both had a thirst to see new things and it was this hunger that led them both to discovering different parts of the “New World” and thus, colonizing the Americas.
The Spanish Armada was a fleet assembled and dispatched by King Phillip II of Spain in attempt to invade England in 1588. His attempt was unsuccessful. Queen Elizabeth I of England held the defeat of the armada as one of her greatest achievements, assisting the decline of the Spanish Empire. The armada had a mission of both political and religious aims. King Phillip, the leader of the Roman Catholic Spain, was not able to stop a revolt in of his Protestant subjects in the Netherlands, a revolt that began in 1566, aided by Protestant England. By 1586, Phillip had decided that he could not defeat the Dutch until he had defeated England first. Long time religious rivalry between Spain and England was hoped to be resolved by King Phillip in the dethroning of Queen Elizabeth, reconverting England to Catholicism. The plan for conquering had begun. This plan consisted of the coordination of a fleet to sail from Spain and an army from the Netherlands to create a simultaneous invasion of England. His force of 130 ships and more than 30,000 men was to be led by Alonso Peréz Guzmán, duke of Medina- Sidonia. England was aware of the Spanish plans, attacking it at Cádiz, Spain in 1587, succeeding in delaying it for a year. By July of 1588, the armada was spotted off the coast of England on July 29. Lord Charles Howard intercepted it with a larger English fleet near Plymouth, and for the next week made small attacks on the Spanish in battles off of Plymouth, Portland Bill, and the Isle of Wight. Unable to break the Spanish Armada, they waited for their chance at a big blow. The opportunity finally arrived when the armada anchored near Calais, France, hoping to join troops scheduled to sail from the Netherlands. Ingeniously, Howard ordered ships set on fire to be sent against the armada, producing a panic that broke the Spanish formation. In the ensuing battle of Gravelines, on August 8, the Spanish were defeated by England and the armada sailed home with remaining ships that were heavily damaged to Spain; 67 of the original 130 ships reached Spain, most in poor condition.
With the help of new technology the Allies were able to come away victorious against Germany in the Battle of the Atlantic. The Battle of the Atlantic was one of the most important fights ever fought in all the annals of war. The Atlantic battle was fought for three years in an ocean over 3,000 miles wide and stretched from the Artic Sea in the north to the south of the Equator. This battle proved the most prolonged and complex battle in the history of naval warfare. The Battle of the Atlantic was also a death battle, because of all the people that died.
One of England’s main adversaries was Spain. In May of 1702 England, Austria and the Dutch declared war to begin the ‘War of the Spanish Succession.” The cause of the war was due to the death of the King of Spain, Charles the second who had no successors. While on his deathbed Charles had arranged that Prince Joseph Ferdinand, should inherit the Spanish Colonies.
During the Age of Exploration, countries of Spain and England were rivalries. Spain, after Columbus made his discoveries, went on to explore and colonize lands in Mexico and Peru. With the riches that it obtained, Spain overwhelmed England with its powerful navy, but failed to do so because of the strong will and nationalism of the English explorers. Sir Walter Raleigh was among these brave men and soon became a distinguished member of the English society. He was favored by Queen Elizabeth but was still not satisfied with his glamorous life. Raleigh had wanted to achieve glory for England so that its superiority would exceed that of Spain’s.
... has still not been identified to this day. This sudden attack left the American populace speechless and in utter resentment of the Spanish, and as outrage broke a rallying cry did too, “Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain.” However, Spain at the time was blamed for the explosive occasion and war quickly followed between Spain and America, and the Spanish-American War was fought on Spanish territories such as Cuba, the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. The overpowering and overwhelming military of the United States crushed Spain in all of their fights, causing the war to come to an end in mid July.
The Conquest of New Spain Cortés came not to the New World to conquer by force, but by manipulation. Bernal Daz del Castillo, in the "Conquest of New Spain," describes how Cortés and his soldiers manipulated the Aztec people and their king Montezuma from the time they traveled from Iztapalaopa to the time when Montezuma took Cortés to the top of the great Cue and showed him the whole of Mexico and its countryside, and the three causeways which led into Mexico. Castillo's purpose for recording the mission was to keep an account of the wealth of Montezuma and Mexico, the traditions, and the economic potential that could benefit Cortés' upcoming conquest. However, through these recordings, we are able to see and understand Cortés' strategy in making Mexico "New Spain." He came as a wolf in sheep's clothing and manipulated Montezuma through his apparent innocence.
by a small English army. In 1350 Edward led an English fleet against the spanish from
colonists defeated the British at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777. This victory proved to the French that America was worthy of an alliance. Not only did the French supply the colonies with huge sums of money and arms, they also provided them with the best navy. The French helped the Americans win the battle at Yorktown by trapping the British with their navy. Without France’s support, the colonists would have been left floundering for freedom.