Spanish Armada

The Spanish Armada set sail from Spain in 1588. King Phillip II wished to invade England for both political and religious reasons. Spain put a tremendous amount of money into the Armada and planned for years, but in the end the fleet was defeated. The building of and the defeat of the Spanish Armada led to Spain's downfall as a world power, and England's subsequent rise in power.

King Phillip II had many political and religious reasons to invade England. Because Phillip had been named as Mary's successor before her death, he thought he had a right to the English throne. Another reason for the Armada was the race between Spain and England in trade and supremacy in the seas. Spain was one of the most powerful nations in Europe, but English naval power was becoming a threat to Spain's domination of the seas. This was particularly true with respect to the New World. Spain's discovery of the New World had opened up a huge source of trade for Spain and England wanted to share it. Spanish treasure ships coming from the New World were attacked by British ships and robbed on their way back to Spain. The English also raided Spanish towns in the New World. After the English had raided towns and robbed Spanish ships, Queen Elizabeth refused to return what they had stolen. Finally, the English had also helped Spain's enemies, such as the Dutch. Phillip believed that only a conquest of England could halt English aid to the rebels and stop English depredations in the New World.

The Spanish had silver pouring in from the New World so they had the wealth to build the armada. King Phillip also annexed Portugal and added their ships to the Armada. The plan of the Spanish Armada was to send 130 ships commanded by the Duque de Medina Sidonia to cover an invasion force from Flanders under Alessandro Farnese. The Armada was to transport these soldiers from the Netherlands to fight in England.

The Spanish set up for years. They converted Portuguese and Spanish merchant ships for battle. They decided to use smaller ships as messengers, as guard duty, and as scouts to check out what was ahead of the fleet. They held 11 million pounds of biscuits, 600,000 pounds of salt pork, 40,000 gallons of olive oil, 14,000 barrels of wine, 5,000 extra pairs of shoes, and 11,000 pairs of sandals. They also held equipment used for repairing ships, such as axes, as well as spades, and shovels for digging trenches. The fleet took with it six surgeons and six physicians. There were 180 priests, 19 justices, and 50 administrators, who would establish a Spanish government once England was defeated. When the ships set out from Spain, the priests had blessed every single man.

In 1587, the Spanish were attacked at Cadiz. This attack destroyed many of their ships and supplies, which delayed the Armada from setting sail for about a year. The Armada finally set sail in 1588. They were first sighted off of Cornwall on July 29. A larger English fleet led by Lord Howard intercepted the Armada near Plymouth. On July 30, despite the efforts of the English captains, the Spanish maintained their order of battle and only lost 2. When the Armada arrived at Calais, the Dutch rebels blockaded it. To try to break the formation of the Armada, the English sent eight fire ships into the Spanish fleet on 7 August. The Spanish fled, fearing that the burning ships were "hell blasters", fire ships that contained gunpowder so that they blew up, rather than merely burning. In order