The Spanish Armada was a massive fleet of ships sent by King Philip. The aim? To conquer England and Depose Queen Elizabeth. And the driving force – religion. This was a battle between a established dynasty and a new empire. This battle would start tensions between the 2 countries which really would be revived 1900 despite many attempts of a peace treaty. These include the like of the Treaty of Madrid and the treaty of London.
The English had been ‘annoying’ the Spanish by supporting the Dutch when they were fighting for their freedom from the Spanish Empire. The tipping point was when the English Protestants supported the Protestant Rebels against the mostly Catholic rule. King Philip ordered 130 ships to go get ready for Battle. These ships would Later be called the Spanish Armada.
King Philip’s plan was to leave Spain go across the English Channel to the Netherlands and pick up their troops. After that he would travel up to the Southern Coast of England and get ready to fight with the Troops he had collected.
However, the plan in actuality went smooth until they got to Calais to pick up their troops. In the port they broke their Crescent formation which made it easy for the England to penetrate them. The English threw boats on fire at the Armada damaging them. Then at the Battle of Graveines the English dealt Heavy casualties to the fleet. As a final cherry on the cake the massively desized squadron was moved by the wind over the tip of Scotland. Some of these ships got wrecked on around Ireland because of stray rocks.
In the end only 67 of the 130 ships set out to defeat the British came out alive.
A reason for this terrible outcome was because the Spanish’s tactics did not make sense. People blamed The Duke of Medina Sidonia because he was inexperienced and made a few terrible mistakes. King Philip said it was because of the weather he lost. However, this was not true. The Spanish formation was good for the first part but then when it came in Picking up troops at Calais, they broke their formation. This left them vulnerable, and this made it easier for the British.
The Spanish ships were big and lanky, but the English ships were small and easy to manoeuvre.
The next year the British would launch a counter armada but that failed amazingly.
England would later continue as a protestant country and Spain continued to be a Catholic. Despite heavy casualties the war didn’t really change much. Tensions would stay between the countries until the 20th century
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