Spanish Armada Research Paper

Although there are many reasons why the Spanish-American war took place, the most important was Spain's resentment of Cuba's desire to also become an independent nation. Since Cuba was one of Spain's last territories, they were unwilling to allow independence. As a result, conflict between the two parties erupted. Since Cuba was smaller and less equipped to fight than Spain, their economy took a tumble. Due to the fact that the United States had a great deal of money invested in Cuba's sugar resources, many Americans felt the need to wage war. Additionally, there were separate events that caused anger to American Citizens. One such event was the destruction of a U.S. ship used to protect the American citizens in Cuba. Although the ship's

Zack Lightman is a small town gamer in the book Armada By Ernest Cline. Zack is known around the world for being one of the highest ranking players in a popular video game called Armada. As it turns out Armada is a military simulator used by the government to recruit people to fight in a war against extraterrestrial creatures. Now Zack must overcome the death of his father and anger issues to embark on a journey to save the earth from the alien invaders, and stop the war.

With the defeat of the Spanish armada in 1588, Spain began a steady decline to a second rate power. Consequently shifting their original goal of exploring to maintaining or colonizing what lands they still possess.

The cold, stormy night was all too familiar to the English. A devious plan by Spain's king, Philip II, was being formed to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I of England and rid the world of the English "heretics."1 It was a story of deception, false judgments, and poor planning. What was one king's dream turned into his country's nightmare. While the Spanish had bad leaders, the English had good ones. The Spanish had bigger, but slower ships, while the English had smaller and faster ships. The English knew the weather conditions and how to prepare for them, while the Spanish thought it would not be a problem. The English entered the battle in a calm manner, while the Spanish were overconfident. All of these

Spain under King Philip the second, was the most powerful nation in Europe at the time and sought to weaken Elizabeth’s reign and have her replaced. So, for the Queen to keep her power and avoid open conflict with Spain, England engaged in an “aggressive para-naval policy towards Spain; and sought to counter Spanish expansion in the New World. Privateering expeditions were under the guise of seeking new channels for English trade, but in fact the expeditions mainly attacked Spanish colonies in the New World. The English privateer John Hawkins, was one of the first hired and supported by England to attack Spanish colonies and trading vessels. Hawkins was the first Englishman to trade slaves in the New World, however he employed “warlike” methods of forcing trade and engaged a and defeated a Spanish fleet in the harbor of Vera Cruz. Another famous privateer who was utilized by the English government was Sir Francis Drake. Drake obtained a privateering commission from Queen Elizabeth in 1570, to strike at Spanish trading vessels and port cities. In the years that followed, he sacked the Spanish towns of Nombre de Dios and Panama, which in the process he captured a Spanish sliver mule train. Under Elizabeth's orders, Drake sent sail on December. 13, 1577, where he sought to raid Spain's Pacific colonies he knew were hardly defended. He circumnavigated the globe in the process and

In 1585 he settled about 100 men on Roanoke Island, but they did not settle and returned a year later. In 1587 he sent another group to settle that included a number of women and children. A supply ship was sent to the settlers but was delayed by the attack of the Spanish Armada on England in 1588. Help did not arrive until 1590, but it was too late and there was no one to be found. The attack of the Spanish Armada was spurred by King Phillip the 2nd. His motives were religious as England seemed committed to Protestantism as well as for economic and political reasons. An English fleet of 197 ships were able to conquer the invasion and led to Spain no longer being able to prevent the English from settling in the New World.

In 1532, an exploration led by spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro Conquered the Incan Empire. Pizarro, along with his army captured and killed the last Incan emperor Atahualpa in 1533.The Incas kindly welcomed the spanish into their Empire, when they suddenly set a trap for the unsuspected Incas.

The first of these conflicts occurred right after Charles’ ascendance to the throne between England and Spain and was in large part the result of a failed marriage treaty between Catholic Spain and Protestant England that would have married Charles to the Spanish Infanta.4 Charles had been tricked into a treaty that would have given Catholics increased rights in Protestant England, a provision that would have assuredly angered the people of England.5 In addition, the first Parliament of Charles’ reign passed two measures that doomed this conflict. First, it only granted Charles the right to collect customs duties for one year, instead of for life.6 Secondly, Parliament gave Charles only about a fourth of the money that he needed to adequately fund the war. However, Charles and Buckingham believed that if the army could loot a port and intercept the goods coming from the Spanish colonies in America, the treasury could be stocked up again. So despite the lack of funding, Charles chose to raise an army to set out for the Spanish port of Cadiz.7 However, the army was inadequately supplied with capable soldiers, ships, and provisions. “Most of the soldiers in this army were rogues

These natural circumstances prevented the English ships from being able to leave the harbor. There was almost nothing the English could do but wait for the tide to turn. If fact, Drake and Howard finished playing a game of bowls even after they got the news that the Spanish Armada was approaching. Their inability to leave the port set them at a disadvantage; however, the Spanish did not take the opportunity to attack them while they were practically defenseless. Instead, they kept on sailing towards Flanders. This lack of aggression on the Spanish part is due to the fact that the Armada did not have many offensive military strategies. If the Spanish were more prepared to fight a sea battle, they most likely could have sailed into Plymouth Harbor and attacked without much opposition. Nevertheless, that was not the case, so the Armada kept sailing and was forced to miss what could have been an opportunity for an easy and effective

Her most famous success story is the Spanish Armada. Phillip’s plan was to “win control of the English Channel, to rendezvous with the Duke of Parma off the coast of Holland, and to transport Parma’s army of some 30,000 men from the Netherlands across the Channel”(Doc 7). Elizabeth made a two step assault that first trapped Medina Sidonia in Calais Roads, where Parma could not join him for fear of the Dutch. Then, she sent fire ships in disguised as bomb-ships, which are deadly, and successfully confused the Spanish ships and forced them to flee. Finally, at the battle off Gravelines, the English used long-range guns to win. From this battle England gained prestige. The Spanish Armada proves that Elizabeth was a capable ruler who understood military strategy and the importance of protecting her country and

I believe that the reason the Spanish Armada failed to invade England was for two reasons; the first being due to bad weather, the second due to the hell burners. I chose bad weather and hell burners because without the strong winds the hell burners would not have reached their destination (the ships). The reason the hell burners are involved in the failure of the armada are because, they (the Spanish) were Catholics, so fire symbolises hell (from the name hell burner) and death. During the panic about the hell burners the Armada lost their defensive formation, ships and lives. If the weather was not bad they wouldn’t have needed to return back to get the ships repaired because there wouldn’t have been a storm. To conclude without bad weather

Conquistadors descended on America with hopes of bringing Catholicism to new lands while extracting great riches. Religion and self-interest combined to create a potent mixture that drew hundreds of thousands of Spaniards across the ocean with hopes of finding riches and winning souls for God. Along with the Spaniards came diseases to which the New World natives had no immunities. What followed was one of the greatest tragedies in human history as smallpox, influenza, and other communicable diseases ravaged the native populations, killing millions. Spanish conquistadors, who were primarily poor nobles from the impoverished west and south of Spain, were able to conquer the huge empires of the New World with the help of superior military technology,

The Spanish Colony was located in the eastern coast of what is also known as the state of Florida. Following soldiers in the Spanish colony heard that England had established a new land . A couple of months later the Spanish and English were at war and the Spanish were planning to kill and hold hostage the English colonists. A rumor also has been going on where an expedition has been led by Ralph Lane. Along his expedition Ralph Lane and the colonists stumbled upon some angered indians. The colonists and the indians fought back and forth until the English colonists planned to kill them and also hold them hostage. Their plan failed and the indians heard about their plans and decided to kill and hold the fellow colonists hostage. Who really

Cortés came not to the New World to conquer by force, but by manipulation. Bernal Díaz 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'

Between the years of 1535 and 1547, some sixty-six Spanish ships were captured by French corsairs (Lane 19). Shortly after in the 1550’s, the Spanish came to regret their passive defense strategy when French corsairs made their most punishing raids ever on the Spanish West Indies. They descended on colonies like Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and Cuba, and caused heavy destruction that they never really recovered from. Finally in the early 1560’s, Spain was forced to react with expensive long-term defenses. Since the Spanish waited so long to do so they not only lost wealth because of what was captured, but now they also had to spend money to protect what was left.