The Failure Of The Spanish Armada

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.

Any student of history has come to recognize the fact that history is written by the victor and in lieu of this, research becomes essential to uncover where the truth lies. The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, so ironically named, is a personal account for historical events leading up to the conquest of New Spain, formerly known as the City of Mexico. The author, Bernal Diaz, was a soldier of the conquering army who composed the document well after the events took place sometime between 1552 and 1557. Though the document did provide insight in regards to the victor’s perspective, it also served as a tool to rewrite the account of the conquered people.

Many people have heard of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. However, only some know of all the things they accomplished. They might be best known for funding the voyages of Christopher Columbus, but they also greatly contributed to the unity of Spain (“Isabella l”). Together, they brought many kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula together to form what Spain is today. Through Spain’s unification, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella strengthened Spain into an economic and dominant world power, enabling the spread of Christianity and the colonization of a New World.

Prosperous Political aspects of Spain’s rise was diminutive, however it brutally terminated their Golden age. Ferdinand and Isabella made Spain a strong country with many territories in Europe and the America’s. In contrast one can see the corrupt policies of Philip II and there enormous effect on Spain’s decline. Spain lost a great deal of land trying to convert people to Catholicism. In their efforts to convert and spread Christianity during the thirty years war, Spain lost complete control of the Netherlands. In addition to losing the Netherlands, the English defeat of the Spanish armada completely crushed Spain, not only

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

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.

For this essay I will be talking about the book “A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies” by Bartolomé de Las Casas. Whom wrote this to the King of Spain, Prince Philip II, in 1542 to protest what was happening in the New World to the native people. I will be explaining many things during this essay. The first thing I will go over is what the books tells us about the relationship between Christianity and the colonialism. The second thing I will talk about is if it was enough to denounce the atrocities against indigenous people. Next, if it is possible to

In Victors and the Vanquished, Schwartz poses the question of “How can we evaluate conflicting sources” (ix)? Through reading historical events such as the “Conquest of New Spain” there is an undeniably large amount of destruction of cultural material and bias testimonies of events recorded several years after they occurred. After analyzing the Spanish Conquest of Mesoamerica there is a debatable amount of evidence from the Mesoamericans and Spanish explanations of this event in history. The intentions of each explanation created a conflict to historians, art historians and anthropologists on which viewpoint holds to accuracy. There is also the issue of not only inaccuracies, but the motives behind each bias account. As many of these aspects are taken into consideration, interpreting each justification between both sides of history in Mesoamerica as a clash of ethnocentrism between two different cultures that causes an uncertainty of what actually happened in history.

The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest lasting battle of World War II. The Battle was to control the Atlantic Shipping Lanes and lasted from September 3rd 1939 to May 8th 1945, mainly in The Atlantic Ocean, but later spread to the United States and The Caribbean Sea. The Battle of the Atlantic was originally fought by Britain and Canada against Germany until 1940 when the Italians joined the German side. In 1941 the United States joined Britain and Canada in the battle, leading to the defeat of Germany. A significant even that lead up to The Battle of the Atlantic was when U-30 (U-boat 30) attacked Athenia, the passenger liner, a British auxiliary cruiser, within just hours of the British declaring war on Germany, killing 112 civilians that were aboard. These ships were the ones the submarines were told not to attack by The German Navy. This is what some say was the beginning of The Battle of the Atlantic. The Germans were also humiliated from World War One and felt they had not deserved to lose and have the harsh treatment put upon them, as outlined in The Treaty of Versailles.

In Imperial Spain, J.H. Elliot examines the history of early modern Spain from the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand, to the reformation of the Spanish government by the first member of the Bourbon dynasty. According to the author, at the start of the 15th century, Spain was internally weak, hopelessly divided and isolated from the continent by the Pyrenees. Yet, by 1492, Spanish society experienced a tremendous transformation which allowed Isabella and Ferdinand to unify the country, secure the largest transoceanic empire the world has ever known, and for a

time America was trying to be at peace with Spain without having any more ships invaded. Due

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'

Victors and Vanquished, through excerpts of Bernal Diaz del Castillo, The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, and indigenous testimonies from the Florentine Codex, shows the exchange of religious ideas between the Spanish and Nahuatl religions. During the Spanish conquest and exploration of Mesoamerica, religion became a focal point in Spanish observations of Nahuatl religions. Influenced by European biases and a colonial mindset, the Spanish criticized indigenous religion by condemning their practices and idols. Natives, on the other hand, hybridized elements of Christianity into their respective indigenous religions.

The battle between the Spanish Armada and the Royal Navy in 1588 was the culmination of half a century’s worth of feud between the two countries (Kallen, 2013). Like many other conflicts, it was rooted in geography. England, being located on an island, was therefore reliant on overseas trade. Spain controlled nearly all of the trade out of Europe, so therefore it was necessary to be allied with them if a country wished to trade. Unfortunately for