The Defeat Of The Spanish Armada
The Spanish Armada was a powerful navy that attempted to enter England by force in 1588. This navy had been called previously "The Invincible Armada", because the Spaniards thought that it could not be defeated (The History of...). Philip II of Spain had many reasons to want to get rid of Queen Elizabeth. For a long time, English ships had been attacking Spanish treasure ships and raiding Spanish settlements in the Americas. Queen Elizabeth declined punishing the privateers and would not return the treasures that they had acquired. Another reason was the making of England an uncomfortable country for Catholics, since they could be fined or kept captive for not attending the Protestant Church. As she encouraged Protestant ideas, she was willing to fight against Catholic Spain. English troops had been fighting together with the Dutch rebels in their war opposing their Spanish rulers (Shenkman). The mentioned fleet was made up of 130 ships and 30,000 men, the majority of which were soldiers. On the other hand, the English carried no army at all, and only 16,000 sailors, along with long-range cannons on low quick ships to get manoeuvrability. The unforgettable Spanish defeat by the English comes still as a surprise for ma
The crippled Armada fled towards the North Sea, and tried to return to Spain sailing around the British islands. A heavy tempest wrecked many of the Spanish ships off Ireland's coast, which supposed that only just over half the ships sent by the Spaniards (67) reached Spain on the 23rd of September of the same year. Most of the remaining ships were in poor conditions, as well as the surviving soldiers and sailors. Spain had lost 63 ships, and 20,000 men, while England had only lost the eight ships that were set on fire deliberately plus 100 men (Goldman). As the Armada was so large and slow, the English, commanded by Lord Howard and Francis Drake, decided to use an old trick. On the 29th of July, the English sent off eight of their own ships upwind, filled with gunpowder set on fire directed in the way of the Armada. This incident happened at night with the Spanish anchored at Calais. Seeing the ships on fire coming, they cut their anchor lines to escape the flames, which worked, since they were barely able to flee from the English vessels, however, from then on the Spanish were at the mercy of the winds. This supposed that they were unable to keep off the rocks, and dozens of ships sank. Sixty galleons were attacked later that morning by an equal number of warships. The Spaniards lost two galleons, and others were severely harmed during that assault (Burke).
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1176
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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