When Britain defeated Spain and became a maritime power

In 1588, England defeated the Spanish Armada.

The British were equipped with long-range artillery when they were fighting, and their people were also relatively scattered, and there were many pirates to join, the Spanish were more conservative at that time, and their ships were equipped with soldiers and long-range artillery, and they were connected with cables to form a horizontal team, so that when the British finished fighting each other, they ran Kiga, and Spain quickly fell into the acre and was defeated.

Britain has become stronger, Britain has risen, Britain is the first country to enter the industrial Li Li, Britain's science and technology are more advanced, and Britain's social development has made a qualitative leap.

Britain had the upper hand, and while Spain was preparing to invade Britain, the British were the first to strike.

The primitive accumulation of capital grew rapidly, and the emerging bourgeoisie in Europe became increasingly powerful economically. Britain and Spain were at odds with each other in their activities of expanding overseas ** and colonial plunder. In order to expand overseas markets, it is necessary to seek maritime supremacy.

Therefore, Britain was anxious to replace Spain as supremacy at sea.

Spain was the most powerful colonial empire in Europe at the time. With a population of 10 million, the colony's sphere of influence has extended to the four continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and the United States, and is known as the "empire on which the sun never sets". The reason why Spain was able to dominate the world, arbitrarily interfere in the international affairs of Europe and the world, and monopolize many regions was mainly by virtue of its maritime hegemony and a huge fleet.

The world pattern is reshuffled, what does Britain rely on to become the hegemon of the sea? This policy is key.

In the Age of Discovery, whoever had control of the seas would have the greatest wealth to have colonies around the world. At that time, Britain was also like this, after defeating the Spanish Armada, had absolute sea dominance, so as to expand at will in the world, plundered a lot of wealth, and had a large number of colonies on various continents, known as the "empire on which the sun never sets". So how did Britain get on the road to maritime supremacy?

It all started with the Great Battle of England and Spain in 1588.

With the rise of Britain, Spain, as the hegemon of the sea at that time, was very uneasy, and King Philip II of Spain decided to fight with Queen Elizabeth in order to maintain the hegemony of Spain, so this large-scale naval battle began.

In May 1588, Spain's "Invincible Armada" sailed from Lisbon to England, and this fleet had the largest and most complete equipment at that time. However, because of the bloated design, it did not sail into the English Channel until July. What is even more unbelievable is that the commander of this fleet is still an army commander and has no experience in commanding the navy.

The British side was completely different, although it was inferior to the Spanish Armada in terms of number, tonnage and other aspects. But the ships of the British fleet were small, long, and narrow, and they were light and nimble, making them easy to attack. What's more, Britain had a commander with a lot of experience in naval warfare, Howard.

And Queen Elizabeth's front-line inspections also greatly boosted the morale of the soldiers.

Later, when the two armies fought, the consequences could be imagined. A fierce naval battle began on 29 July off the sea near Gshevrance. Realizing the weakness of the Armada, the experienced Howard immediately decided to resort to long-range artillery combat.

In this way, the naval battle lasted only a few hours, and the Armada retreated to the shores of Flanders, while the British pursued the victory.

When the Armada returned to Spain in October 1588, the original elite fleet and only 53 ships remained, which can be said to be completely annihilated. It was also after this naval battle that Spain lost its capital to compete with Britain for maritime supremacy.

Through the Battle of England, Britain resorted to long-range artillery bombardment, not within the range of Spanish artillery, and finally Spain was completely annihilated, and Britain became the supremacy of the sea.

In 1588, Spain sent its armada to attack England, and the English defeated Spain, which took advantage of the situation and became the dominant power at sea.

In the 15th century, with the discovery of the New World by Columbus and Magellan, the world began to gradually connect as a whole, and the regions were no longer separate individuals, the era of geographical discoveries came, and at the beginning of the geographical discoveries, Spain and Portugal took the lead in becoming the world's hegemon, especially Spain built a navy known as the Invincible Armada, but the rise and fall of the dynasty will eventually be sometimes, in that era of great powers, no one can once and for all, eternal hegemony, Spain is the same, If they do not strive to develop, they will soon be surpassed by other countries, and the Spanish rulers at that time did not use the wealth brought by the great geographical discoveries to develop their own strength, but spent a lot of money for the pleasure of the royal family, and at this time Britain is under the leadership of Queen Elizabeth I, the greatest monarch in British history, secretly developed, Britain has always focused on the strength of the navy, their navy is known as the Royal Navy of the British Empire, but it is worth playing, The rulers of the Royal Navy at that time were a bunch of pirates. <>

So how exactly did Spain lose its hegemony to Britain? In 1588 AD, Britain and Spain broke out a large-scale naval battle because of the struggle for maritime supremacy, we first look at Spain's equipment, the Spanish fleet has a total of 30,000 soldiers, this number is absolutely superior, but the warships used by Spain are still short-range cannon ships, and the combat tactics they adopt are also by soldiers jumping off the ship to fight, so in this case, the other party finds your weakness and you will soon collapse. <>

In contrast, in the United Kingdom, the then British Naval Commander and Senior Staff Officer for Naval Affairs John. Hawkins found that this era has changed the traditional way of warfare is no longer suitable for naval warfare, so he converted the royal ** into a fast fleet, and within ten years equipped with long-range heavy artillery, high hit rate and long range, so soon after the start of the war, a large number of Spanish fleets, because they could not get close to the British warships, were soon hit by British artillery fire, sunk into the vast sea, and it was after this battle that Spain lost its position as the supremacy of the sea. <>

Capitalism in Britain was in its infancy. The development of light industry forced it to rush to find overseas commercial markets; Innovations in shipbuilding and seafaring technology further inflated Britain's ambition to conquer the colonies.

At that time, the British abandoned the game of securing battles, and purely relied on high maneuverability and long-range firepower to fly kites. The Spanish ships couldn't catch up with them, and they couldn't beat them. The result was a crushing defeat for the Spanish fleet, and on the way home there was a hurricane, which resulted in more than half of the losses.

Since then, Spain's maritime supremacy has been gradually replaced by the British.

English capitalism sprouts, commodities In August 1588, Spain and England fought a fierce and spectacular naval battle in the English Channel in order to compete for supremacy at sea. In this naval battle, Spain was powerful, advanced, and powerful, with more than 30,000 soldiers, known as the "luckiest invincible armada". However, unexpectedly, the naval battle ended in a devastating defeat for Spain, and the "Armada" was almost completely annihilated.

Since then, Spain has declined sharply, and the status of "maritime hegemon" has been replaced by England.

Occupy the first channel at sea, seize the dominant position, and strive for maritime interests.

After the Industrial Revolution, Britain urgently needed to trade its own goods in exchange for wealth, but the British geographical location is on the island, the domestic market is not vast, and the trade of neighboring countries cannot meet the production supply, so expanding the maritime channel is the most direct and easiest way. With the support of the royal family, both Magellan and Columbus have roughly completed the exploration of the world, coupled with the further exploration and expansion of the sea coachman Netherlands and the sea overlord Spain, the maritime ** market is approaching maturity.

On the basis of its own industrial revolution, Britain vigorously developed the military industry, and also laid the foundation for challenging Spain's maritime supremacy.

Land sovereignty is basically fixed, so the royal family, which seeks territorial expansion, has shifted its attention to the sea, and said that the country that occupies the sea will occupy the whole world, and Britain has indeed done it, and the prelude to the empire on which the sun never sets is about to begin.

Hehe, a power like Spain was not defeated by Britain, it was defeated by itself.

Britain's defeat of Spain's Armada was only a turning point, and it did not mean that Britain would become a maritime hegemon from now on. In order to compete for sea power, Britain fought with Spain and other countries for decades before the sun never set on the empire.

A strong country is not only militarily strong, but also has the support of a strong economic entity and a corresponding political entity behind the military system, so that the country can be strong and prosperous for a long time. Spain's defeat was not military, but economic. It plundered a lot of **, ** and all kinds of resources from the Americas, but this wealth was not invested in social reproduction, but was used by the Spanish ruling class to maintain its own luxurious life.

This leads to a strange phenomenon: although Spain has a lot of money, its agriculture and industry have never developed. In this way, for decades, the people are not rich, the army is not strong, and the weapons are not sophisticated, and naturally it is not the opponent of Britain, whose national strength is thriving.