How Did Spain Win The Spanish Armada

The Spanish Armada was a massive fleet of ships that was sent by Philip II to invade England. England at that time was protestant and Philip II, who was a devoted Catholic, felt that it was his duty to bring England back to Roman Catholic. When Queen Elizabeth I of England refused to punish her “sea dogs” including Sir Francis Drake for attacking Spanish ships, Philip finally sent out the Armada, made up of 130 ships and 2500 guns. Spain was undoubtedly the greatest power at that time and compared to England, which was a comparatively small and weak nation, Spain seemed invincible. However at the end of the battle Spain was confronted with complete defeat. Although many people believe that Spain would have been faced with success if it weren’t for the extreme bad luck given to them, it was English strengths, Spanish weaknesses, and Spanish mistakes that made Spain destined for defeat. Firstly, the power of the English wasn’t as weak as people assumed them to be. The English had an inspiring leader, better tactics and better quality ships and guns than the Spanish troops. Queen Elizabeth went far in inspiring her troops. She delivered speeches in her troops including her famous speech “I know I have the body but of a weak …show more content…
Their ships were destroyed by a storm in April 1588, the tide and wind had made it impossible to send the whole Armada to attack the English and the weather slowed down the Armada and made them vulnerable. However it was the Spanish mistakes that made them more vulnerable to the circumstances in the first place. The ships were built in a way that made them vulnerable to the bad weather that they were faced with and the plans and tactics that they attempted to use weren’t sensible. Some of their tactics that failed to succeed like the plan that involved picking up soldiers from the Netherlands and sailing them to England didn’t make sense at all, as they didn’t have a port