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Spain
| Following the unification around the lands of Castilla and Aragon which were taken from Mauritans, an intensive development of Spanish
state. Trade and industry grew rapidly, and soon after discovery of America Spain became the greatest colonial state and reached the peak of its might
under the rule of Carl I of Gabsburgh, the chosen Roman-German Emperor. It's American colonies never cease to bring an enormous flow of precious metals.
Then a revolution broke out with intent to smite spanish predominance in Netherlands (1567 - 1573). But a mighty army with earl Alba in command was sent
to suppress the revolt. That was the time when long and exhausting sieges of cities in Holland began. But well trained holland troops successfully
fought back. In the field of sea faring Spain was constantly and seriously hampered by Britain, especially British pirates. They plundered coastal towns
and merchant ships. For instance, Francis Drake with his battleship "Golden Doe" plundered the town of Lima in February 13, 1579, capturing
twelve spanish ships and a lot of booty. Later, in March 1 he captured a well armed spanish battleship, and his prey brought him about 26 tons of
silver, 80 tons of gold, 13 chests with treasure which amounted 200 thousand British pounds. Later on he continued to successfully attack a grat many of
spanish ships. For that one victory he was promoted to status of Vice-admiral of British Fleet and became a Knight. The Queen, on the other hand enjoyed
a half of confiscated booty, about two million 250 thousand pounds in golden equivalent. That great route of Francis Drake was once again repeated by an
English pirate Thomas Cavendish. Spain demanded those buccaneers to be punished, but the efforts were vain. The English Queen said to that:
"Spanish monarch is a dog that barks but doesn't bite. The thing which interests me about him is a regular payload of gold and silver on board of
his ships." This statement overturned all spaniards' patience. An enormous fleet was directed to Britain which was named "The Great
Armada". Bitten by storms, spanish fleet was defeated by the English. Spain had since lost its predominance on seas. |
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