How Did The Battle Of The Spanish Armada

D: Analysis: Conflicts began between the Spanish and the British when the Netherlands began to riot against the Catholic rule. Seeing as both the Netherlands and Britain are Protestants, Queen Elizabeth decided to support the Dutch (“The Spanish Armada, Elizabethi.org), which illustrated itself as a direct intervention in Spanish internal affairs, as well as aiding the riots instead of helping the Spanish rulers oppress them. Tensions rose following the assault that English Colonel Drake conducted in 1587, when he attacked Spanish shipping, as well as burnt the half-finished and unmanned ships at Cadiz (Pollen, the Catholic Encyclopedia). The Spanish continued to be harmed by Drake due to the blockade he administered (Martin and Parker, 109-110),
Furthermore, what weakened the Armada was the choice of the new Admiral, the Duke of Medina Sidonia. (Martin and Parker, 10). He was a ‘landsman’ (Martin and Parker, 10) therefore he lacked marine experience. Such a lack of experience was a great risk to be taken, as he would be charged to administer the Fleet, as well as set plans of attack over the opponents, rendering his experience as a land soldier presumably useless in maritime conflict. The king didn’t realize that the Duke of Medina Sidonia was invalid because he refused advice from any of his Council. He was also slow in making decisions, as well as ignorant of the secret of sea power, (Pollen, The Catholic Encyclopedia) which all made him into a poor ruler at a critical time. Moreover, as the Duke of Parma had argued, the public display of Spanish intent was a disadvantage (Martin and Parker, 114), being the fact that Britain may have been alerted earlier on, and so the element of surprise would have failed, and the British would have had enough time to prepare themselves for the conflict against the Spanish. Therefore, internal problems indirectly contributed to the defeat of the Armada, due the poor skills that Medina had in regards to the maritime planning, as well as the King’s failure to make proper decisions, like making
Admittedly, the plan of maintaining a strict crescent formation (‘The Spanish Armada’, Royal Museums Greenwich – Appendix 1) would enable the Armada to encircle the British fleet, and prevent it from escaping, as well as allowing it to attack the opposing fleet from all directions. Also, the plan of joining the Duke of Parma of the Netherlands (Martin and Parker, 14) before reaching the North Sea (Appendix 2), to gather reinforcements and increase the fleet, seems to be efficient enough to be prepared to fight the British. The problem lay in the fact that the British knew that the Duke of Parma was an asset to the Spanish Fleet (Martin and Parker, 234), and therefore decided to keep a close eye on him. Therefore, they may have been able to make the appropriate preparations. Furthermore, since the conflict would take place in the North Sea (Appendix 2), then they would be nearer to their ports, and this would allow them to acquire reinforcements easier, in comparison to the Spanish that had travelled all the way from their homeland in order to reach the Sea. Furthermore, another concrete difference lay in the aims of each opponent. The Spanish aimed to mount the British ships (‘The Spanish Armada’, Elizabethi.org), which would put them in greater danger, as they would be exposing their ships to closer distances, by which the British would be enabled to bomb them. The