The defeat of the Spanish Armada was a crushing blow to Philip II and his mission to create a Spanish Hegemony. The Spanish ships were not well enough equipped to be able to defeat the far superior English naval forces. The ships that the English damaged but couldn’t defeat were taken care of by the storms that the Armada encountered throughout their…
Spanish Armada- Spain’s HUGE army fleat that sailed against England in attempt to claim North America.…
Conquest of New Spain When trying to recall a historical event, we try to find the most accurate and most reliable source that is available. It is important to make sure that the source is accurate because if it is not, the information that we share could be false. When recalling the events that happened when the Spanish and the Aztecs had an encounter, we look at many different sources such as excerpts, background information, and even the actual translated version of the book that Bernal Díaz del Castillo wrote himself. After reading all of these sources, I found that the book written by Bernal Díaz del Castillo titled “The True History of the Conquest of New Spain” is more reliable because it provides a good amount of information that comes…
Spanish armada’s defeat 1588 – the English now rule the seas, sir francis drake led the british navy to defeat the Spanish armada, the victory gave England the opportunity to COLONIZE THE NEW WORLD, spain is now on the decline and England is on the rise in regards to world power…
When discussing the importance of Spanish alliances, it is important to discuss Matthew Restall’s interpretation of “the myth of the white conquistador”. A common myth in regards to the Spanish Conquest is that the Aztecs were conquered by a small group of white Spanish men. Within Restall’s book titled “Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest”, he debunks the myth of the white conquistadors. Restall’s argues that “there is no doubt that the Spanish were consistently outnumbered by native enemies on the battlefield. But what has so often been ignored or forgotten is the fact that Spaniards tended also to be outnumbered by their own native allies. Furthermore, the invisible warriors of this myth took an additional form, that of the Africans, free and enslave, who accompanied Spanish…
When Queen Elizabeth ascended to the throne, there were violent clashes throughout Europe between Protestant and Catholic leaders and their followers. Though Elizabeth honored many of the Protestant edicts of her late father, King Henry VIII, she made significant concessions to Catholic sympathizers, which kept them from attempting rebellion. But when compromise was not possible, she was an exacting and determined leader who did not shy away from conflict. With the naval defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, England was firmly established as a leading military and commercial power in the Western world. Elizabeth supported and later knighted Sir Francis Drake, the first sailor to circumnavigate the globe. She also funded Sir Walter Raleigh's…
Mathew Restall’s Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest is a well-written book that serves an important purpose. That purpose being: the debunking of generally accepted falsehoods about the Spanish Conquest beginning in the 15th century. Restall’s book is separated into seven chapters that specifically address general myths most historians and students perceive as basic --- universal truths. Restall uses the term “myth” to describe the inaccurate/fictitious depiction of history “commonly taken to be true, partially or absolutely.” These “myths” are the progenitors of unintentionally self-centered perceptions of events historically recorded in subjectivity. The Self-absorption, relating to the…
can be put on a developing town to benefit the conquistadors and the crown. The foundation for…
Bartolome' De Las Casas stated that "those who have traveled to this part of the world pretending to be Christians have uprooted these pitiful peoples and wiped them from the face of the earth (Las Casas, 12). After reading the horrific accounts of what has occurred to those "unassuming, long suffering, unassertive and submissive" peoples of the Indies that "are with out without malice or guile, and are utterly faithful and obedient both to their own native lords and to the Spainards in whose service they now find themselves" (Las Casas, 10). As a god-fearing man of the priesthood, I utterly deplore the use of my Christian faith as a ruse of the Spaniards in the Indies to justify their agenda of greed and destruction.…
_Myths of the Spanish Conquest_ is broken into seven chapters, each dedicated to a different myth or mis-conception regarding the Spanish conquest. In debunking these myths, Matthew Restall works with three themes regarding the conquest. First, that the European discovery of the Americas was one of the greatest events in human history. Second, that the conquest was the achievement of "a few great men," which he subsequently describes as "a handful of adventurers." These two themes lead to a third theme, or question. "If history's greatest event - the European discovery and conquest of the Americas - was achieved by a mere "handful of adventurers," how did they do it?"…
Bartolomé de las Casas was a Spanish historian and a social reformer who was writing in the 16th century, during the time of the Spanish occupation of the Indies. In A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, Casas provides a scathing commentary on the cruelty exercised by the Spanish colonizers on the natives of Hispaniola—as well as explain the aims that motivated this behavior. The account acts as not only an observation on the practices of the colonizers, but is also a reflection of the imperial policies of the Spanish Empire.…
She was able to use it to bring victory to England on the battlefield. Elizabeth was also “taught the art of public speaking, unheard of for women at the time. But the ability to address a large number of people, from ministers in Parliament to troops on the battlefield, stood Elizabeth in good stead for the future. She learnt how to turn the tide of opinion in her favour, and this became one of her most effective weapons” (Briscoe). This became valuable in the 1580s when the war between England and Spain became apparently inevitable. The Spanish Armada was a fleet of 130 ships that King Phillip of Spain planned to sail into the English Channel to meet with an army coming from the Netherlands and simultaneously invade England. However, Elizabeth’s men were maintaining a close watch on the shores of England for the Armada, and when the first ship was spotted fighting erupted. As English soldiers and sailors were fighting for England’s independence, the Queen was headed for Tilbury. “She was not going to sit trembling inside a guarded Palace while her people fought, but was going to go to the coast of the battle and ‘live or die’ with them” (Thomas, “The Spanish Armada”). Here, she made what could be her most famous speech, the Tilbury Speech, where she stated, “I know I have the body of a meek and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a King,…
At 4:45 A.M. on March 9 Villa’s men rode into Columbus, firing into the army barracks, catching the American soldiers by surprise.…
All substantial threats to Elizabeth’s position as Queen were symptoms of the tension between Catholicism and Protestantism. The threats posed by Mary Queen of Scots, as well as those of the Spanish Armada of 1588 and the war with Spain (which dominated the last twenty years of Elizabeth’s reign), were consequences of a Catholic desire to gain supremacy in England. However, the extent to which the Catholic threat was centred on Mary Queen of Scots is debateable. Whilst she was undoubtedly a figurehead for Catholic opposition to Elizabeth’s rule and was the monarchical figure around whom several treasonous plots were designed, there is much evidence for the view that Mary became a focal point for a Catholic threat that would have existed even if she had been absent. The extent to which the structure given to the Catholic cause by Mary’s presence strengthened the Catholic threat is also debateable. There were others who could have become the rallying point for Catholic opposition (as Philip II of Spain did after Mary’s death), although none had as good a claim to the throne as Mary. A great threat was presented by Catholic opposition to Elizabeth’s rule, but Mary’s influence over this, and therefore the threat that she posed as an individual, may be called into question.…
The discovery of a new world by Christopher Columbus in 1492 opened up new opportunities for trading, conquest, and political success and wealth in the later years. Spain and England found their way to the Americas (by crossing the Atlantic, etc.) and established their own colonies, which were able to give their nations profits. In order to have the imperial power of Spain and England benefit from their colonial establishments, the dependent nations would use their surrounding natural resources which would be then used in trading, selling, and building ships, etc. Although both the British and the Spanish colonies existed for the profit and the power of the core nation, the two nations featured different systems of colonial administration.…