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Spain
| Following the unification of the lands of
Castile and Aragon, which had been taken by the Moors, an intensive
development of the Spanish state began. Trade and industry grew
rapidly, and soon after the discovery of America, Spain became the
greatest colonial state and reached the peak of its might
under the rule of Charles I of the Habsburg dynasty, the chosen Roman-German
Emperor. Its American colonies supplied Spain with an enormous
flow of precious metals. Then the Netherlands'
revolution against Spanish predominance broke out (1567-1573). A mighty army with
Duke Alba in command was sent to
suppress the revolt. This was a time of long and
exhausting sieges of Dutch cities. But the well-trained Dutch troops successfully fought
back the Spanish. In the sphere of
seafaring, Spain was constantly and seriously hampered by
Britain, especially by British pirates. They plundered coastal
towns and merchant ships. For instance, Francis Drake's
galleon "Golden Doe" plundered the town of Lima on
February 13th, 1579, and captured twelve Spanish ships and a lot
of booty. Later, on March 1st, he captured a well-armed Spanish
galleon, and his plunder brought him about 26 tons of silver,
80 pounds of gold, 13 chests of money and jewelry worth 200,000
British pounds sterling. He continued successful attacks
against many Spanish vessels. For his victory he was
promoted to Vice Admiral of the British Fleet and was dubbed a
knight. The Queen enjoyed half the confiscated
booty, the equivalent of about 2,250,000 pounds sterling in
gold. English pirate Thomas Cavendish also followed Sir
Francis Drake's route. Spain demanded that the buccaneers be
punished, but all efforts were in vain. The Queen of England
stated: "The Spanish monarch is a dog that barks but does
not
bite. The only thing I want from him is a regular payload
of gold and silver that is aboard his ships." This statement
exasperated the Spanish. An enormous fleet named The Great
Armada was dispatched to Britain. Already beaten by numerous storms, the Spanish
Armada was defeated by the English. Spain had finally lost its predominance
at sea. |
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