British Naval Fleet Expansion

Essay by jess4200College, UndergraduateA, October 2002

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Britain had the greatest naval fleet in the world. Even when challenged by the best Spain had to offer, she was able to uphold her reputation. Now this was a lot to say since, "Spain in the sixteenth century was at the height of her power."(Marx 11) Philip II was on a conquering massacre and Britain was the next to fall victim. Now with Elizabeth I trying to hold her unstable, internally conflicting country together, Spain thought it would be simple. Well, that is what they thought.

Britain was having major problems within herself. Elizabeth I, being a female, did not have complete support from her country. Scotland, Wales and Ireland were in constantly in Elizabeth's face with a threat of revolt. On top of that the small country had no wealth with the taxes being brought in late or being never brought in at all. Now to get an idea of how poor Britain actually was, British land owners were forced to sell their land and personal belongings to buy food when the small amount of taxes were not in on time.

The Protestant Elizabeth was an easy target for the Spanish conquest.

Charles V was the father of Philip II and he had an idealist dream. He wanted to wipe clean all other religions besides Christianity. He did in fact accomplish this dream until his created Christendom was split. Charles V was able to conquer all of the land around the Mediterranean and turn all conquered lands into Christianity; this was called Christendom. This was all good for Charles V until the Protestant Reformation ripped his ideal world in half. Now his son Philip II was going to do everything in his power to share in his father's dream. Nothing was going to stop Philip II from having...