Philip II's grand fleet against Elizabeth's England. Holland and Sandbrook examine how weather, technology, and English audacity combined to produce one of history's most consequential naval defeats.
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Highlights
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Overconfidence in size and resources ignores adaptive opponents
Spain had the world's most powerful navy and army. England had smaller, faster ships and captains willing to improvise. Flexibility beat mass.
If the Armada had succeeded, Protestantism in England would have been crushed, the British Empire might never have existed, and the geopolitical shape of the modern world would be unrecognizable.