Spain
Second Siege of Tenochtitlán, (April 28–August 13, 1521)
Hernán CortĂ©s returned to Tenochtitlán with an enlarged force of conquistadores and much more important, large numbers of allied Mesoamerican warriors who came to complete what the Spanish had started but could not finish on their own. CortĂ©s first systematically dismantled the supports of the Aztec Empire, forging alliances with vassal city-states around the interconnected lakes of the Central Valley.…
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Portugal and the Changing Art of War
GINETES PORTUGUESE NOBLES MUNICIPAL SPEARMEN ALMOGAVARES Portuguese kings needed more revenue by the late fourteenth century especially because of their escalating military costs. These cost increases were mainly a consequence of developments in the technology of warfare. Chain mail, long worn by knights, was being steadily replaced by more expensive…
Spanish Defense Commitments – Navy
Submarines S-80 class submarines Displacement: 1,565 tons submerged Dimensions: 61.7 x 6.2 x ?? meters Propulsion: Diesel-electric, AIP, 1 shaft, 3,800 shp, 20 knots Crew: 32-35 The S-80 submarine’s sonar suite will comprise of a cylindrical array sonar, a flank array sonar, a passive ranging sonar, and a mine and…
Castelnuovo
Charles V meets with the Bey of Tunis, 1535. Both Habsburg and Ottoman power in North Africa depended in part on agreements with local clients. Here the size of the Imperial expedition of 1535 is apparent. Note the lines of galleys in the bay to the upper right – projecting…
Battle of Tornavento June 22, 1636
As a French-Savoyard army under Duke Victor Amadeus and Marshal Charles de Crequi campaigned in northern Italy, they were attacked on the Ticino, west of Milan at Tornavento, by Spanish Governor Diego Felipe de Guzma’n Marquis de Legane’s. The Spaniards were forced to retreat after fierce fighting and suffered another…
Spanish Tercio
By the beginning of the sixteenth century, disciplined pike-armed infantry had become the backbone of Europe’s increasingly professional armies. At the same time, firearms had become lighter and convenient enough to be used by infantry in battle. Such handheld firearms could inflict heavy casualties upon pike-armed forces arrayed for battle…
Don Carlos of Spain
The survival of Spanish moderates and liberals in government posts, because of their competence, bothered extreme royalists, who increasingly gathered around the childless king’s brother, Don Carlos. Royalist irregulars called Volunteers, who rallied to Fernando in 1823, wanted places in the army that had been denied them by the professionals,…