Spain
ALARCOS, 19 July 1195
Lying between Christian Toledo and Muslim Cordoba, the plains around Calatrava were strategically crucial during the decades on either side of 1200. That is why the Knights of Calatrava had fortified the site and constructed other castles in the region. In 1195, caliph al-Mansur won a victory at Alarcos, and seized the fortresses; but in 121 2 the combined forces…
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The Armada – Failure Guaranteed?
Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada; the Apothecaries painting, sometimes attributed to Nicholas Hilliard. A stylised depiction of key elements of the Armada story: the alarm beacons, Queen Elizabeth at Tilbury, and the sea battle at Gravelines. Strategically, the determination of Spain’s Philip II to destroy his chief Protestant and…
CARLISM
Rising out of a succession dispute between two BOURBON pretenders, Carlism became a social philosophy and a political movement that endured in Spain for more than a century. It derived its name from Don Carlos (1788–1855), younger son of CHARLES IV. His status as heir apparent was undercut in 1830…
Pressures of war and rebellion in the Spanish ‘empire’
Because most territories in the empire were self-governing and Spain never came to develop an imperial bureaucracy, the main cost incurred was in defence rather than in administration. The demands of war always used up the bulk of government money. The financial implications of war during the ‘imperial century’, 1560–1660,…
ANTWERP
A floating blockade, which was built through the winter of 1584–1585 by two Italian engineers. The task was completed 25 February. Thirty-two barges chained together and anchored to the river bottom formed the center of the boat bridge, measuring 420 yards in length. The 180 yards to either shore were…
BLUE DIVISION “División Española de Voluntarios (DEV).”
A full infantry division sent by General Francisco Franco to fight alongside the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front, ostensibly in belated response to Soviet intervention in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). It was not a division of the Spanish Army, though all its officers were regular Army at Franco’s insistence.…
Naval Strategy, Spanish-American War
The Spanish Navy protected cruiser Alfonso XIII. (Photographic History of the Spanish-American War, 1898) When news of the American blockade of Cuba reached Madrid, large numbers of Spaniards clamored to enlist in the navy. Convinced of Spanish naval strength following more than a decade of showy reconstruction and foreign purchases,…