Why hasn't Spain been a major European power since the defeat of its Armada

The defeat of the Armada has become part of the British laundry list of reasons for patriotic pride, along with Trafalgar, Waterloo and the Battle of Britain in 1940. Apparently the British believe that Britain crushed, single-handedly, the Spanish Empire and became herself the mistress of the seas in 1588.

Nope. Definitely no, guys. Sorry. No way.

The Armada expedition was one ugly drawback and a waste of men and money. That’s all, just one misstep among many. England, to the Habsburg dynasty which ruled Spain back then, was but one more pesky nuisance along with the Dutch rebels, France, the Algerian pirates and the Ottoman Empire. Actually, England was among the lesser threats. In 1589, one year after the Armada, the Virgin queen saw it fit to send a counter-Armada, and appointed Sir Francis Drake as the admiral. They sailed against Spain and attaked the coast city of Corunna (yes, the same Corunna where Moore would die, 220 years later: “Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note...”).

Let’s say it wasn’t a resounding success.

The English counter-armada was an embarrassing defeat just as much as the Spanish expedition had been, one year earlier, but for some reason *cough!*jingoism!*cough!* this episode hasn’t entered the collective consciousness of the British public. Which is a shame, because they are missing quite an epic, cool anecdote: the siege of Corunna.

The siege of Corunna is famous because of Maria Pita, the heroine who climbed the city walls, grabbed the flag from the hands of an English standard - bearer and led a counter - attack of the Galicians against the invader.

Here, Maria Pita standing by the body of her husband. Cool, isn’t it?

Spain remained a major European power for centuries after the 1588 Armada. The expansion across the Americas had just begun, and the Spanish Treasure Fleet sailed twice every year across the Atlantic, full to the brim with gold and silver, all the while English and Dutch pirates helplessly drooled.

The real, actual decline would start much later, in 1648, when Spain was financially exhausted after the atrocious 30 Year War. England went out of the war relatively unscathed, which would prove an excellent starting point, a wonderful advantage for the next century. Spain, in the meantime, remained an agrarian society, with an elite fond of praying and fighting, and slowly dragged behind their neighbours until it became an oddity, an island of backwardness in a thriving Europe, by the 19th century.

I almost forgot: the Cadiz Expedition, 1625:

When Sir Edward Cecil landed his forces, they realised that they had no food or drink with them. Cecil then made the foolish decision to allow the men to drink from the wine vats found in the local houses. A wave of drunkenness ensued, with few or none of Cecil's force remaining sober. Realizing what he had done, Cecil took the only course left open to him, and ordered that the men return to their ships and retreat.

When the Spanish army arrived, they found over 1,000 English soldiers still drunk: although every man was armed, not a single shot was fired as the Spanish put them all to the sword

English tourists in Spain have not changed that much, have they.

Yeah, I bet this expedtion is not too popular among Tory writers, either.