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.

What is the deadliest battle in history

The deadliest battle in human history probably took place less than eight centuries ago...

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According to historians, the Battle of Baghdad in 1258 was quite a butchery.

The number of deaths is estimated at nearly 2,050,000.

It must be said that by invading the city, the Mongols did not have any pity: they killed all the civilians.

On February 10, 1258, after a two-week siege, Baghdad fell into the hands of Houlegou (or Hulagu Khan), a grandson, barely 30 years old, of the terrible Genghis Khan.

The Mongols of Houlegou methodically massacred the population and tortured the last Arab caliph, al-Mustasim.

This one was sewn into a bag and trampled at the horses' feet!

500 years earlier, the Arabs had made Baghdad the seat of the Caliphate, in other words the capital of Islam, at the junction of the Arab, Hellenistic and Persian worlds.

A new civilization had been born on the banks of the Euphrates, fertilized by Greek and Persian cultures, and the caliphs of the Abbasid dynasty, such as Harun al-Rashid, a contemporary of Charlemagne, had made the Western world dream.

This Arab-Persian civilization was therefore destroyed by the Mongols.

The ruin of Baghdad was completed by the eruption of Tamerlan, a distant descendant of Genghis Khan.

From then on, the prestigious capital will only be ruins and the destruction of irrigation networks by the Mongols will reduce the populations to poverty.

The decline of the country, now called Iraq is becoming inevitable.

The old Mesopotamia was long torn between the Persians, Muslims of the Shia faith, and the Ottoman Turks, Muslims of the Sunni faith.

It will fall under the supervision of the latter at the beginning of the 16th century after the military campaigns of Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan of Istanbul.

This one will definitively annex Iraq to its empire in 1533.

Modern Iraq was created at the end of the First World War by the British on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire.

What are some mind-blowing facts about slavery

“The Arabs’ treatment of black Africans can aptly be termed an African Holocaust. Arabs killed more Africans in transit, especially when crossing the Sahara Desert, than Europeans and Americans, and over more centuries, both before and after the years of the Atlantic slave trade. Arab Muslims began extracting millions of black African slaves centuries before Christian nations did. Arab slave traders removed slaves from Africa for about 13 centuries, compared to three centuries of the Atlantic slave trade. African slaves transported by Arabs across the Sahara Desert died more often than slaves making the Middle Passage to the New World by ship. Slaves invariably died within five years if they worked in the Ottoman Empire’s Sahara salt mines. Black Africans did not enjoy immunity to many of the diseases found in the Arab world, which also resulted in high death rates.”

“Slaveholders in the Muslim world often castrated black African male slaves to serve as harem guards. This is a prime reason there are not many communities of blacks living in the non-African Muslim world today, despite the millions of black African slaves sold into the Muslim world. Many African boys did not survive their castration surgery. As late as 1903, there were still 194 African eunuchs in service to the Ottoman ruling family.”

“African women were enslaved by Arabs more than African men. Few black slave children survived in the Muslim world. In 1860, when 3,000 black female slaves were set free in Zanzibar, only 5% of them had children. Because under Islamic law a concubine bearing the child of the master could become a wife and her children would then share in the inheritance, Middle Eastern wives and children of masters had a strong incentive to interfere with the sex lives of female slaves and cause brutal abortions. Islamic jurisprudence historically allowed abortions in the first four months of pregnancy, long before the West allowed it. Islamic tradition supports the view that the soul enters the fetus at 120 days. If a concubine had the only son, the threat to the wife was even greater. The Koran allowed Muslim men to have as many concubines as they could afford, in addition to four wives.”

“The Arab history of anti-black racism predates European anti-black racism by several centuries. The early Islamic empire exhibited all the characteristics of anti-black racism, and blacks suffered the lowest form of bondage. By 869 A.D., black African slaves in southern Iraq, the despised Zanj, launched an extended slave revolt that threatened Baghdad until 883 A.D. The main reasons we have not heard more about the horrors of slavery in the Muslim world are that Muslims did not express moral outrage against slavery and wrote no abolitionist literature against the institution of slavery. Dr. Thomas Sowell characterizes the moral indignation against New World slavery, and the lack of any such indignation against the Muslim or non-Western world, as “selective moral indignation.” The moral outrage against slavery was and is, in the grand historical context, a European-inspired cause gaining significant traction only in the 1760s. Europeans took photographs of chained black African slaves in Arab slave-trading vessels on the East Coast of Africa in the 1880s. Slavery persisted openly in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries in the latter half of the twentieth century, 100 years after slavery was abolished in the United States. As late as 1960, African Muslims still sold slaves when they arrived on pilgrimages, as a way to finance their pilgrimages. Arab nations lagged far behind the rest of the world in abolishing slavery: Saudi Arabia and Yemen in 1962, United Arab Emirates in 1963, Oman in 1970 and Mauritania officially in 1981. Today, according to U.S. State Department figures, Muslim nations condone international human trafficking more than Western countries do.”

“David Livingstone observed in Africa the horrendous slave trading practices of Arab and pagan slave traders, decades after Great Britain had begun to suppress the international slave trade, and almost a century after Lord Mansfield, with the stroke of a pen, freed slaves in England. The Ottoman Empire resisted British efforts to suppress slavery and the slave trade. Over the course of 70 years, 2,000 British sailors died to free 160,000 slaves. While Islam urged improved treatment of slaves in some ways, the rapid expansion of the Muslim empire rapidly increased the number of slaves, leading to crueler treatment. Africa and the Middle East never developed the moral abolitionist fervor seen in Western nations. Slavery is now most prominent in Africa.”

“From the time of the Crusades until the early 1800’s, Barbary pirates or corsairs from Muslim North Africa raided European coasts and waters, selling captive Europeans as slaves in North African ports and Istanbul. Barbary corsairs attacked shipping in the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean, raiding the coasts of Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Britain, Ireland, and Africa for slaves. Some Mediterranean islands and coasts in Spain and Italy were abandoned due to the threat of Barbary slave raiding. The United States initially paid tribute to the Barbary pirates to obtain the return of American captives. After building ships, the United States fought the First and Second Barbary Wars to stop this slave trading and piracy. In fact, the desire to defend American shipping and sailors from Barbary piracy gave re-birth to the U.S. Navy. The Marine Hymn refers to the Battle of Derne on “the shores of Tripoli.” The traditional Mameluke sword worn by Marine officers today is based on the one given Marine First Lt. Presley O’Bannon by Prince Hamet of Tripoli.”

The young boys photographed above were likely destined to become castrated eunuchs in the harems of the Ottoman Empire. This photograph was taken several decades after the United States freed all its slaves through the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

HMS Daphne rescued the slaves pictured above.

The photograph above shows an Arab slave trader taken into custody by the Royal Navy.

The photograph above shows slaves rescued from an Arab sailing vessel, a dhow.

The USA and UK abolished the slave trade at the same time in history. The Royal Navy established the West Africa Squadron (or Preventative Squadron) at substantial expense in 1808 after Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act of 1807. The U.S. Congress outlawed the importation of slaves on Jan. 1, 1808. The Royal Navy squadron's task was to suppress the Atlantic slave trade by patrolling the coast of West Africa. With a home base at Portsmouth, it began with two small ships, the 32-gun fifth-rate frigate HMS Solebay and the Cruizer-class brig-sloop HMS Derwent. At the height of its operations, the squadron employed a sixth of the Royal Navy fleet and marines. Between 1808 and 1860 the West Africa Squadron captured 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans.

Yes, the Koran teaches kindness to slaves, but many Arabs and Muslims did not follow the teachings of the Koran in this regard.

The Royal Navy patrolled the coasts of East Africa and particularly the slave-trading out of Zanzibar. As many as 50,000 slaves were passing through the slave markets of Zanzibar each year. David Livingstone estimated that 80,000 Africans died each year before ever reaching Zanzibar.

Some selections (block quotes) from: Prison & Slavery - A Surprising Comparison eBook (footnotes omitted for Quora; names of former slaves given in bold).

Who is the most famous person in history that we have no idea what they looked like

Cleopatra

I’m fairly sure it’s got to the point where most Quorans know she didn't look like this:

I'm not going to insult your intelligence. But she also probably didn't look like the plain, hook-nosed and manly depictions on those busts and coins, either.

The former is due to the popular culture view of her as a seductive, irresistible beauty and the latter is thought to be due to powerful propaganda depicting her to be more masculine and like her ancestral male rulers to justify a young female ruler. And sources don't help either: Plutarch describes her beauty as ‘in itself neither altogether incomparable, nor such as to strike those who saw her’ - in other words, not particularly a sight to behold - whereas Cassius Dio called her a woman of surpassing beauty’.

So basically, there’s not much solid evidence to go on.

But then again, that doesn't really matter. Cleopatra’s allure came mainly from her wit, charm and intelligence - for instance, she is said to have spoken 9 languages, was interested in mathematics, astronomy and had written a book on medicine and was a charismatic and excellent conversationalist.

What part of history that is looked as fact do you not believe

Being a student of history, one thing never convinced me that Alexander the Great defeated Raja Porus in the battle of Hydaspes. I would try to make my answer as simple so the readers could enjoy till the end.

This is how the journey of Alexander as a ruler started.

336 B.C.

Alexander becomes ruler of Macedonia.

334 B.C.

Wins Battle of the Granicus River against Darius III of Persia

333 B.C.

Wins Battle at Issus against Darius

331 B.C.

Founds Alexandria. Wins Battle of Gaugamela against Darius

330 B.C.

Sacks and burns Persepolis; trial and execution of Philotas; assassination of Parmenion

329 B.C.

Crosses Hindu Kush; goes to Bactria and crosses the Oxus river and then to Samarkand.

328 B.C.

Kills Black Cleitus for an insult at Samarkand.

327 B.C.

Marries Roxane; begins march to India

Alexander first reached near Taxila or Takshashila. According to some historians, Raja Ambhi was rival of Raja Poru and offered his support to Alexander. Alexander heard a lot about India so he was desperate to conquer it by defeating Raja Porus. For this reason, he moved towards River Hydaspes (now River Jehlum).

The Battle of the Hydaspes was fought in 326 BC between Alexander the Great and King Porus of the Paurava kingdom on the banks of the river Jhelum (known to the Greeks as Hydaspes) in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent (modern-day Punjab, Pakistan).

According to Greek historians, Alexander won the battle and pardoned Raja Porus due to his bravery and strong character. At banks of River Beas, many soldiers of Alexander refused to march further toward rest part of India as they were battling more than a decade and feeling tired. Alexander along with his soldiers then moved towards south (near Multan). There are some historical references that he faced heavy resistance from Malli tribe at Multan where one arrow was hit at his back bone. He was seriously wounded and then it was decided to march back towards Macedonia. He died near Babylon.

As a history student lets recap and analyse it.

• Darius was killed by his cousin Satrap Bessus the time Alexander was invading Persia
• As being said above, Black Cleitus was killed in Samarkand.

If you look above, this is clear that direct rivals of Alexander were killed.

If we specifically talk about Raja Porus, how it is possible for Alexander to pardon a King who was very powerful in his era? This argument could go in another way that Alexander wasn't able to conquer India and was defeated by Raja Porus. This could be the possibility that Raja Porus might have pardoned Alexander.

Secondly the resistance at Multan was unexpected for Alexander. He and his soldiers realized that if they move further, they might suffer more casualties therefore they decided to returned back to Macedonia.

As all historians were mostly Greeks at that time therefore most arguments goes in favor of Alexander than Raja Porus.

Well I respect the history but the things I raised as an argument can be valid. Raja Porus is hero of our soil and every person of subcontinent (regardless of nationality) feel proud of his bravery.

Thanks for reading.

~MAK

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References.

Alexander the Great - Biography, Timeline, and Study Guide

Indian campaign of Alexander the Great - Wikipedia

Off Topic : My tribe Khokhar fought against Alexander's Army.

Edit1: Thanks to all wonderful people who shared and upvoted this response. I never imagined that this response will get appreciation from all corners. Thanks for making my day :).

Which person would you like to erase from history

I’m going to be dead honest.

Muhammad.

Yes. The founder of the Islamic religion, the “father of the pure”, the prophet, call him anything.

I would be more than happy for him not to exist.

Without him, there would be no Islam. Without him, this 7th century excuse of a religion would not cease to exist. There would be no Sharia, no die-hard followers who would wage war against the “infidels”, and no chaos throughout the middle ages. Without him, Islamic fundamentalism and other barbaric culture-destroying ideals would not even take effect in this planet.

Let’s start with the how he managed to conceive the idea of Islam.

This man prayed in a cave near Mecca (Jabal al-Nour) , claiming that the angel Gabriel had visited him.

Don’t you think this man had just made this up?

Quoting the Al-Hadis. Volume 4, Book 54, No. 513,

The Prophet said, "A good dream is from Allah, and a bad or evil dream is from Satan;
so if anyone of you has a bad dream of which he gets afraid, he should spit on his left side and should seek Refuge with Allah from its evil, for then it will not harm him."

This man was clearly delusional, stuck in his thoughts. How do you expect an illiterate man to be the “messenger” of Allah? Being a so-called kind and merciful god, how do you expect this Allah to use such a person, marrying Aisha, a young child; Muhamamad was 53 years of age!

This man waged war against the Arabian tribes, killing and converting wherever they went. Muhammad has managed to spread his so-called religion of peace ironically by the sword. If Islam is actually a religion of peace, why do they have to impose such brutality upon those who refuse? This was a man whose “religion” promoted him to allow the beating of wives, how to handle slaves, execution of homosexuals, and other bullcrap incompatible with the current age?

If slaying disbelievers and religious wars are done in the name of Islam, then I must pass. This man is a total nutcase in a nutshell.

Everyone knows that Islam proclaims the shahadah - “there is no god other than Allah and Mohammed is Allah’s true prophet (La ilaha illallah Muhammad bin Rasul Allah)”

Does this thought allow you to kill or convert?

If you have such strong conviction in your religion, why does Islam have to say the opposite?

Check how Islam has affected Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and other countries which have originally been devoid of its existence.

Where are it’s Chrisitans, Buddhists, and Jews?

Does this belief take tolerance to the next level?

Check how Saudi Arabia takes Wahhabism; Islam at its purest.

What are some rare photos of world history

The remains of Vladimir Komarov, a Russian cosmonaut who died during reentry and subsequently incinerated in the impact.

Arnold Schwarzenegger flexing on some grannies in the 1970s.

Winston Churchill examining a Tommy Gun in the early years of World War 2.

Similarly, Queen Elizabeth II firing an Enfield L86 assault rifle.

Russian peasants, circa 1905. This picture (and the subsequent 3 pictures) were taken by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, a Russian pioneer in color photography.

The Emir of Bukhara- Uzbekistan, 1911.

Inmates and guards of a traditional Uzbekistan prison- 1905.

Russian woman in formal dress- circa 1905.

The extremely confident testing of a bulletproof vest- 1923.

Artist and eccentric (perhaps redundant) Salvador Dali in his, erm, goat-drawn carriage.

The rather unfinished Times Square of 1903.

The two Communist guerilla-turned-dictators Fidel Castro (left) and Che Guevara (right) marlin fishing off the coast of Cuba.

Female Afghan students in the 1970s.

Afghanistan, today: After the implementation of fundamentalist Islamic law, burqas, veils, and robes are required attire for women in public.

Bin Laden (right)- around 10 years later, taking Judo from a Taiwanese instructor in Saudi Arabia.

Vladimir Putin, current President of Russia, took judo as well.

Halloween costumes from the early 20th century- the stuff of nightmares today.

Swastika riddled costume from 1918- note that Adolf Hitler at this point was still a corporal fighting for the Germans in World War 1. The swastika was a South Asian symbol of peace.

Mickey and Minnie costumes still in development in 1939- for obvious reasons, Walt Disney had them redesigned very soon afterward.

1955- the costumes weren’t much better.

Ending on a random note: Martin Luther King Jr’s mug shot after his arrest during a peaceful Birmingham protest.