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The Spanish Navy (in Spanish, Armada Española) is the maritime arm of the Spanish Military. History The modern Spanish Armada's roots go back to the discovery of America, when two Caravels and one Nao commanded by Admiral Christopher Columbus arrived in what today is called America in 1492. Later, Hernán Cortés, Pizarro and other conquistadores were carried by the Armada to America. It should be noted that the founding kingdoms of Spain, Aragon and Castile, had possessed strong naval capacities from as early as the 13th century. Aragon used this capacity to help build an empire in the Mediterranean and Castile conducted expeditions against the Moors (capture of Cadiz, 1232) and even several major battles against English fleets in support of France during the 100 Years War. In the 15th century Castile used its naval capacities to enter into a race of exploration with Portugal that inaugarated the European Age of Discovery. With the navies of both Aragon and Castile, as with their successor, the Armada, the Barbary pirates were a constant concern. Among the most famous Armada Admirals was Álvaro de Bazán, "Almirante del Mar Océano" (Admiral of the Ocean Sea), a title granted to Columbus by King Ferdinand. De Bazán helped conduct the Battle of Lepanto against the Ottoman Empire in 1571. The '''Infantería de Marina''' (Navy Infantry), the world's oldest marine force (established in 1537, drawing from the Compañías Viejas del Mar de Nápoles), played a prominent role in this battle. The Spanish Armada's defeat in 1588 did not mark a decline in the Spanish navy but actually led to a thorough reform and recovery of its dominance. Despite the heavy loss of ships and men off the Irish coast, the years that followed proved the zenith of the Spanish navy's mastery of the oceans. Following the repulse of an English Armada in 1589 the Spanish navy won a number of victories and successfully dealt with buccaneering against the Spanish treasure fleets and attacks upon its Caribbean territories. It was the Dutch rebels that were to be the nemesis of Spanish sea power. Their commanders, selected for skill and experience, not aristocratic credentials, had inflicted serious defeats upon the Spanish navy from as early as the 1570s, and increasingly damaged Spanish and Portuguese shipping, especially from the 1620s. Most notable of these attacks was the Battle of Gibraltar in 1607 in which smaller, nimbler Dutch vessels surprised large ocean going galleons in the confines of the bay, with devastating results. Such attacks weakened and then finally ended the Armada's dominance with the destruction of a large troop carrying fleet at the Battle of the Downs in 1639, the last time the Spanish navy would challenge for the control of the English Channel. Further defeats were inflicted by the Dutch in the 1640s. Sensing the decline of Spanish power the English dictator, Oliver Cromwell, initiated the Anglo-Spanish War (1654). The newly rebuilt English navy, greatly refined in technique by recent hard fought battles with the Dutch, inflicted several major defeats on the increasingly antiquated Armada in the Carribean, and helped England seize the island of Jamaica. This was to be the beginning of further losses of islands to other powers in the Caribbean, that were used as bases for attacks on Spanish American towns and shipping by pirates and privateers. The government of the later Spanish Habsburgs, having exhausted Spain in massive war efforts, showed no sign of its predecessors' vigorous reforming abilities, nor had the funds to do so, and so the once proud navy was eclipsed by its Dutch, English and French counterparts and even lost some major warships to their privateers in a grim struggle for survival. Nevertheless the Armada maintained the links between Spain and its territories, sometimes with the help of the Dutch navy, in the later part of the part of the 17th century. During the eighteenth century the new Bourbon monarchy brought with it French expertise which modernised the Armada and its administration. A "Secretaría" (Ministry) of the Army and Navy was established in 1714. However it was a distant third as the French and British navies vied for dominance. Nevertheless the Armada still played an indispensable role in important military successes as in the War of Polish Succession, the War of Jenkins' Ear and the American War of Independence, and continued carrying out its regular duties such as patrolling coastlines, and protecting convoys, with the help of a large fleet of frigates. The nineteenth century was the nadir of the Spanish Armada's history. The Armada suffered two disastrous defeats. On June 29 1805, it was defeated in the Battle of Trafalgar. Of the 15 ships, only 4 regained Cadiz. More importantly the one sided battle which pitted 33 ships of the Franco-Spanish squadron against 27 British ships exposed the futility of using inexperienced crews against the highly experienced British sailors. Many of the Spanish crews were land soldiers, recently press-ganged beggars and peasants, with many not having even fired a cannon on board a rolling ship, in contrast to the British crews who had seen many actions by this time. This had come about by the loss of many experienced sailors to an epidemic of the yellow fever in 1802-04, as well as being a traditional cost saving measure. Compounding this was the distinct lack of trust and respect for the French admiral among the resentful Spanish captains. Nelson's daring tactics took full advantage of the skill disparities of the opposing squadrons. The Armada's remaining 45 ships of the line (of about 150 vessels in total) remained at port until it joined the anti-Napoleonic coalition in 1808. Then on July 3 1898, Admiral Cervera's fault ridden squadron was annihilated in a heroic but clearly hopeless charge to get past a blockade by a powerful American squadron off Cuba, during the Spanish-American war. This result was ultimately more due to the thoroughly corrupt, arrogant and inept state the Spanish government and colonial administration had fallen into at this time, than to any failings of the sailors and commanders themselves, who acquitted themselves with honour, as was acknowledged by their American counterparts. Throughout its history the Spanish navy has achieved numerous goals, from the transportation of gold and silver from the colonies in America, to the maintenance of the Spanish Empire in Europe, America, Asia and Africa. In its heyday it contributed enormously to the geographical knowledge of the world, the opening of ocean routes across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and the suppression of piracy and smuggling. It also contributed to the early development of ocean going vessels, most famously the galleon, and played an important part in the development the submarine. Modern navy In modern times, the Armada Española is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and has taken part in many coalition peacekeeping operations, from SFOR to Haiti. The Armada is considerate as the sixth strongest navy of the world. Today's Armada is a modern navy with ships such as an aircraft carrier, modern frigates (F-100 class) with the Aegis combat system, F-80 frigates, submarines, amphibious ships and plenty of other smaller ships, including an oceanographic research ship. The Spanish Navy Infantry (Marines), known in Spanish as the Infantería de Marina, is also part of the Armada. The Armada's special operations and unconventional warfare capability is embodied in its newly-formed Naval Special Warfare Command (Mando de Guerra Naval Especial), which is under the direct control of the Admiral of the Fleet. Two units operate under this command: Armada officers recive their education at the Spanish Naval Academy (ENM). They are recruited in two different ways: Ranks The officer ranks of the Spanish Navy are as follows below, (for a comparison with other NATO ranks, see Ranks and Insignia of NATO). Ship classes
Aircraft carriers Frigates Amphibious assault ship|Amphibious ships Patrol boat|Patrol crafts Minesweepers Submarines Auxiliary ship|Auxiliary ships Retired ships Future ships Future submarines Organization Naval aircraft On Order | |||||||||
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