In Philip’s case, a little less than a year. As Drake himself fully realized, Spain’s King Philip would be eager to retaliate– and as we saw earlier, in the case of the Ottoman fleet after Lepanto in 1571, back in those days, even if a large part of a country’s fleet was destroyed it did not take more than a year or two to rebuild it. In 1587, Francis Drake had “ singed the King of Spain’s beard“, by destroying significant parts of the Spanish fleet both in Spanish ports and in Spanish-controlled ports in the New World. (Scroll down for a brief report on the somewhat related developments that were unfolding in France in 1588.) The Spanish Armada SOURCES: of great impact were, of course, happening all around the world in 1588 CE (including in Portuguese Ceylon.) But since what I’m tracking here essentially the rise of the “West”, and the world into which it was rising, then today’s post has to keep its focus on events happening in the North Sea and the Bay of Biscay, which between them would determine the balance between the various large European powers that over the century to come would divide much of the world between them. ![]() Most likely, neither Canada nor the United States would have ever been founded. Had the British Navy been unable - or unwilling - to defeat the Invincible Spanish Armada in 1588, it is quite likely that neither France nor England would have been able to stake claim to the portions of North America shown above instead, all of North America would have eventually fallen under Spanish rule. Notice that the vast majority of North America was claimed by France and England during the time frame depicted by the map.
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