England defeated the Spanish Armada towards the end of the 16th century. Spain was the world's greatest international leader. He ruled, colonized or attempted to conquer much of the world. Spanish power is at its peak at the moment. It was also at this time that King Philip II vowed to defeat heretics in England and convert them to the Church of Rome. He also had other reasons for conquering England. He disliked Queen Elizabeth I and swore to kill her. Say no to plagiarism. Get Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original EssayTo accomplish the conquest of England, King Phillip planned a partial tether. He would send his invincible Armada of 125 ships into the English Channel where he would join the Duke of Parma in the Spanish Netherlands at Calais. The Armada would then take the Duke of Parma's soldiers across the Straits of Dover, then the troops would march on London, capture the Queen and proceed to conquer the rest of the country. The Spanish Armada, under the command of the Duke of Medina. Sedonia left Portugal at the end of May 1588 heading for the British Isles. It reached the southwest coast of England on July 19 and was then contested by the English fleet commanded by Lord Howard and Francis Drake. The English ships, avoiding close combat, remained in the Channel as long as possible. The English ships disturbed and harassed, causing much damage until the Armada anchored at Calais. Here the Duke of Parma failed to appear and the English saw an opportunity to attack the Spanish fleet. On July 28, 1688, the English used fireships to disperse the Spanish ships. On July 29, at the Battle of Gravelines, an 8-hour struggle ended with many Spanish ships damaged or sunk. The Spanish commander, the Duke of Medina Sedonia, found himself in danger of total defeat and made the shrewd decision to forget the invasion and return to Spain through northern Scotland and Ireland. For three days, the English fleet steamed past the Spanish in the North Sea, then returned to England when it ran out of ammunition. The Spanish failed disastrously in rounding the Scottish coast. Many of the Armada's ships were wrecked due to the storms. The surviving Spanish ships barely returned to Spain, completely defeated and ashamed. The defeat of the Spanish Armada marked a turning point in Spanish domination across the world. Today, the main international leader was England, which had a lot of power. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay As there were no newspapers in those days, news was relayed through published current affairs books. weeks or months after the event. One of the first was in a 24-page diary printed in 1588 in Cologne by Michael Entzinger who lived in Germany. The front page featured a photo of the Spanish Armada sailing off the coast of England. The newspaper is in German and the first page says A faithful account of the Spanish Armada or Armaments translated from the original Spanish edition into High German, including the story of how, on May 29 and 30, the Armada under the command of the Duke of Medina Sedonia, left Portugal and how it then arrived, at great risk, in England and fought in a strait on August 8, 9 and 10 and how the Armada again encountered the English in full Wed after that, on the 22nd of the same month of August. It was quite a title and it was only the introduction to a first.