You have forgotten the most important pirate in the world, Drake. The Drake Strait between South America and Antarctica is named after him

The British who defeated the Armada Pirate - Francis Drake (1540~1596) (redirected)

The British pirate in the Age of Discovery was also a great adventurer and the hero who defeated the Spanish Armada

There are not many records about Drake's life, and his birth year is also controversial. One theory is that he was born in 1535. His nickname is El Draque, which means "Dragon" in Spanish.

The Great Pirate Period

In 1558, Queen Elizabeth I of England came to the throne. At this time, after the Hundred Years' War between England and France, Britain was on the verge of poverty due to the massive consumption of manpower and material resources. , there was an open and covert conflict with Spain, which had a powerful fleet, and the legality of Elizabeth's succession to the throne was controversial. Under such circumstances of internal and external troubles, the Queen had the idea that "Britain should be guarded by British warships." Privately, he boldly supported pirate activities, and on the surface he declared that Britain had nothing to do with pirates. He gradually built up the British economy and army, making King Philip II of Spain angry.

On October 2, 1567, when Drake's cousin John Hawkins went to sea for the third time. Francis Drake took a ride on the Royal Navy warships "Jesus" and "Mignon" lent to John by the Queen. He started his first plundering activity and continued to be active thereafter. By the spring of 1573, he had robbed 5 tons of gold and countless rare treasures in the Isthmus of Panama. When he returned to Plymouth (the mayor of Plymouth was his other cousin, William Hawkins), he received an unprecedented warm welcome and was hailed as the "flag-bearer of free Britain."

The Age of the Great Explorers

Drake’s achievements were not only pirate plunder. He was also the first British explorer after Magellan to complete a circumnavigation of the world. During his pirate days, Drake explored many places. In 1567, Drake's first expedition sailed from England across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea.

In 1569, the second expedition sailed from the Caribbean to Central America. Of course, many Spanish ships were plundered along the way. In 1577, Drake obtained the tacit approval of the Privy Council. Determined to break Spain's monopoly in the Pacific. He led five ships and embarked on his third voyage around the world.

Drake followed Magellan's route. Traveled from Britain to the South Atlantic and arrived at the east coast of South America. August 1578 - Drake passed through the Strait of Magellan, the most dangerous Strait of Magellan at the southern tip of South America. In honor of the last remaining ship, Drake renamed it the Golden Hind because the ship's patron, Sir Haydon, had a golden deer on his coat of arms.

1579 - The Drake and the Golden Hind sailed north along the west coast of South America and sailed north to the west coast of Canada at 48 degrees north latitude. They found that they could not pass through the Arctic Ocean, so they had to sail across the Pacific Ocean. Sailing westward, he passed the Philippine Islands, passed through the Strait of Malacca, crossed the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and crossed the Atlantic again. Along the way, he captured a large amount of gold and silver on the undefended west coast of America, then raided Verbalaiso and plundered Tarabaka. He captured Spain's largest treasure ship "Cacafoogo" and sailed into Drake Bay in California. He named this area "New Albion". Returned to Plymouth, England on September 26, 1580 Hong Kong brought property worth about 500,000 pounds, which is equivalent to the entire income of the British royal family for a year, and Queen Elizabeth received 16.3 pounds.

She also visited the consulate in person. Drake's fleet in Plymouth harbor, and knighted him on the quarter deck of Drake's flagship, the Golden Hind

The route of three expeditions

Great. During the Naval War

In 1581, the Netherlands (originally meaning lowlands, referring to the lower reaches of the Rhine River, Meuse River, Scheldt River and the North Sea, equivalent to today's Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and northeastern France) Part of the country) broke away from the Spanish colonial power, but after the assassination of William, the leader of the Dutch revolutionary forces, in 1584, they retreated steadily. Philip even banned all British ships from entering and leaving Spanish ports (the geographical location of Spain and the Netherlands was exactly the same) British waters)

In order to maintain ancient commercial ties, Britain decided to send troops to the Netherlands to assist the revolutionary forces that had been secretly supporting it for many years. This initiated a formal armed conflict with Spain and occupied the Netherlands. The northern coastal city of Fracine and other cities played a supporting role in the subsequent defeat of the Spanish Armada. Drake was also sent to lead four large and small ships and 2,300 soldiers to sail west again to attack Spain's American colonies. In September 1585, On the 14th of September, Drake set out with Martin Frobisher and sacked Porto Prairie on the Cape Ferdinand Islands, ravaged Santo Domingo, plundered Cartagira in Colombia, and destroyed St. Augustine, Florida.

During this period, Spain also conspired to assassinate the Queen of England, but the plan not only failed, but the British businessmen also collectively collected Spanish bills on the stock exchange and demanded immediate cashing, causing Spain to fall into economic tension, and Philip II jumped to the wall in a hurry. The warships were assembled to attack Britain, but on April 2, 1587, Drake raided the port of Cadiz (also translated as Cadiz), sank 34 warships, and took away 4 ships full of supplies. transport ship. On May 10, he attacked the Cascas Bay ship anchorage outside the port of Lisbon. Spain lost a further 24 ships and cargo worth Dh172,000.

Subsequently, Drake occupied Cape San Fincent, a strategic point between Lisbon and the Mediterranean, blocking the passage for Spanish ships to gather towards Lisbon. and destroyed tons of cooperage materials. (At that time, all salted food, wine and water had to be packed in barrels, so the loss was also huge.)

On June 9, Drake robbed the Philip on his way back. The private ocean-going ship "San Felipe". The ship contained goods worth 114,000 pounds, as well as many secret documents recording the East India trade. Later, British merchants referred to these documents to form the East India Company, which became the foundation of the British Empire in India.

Drake's series of raids delayed the Spanish invasion plan for a full year, and Elizabeth made an exception and awarded him the rank of lieutenant general.

The formal large-scale naval conflict did not begin until the end of February 1588. At that time, Spain's most capable admiral, Admiral Cruz, passed away, and Philip had no choice but to send the Duke of Medela Sidonia, who was not afraid of military affairs, to take over as commander of the fleet, and sent an outstanding sailor to be his military adviser. The Duke of Parma was appointed commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force and commanded the army and navy to land in England.

Elizabeth appointed her cousin Howard Yangba as fleet commander. Although Howard is not good at maritime affairs, he is able to understand people and do their job well. He did not hesitate to appoint Drake, a former pirate, as deputy commander, while his cousin Hawkins served as commander of a squadron.

Midela's fleet had 130 ships and 2,431 cannons. There were 27,023 troops (8,050 sailors and 18,973 army personnel), plus rowing slaves and other personnel, for a total of 60,493 people. It was known as the "Invincible Fleet". However, the British Navy's strength had also been greatly strengthened at that time, with 167 warships. Ships, 1972 cannons, 16,000 soldiers.

The artillery types of both sides:

Spain has 163 cannons, 635 cannons, 236 fire cannons, and 1,307 "Saker" (dispersed cannons) for attacking people. "Minion" (heavy artillery); "Fa1eon" (artillery)

The United Kingdom has 55 cannons, 1,874 cannons, and 43 spitfire cannons

The United Kingdom has a large number of It uses long-range cannons and light and flexible ships as its main battle force, while Spain uses large and heavy warships with cannons with high lethality and medium range. Although the British do not have an absolute advantage in firepower, the British Most of the sailors have been tested by sea plunder, their skills are very good, and they are used to sailing in bad weather. British ships were also lighter and easier to maneuver than Spanish ships. Although sailors were forced to serve and were paid 4 pence a day, they were more motivated to fight than Spanish sailors.

The Spanish are mostly sailors who are accustomed to sailing in good weather. The Spanish ships are more like a fortress than a ship, filled with army soldiers who are responsible for navigation. However, there were not enough seamen, and their status was only slightly better than that of the rowing slaves.

Before the battle began, Spain originally had a chance to defeat the British navy in the English Channel. However, because Philip II ordered Midera to escort the Duke of Parma across the sea and land, Spain entered the channel without attacking. Instead, the British blocked his retreat route from Plymaus. After the battle began, the British relied on their fast and flexible ships and long-range cannons to make it impossible for Spain's hand-to-hand tactics to get close, and the cannons could not be hit. The battle continued from From July 21st to 23rd, Drake won the final blow by burning the ships. The defeated Spanish fleet drifted from northern England until September 12th before returning to the Spanish port of Escoriel. The entire battle Spain lost nearly half of its warships, which was the prelude to Britain becoming a country on which the sun never sets. After that, Derek continued to fight against Spain, and died of dysentery in Panama on January 28, 1596.

Influence on later generations

For 33 years from 1937 to 1970, the British half penny (Half Penny) has been named Drake's Golden Hart. pattern.

There is a folk song in British culture called "Drake's drum." The general idea is that if Britain is in trouble, as long as Drake's drum sounds again, he will definitely come back to help. Britain solves the problem.