Editing Spanish Navy (section)

===The Habsburg era===
[[File:Placa del panteón.JPG|thumb|upright=0.85|left|[[Commemorative plaque]] at [[San Fernando, Cádiz|San Fernando]]'s ''Panteón de los Marinos Ilustres'', depicting a list of victories of the [[Naval fleet|Armada]]s of Spain
{| class="wikitable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"
! List of ''Victories''
|-
|[[Conquest of Majorca]] 1229
|-
|[[James I of Aragon|Conquest of Menorca]] 1232
|-
|[[James I of Aragon|Conquest of Ibiza]] 1234
|-
|[[Ferdinand III of Castile|Conquest of Seville]] 1248
|-
|[[Battle of Malta]] 1283
|-
|[[War of the Sicilian Vespers|Combat of Sorrento]] 1284
|-
|[[Roger of Lauria|Battle of Castellamare]] 1287
|-
|[[Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1337)|Battle of Cape St. Vincent]] 1337
|-
|[[Battle of La Rochelle]] 1371
|-
|Combat of Gibraltar 1407
|-
|[[Battle of La Rochelle (1419)|Battle of La Rochelle]] 1419
|-
|[[Conquest of the Canary Islands]] 1484
|-
|[[Siege of Málaga (1487)|Conquest of Malaga]] 1487
|-
|[[Spanish conquest of Oran (1509)|Conquest of Oran]] 1509
|-
|[[Conquest of Tunis (1535)|Conquest of Tunis]] 1535
|-
|[[Battle of Muros Bay]] 1544
|-
|[[Conquest of the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera (1564)|Conquest of Velez]] 1584
|-
|[[Battle of Lepanto]] 1571
|-
|[[Battle of Ponta Delgada]] 1582
|-
|[[Conquest of the Azores|Disembarkation of Terceira Island]] 1583
|-
|[[Fourth Spanish Armada|Spanish landing on Ireland]] 1602
|-
|[[Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1641)|Battle of Saint Vincent]] 1603?
|-
|[[Battle of Playa Honda]] 1617
|-
|[[Recapture of Bahia|Battle de Pernambuco]] 1621
|-
|[[Anglo-Spanish War (1625–1630)|Combate de Las Antillas]] 1629
|-
|[[Battle of Albrolhos|Batalla de los Abrojos]] 1631
|-
|[[Battles of La Naval de Manila]] 1649
|-
|[[Spanish expedition to Sardinia|Conquest of Sardinia]] 1717
|-
|[[Battle of Cartagena de Indias]] 1741
|-
|[[Battle of Toulon (1744)|Battle of Toulon]] 1744
|-
|[[Action of 9 August 1780|Battle of the Azores]] 1780
|-
|[[Siege of Pensacola]] 1781
|-
|[[British invasions of the Río de la Plata|Reconquest of Buenos Aires]] 1806
|-
|[[Capture of Rosily Squadron|Battle of Cadiz]] 1808
|-
|[[Siege of Cádiz]] 1810 – 1812
|-
|[[Battle of Callao|Bombardeo del Callao]] 1866
|-
|[[Alhucemas landing|Landing on Alhucemas]] 1925
|-
|[[Battle of Cape Espartel|Battle of the Strait]] 1936
|-
|[[Spanish Civil War|Cantabrian campaign]] 1936 – 1939
|-
|[[Spanish Civil War|Campaign of the Mediterranean]] 1936 – 1939
|}
]]
Following the discovery of America and the settlement of certain Caribbean islands, such as [[Cuba]], Spanish [[conquistador]]s [[Hernán Cortés]] and [[Francisco Pizarro]] were carried by the Spanish Navy to the mainland, where they conquered [[Viceroyalty of New Spain|Mexico]] and [[Viceroyalty of Peru|Peru]] respectively. The navy also carried explorers to the North American mainland, including [[Juan Ponce de León]] and [[Álvarez de Pineda]], who discovered Florida (1519) and [[Texas]] (1521) respectively. In 1519, Spain sent out the first expedition of [[circumnavigation|world circumnavigation]] in history, which was put in the charge of the Portuguese Commander [[Ferdinand Magellan]]. Following the death of Magellan in the [[Philippines]], the expedition was completed under the command of [[Juan Sebastián Elcano]] in 1522. In 1565, a follow-on expedition by [[Miguel López de Legazpi]] was carried by the navy from [[Viceroyalty of New Spain|New Spain]] (Mexico) to the Philippines via [[Guam]] to establish the [[Spanish East Indies]], a base for trade with the [[Orient]]. For two and a half centuries, the [[Manila galleon]]s operated across the Pacific linking [[Manila]] and [[Acapulco]]. Until the early 17th century, the Pacific Ocean was dominated by the Spanish Navy. Aside from the [[Mariana Islands|Marianas]] and [[Caroline Islands]], several naval expeditions also discovered the [[Tuvalu]] archipelago, the [[Marquesas Islands|Marquesas]], the [[Solomon Islands]] and [[New Guinea]] in the South Pacific. In the quest for [[Terra Australis]], Spanish explorers in the 17th century also discovered the [[Pitcairn Islands|Pitcairn]] and [[Vanuatu]] archipelagos. Most significantly, from 1565 Spanish fleets explored and colonised the Philippine archipelago, the Spanish East Indies.

After the unification of its kingdoms under the [[House of Habsburg]], Spain maintained two largely separate fleets, one consisting chiefly of [[Galley (ship)|galleys]] for use in the Mediterranean and the other of sailing ships for the Atlantic, successors to the Aragonese and Castilian navies respectively. This arrangement continued until superseded by the decline of galley warfare during the 17th century. The completion of the [[Reconquista]] with the conquest of the [[Kingdom of Granada]] in 1492 had been followed by naval expansion in the Mediterranean, where Spain seized control of almost every significant port along the coast of [[North Africa]] west of [[Cyrenaica]], notably [[Melilla]] (captured 1497), [[Mers El Kébir]] (1505), [[Oran]] (1509), [[Algiers]] (1510) and [[Tripoli, Libya|Tripoli]] ([[Spanish conquest of Tripoli (1510)|1510]]), which marked the furthest point of this advance. However, the hinterlands of these ports remained under the control of their Muslim and [[Berber people|Berber]] inhabitants, and the expanding naval power of the [[Ottoman Empire]] brought about a major Islamic counter-offensive, which embroiled Spain in decades of intense warfare for control of the Mediterranean.{{efn|Algiers and Tripoli would be lost to the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]] later in the 16th century causing [[piracy]] problems.}} The war saw cooperation with the [[Republic of Genoa]] under the leadership of [[Andrea Doria]], while the Ottomans found an ally in [[kingdom of France|France]]. In its course, the Spanish under [[Álvaro de Bazán the Elder]] would defeat the French in the first large modern battle in the Atlantic in [[Battle of Muros Bay|Muros Bay]].

From the 1570s, the lengthy [[Eighty Years' War|Dutch Revolt]] increasingly challenged Spanish sea power, producing powerful rebel naval forces that attacked Spanish shipping and in time made Spain's sea communications with its possessions in the Low Countries difficult. Most notable of these attacks was the [[Battle of Gibraltar (1607)|Battle of Gibraltar]] in 1607, in which a Dutch [[Squadron (naval)|squadron]] destroyed a fleet of [[galleon]]s at anchor in the confines of the bay. This naval war took on a global dimension with actions in the Caribbean and the Far East, notably around the Philippines. Spain's response to its problems included the encouragement of [[privateer]]s based in the [[Spanish Netherlands]] and known from their main base as [[Dunkirkers]], who preyed on Dutch merchant ships and [[Fishing vessel|fishing trawlers]].
[[File:Battle of Lepanto 1571.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|right|The [[Battle of Lepanto]], 1571]]
[[File:Spanish Galleon.jpg|thumb|upright=0.85|left|A 17th-century Spanish galleon]]
After decisively repealing a large Franco-Ottoman [[Sieges of Oran and Mers El Kébir|siege of Oran]] and reinforcing the Christian position in the [[Great Siege of Malta]], Spain was part of the Holy League along with Venice, the [[Papal States]] and other Christian allies, inflicting a great defeat on the [[Ottoman Navy]] in the [[Battle of Lepanto]] (1571) and stopping Muslim forces from gaining uncontested control of the eastern Mediterranean.

In 1580, after a successful amphibious campaign by [[Álvaro de Bazán, Marquis of Santa Cruz|Álvaro de Bazán the Younger]], Spain entered a [[Iberian Union|dynastic union]] with Portugal, reaching the apex of its naval power as a result of the combined might of its navy with the [[Portuguese Navy|Portuguese navy]], and effectively becoming the most powerful maritime force in the world.

In the 1580s, the conflict in the Netherlands drew England into [[Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)|war with Spain]], creating a further menace to Spanish shipping. The effort to neutralise this threat led to a [[Spanish Armada|disastrous attempt to invade England]] in 1588, however, the disaster of the [[English Armada]] the following year managed to return the balance between the belligerents. The defeat of 1588 led to a reform of fleet operations. The navy at this time was not a single operation but consisted of various fleets, made up mainly of armed merchantmen with escorts of royal ships. The Armada fiasco marked a turning point in naval warfare, where gunnery was now more important than ramming and boarding and so Spanish ships were equipped with purpose built naval guns. During the 1590s, the expansion of these fleets allowed a great increase in overseas trade and a massive increase in the importation of luxuries and silver. Nevertheless, inadequate port defences allowed an Anglo-Dutch force to [[capture of Cádiz|raid Cádiz]] in 1596, and though unsuccessful in its objective of capturing the silver from the just returned convoy, was able to inflict great damage upon the city. Port defences at Cádiz were upgraded and all attempts to repeat the attack in the following centuries would fail.

Meanwhile, Spanish ships were able to step up operations in the English Channel, the [[North Sea]] and towards Ireland. They were able to capture many enemy ships, merchant and military, in the early decades of the 17th century and provide military supplies to Spanish armies in France and the Low Countries and to Irish rebels in Ireland. In the early 17th century Spanish fleets organized by the [[Pedro Téllez-Girón, 3rd Duke of Osuna|Duke of Osuna]] inflicted major defeats on Ottoman Empire in the [[Battle of Cape Corvo]] and [[Battle of Cape Gelidonya|Cape Gelidonya]], the latter of which demonstrated the now growing gap between western and eastern navies, along with a [[raid on Constantinople]]. The [[Barbary corsairs]] in the service of the Ottoman Empire would gradually become only a civilian threat after being bested in battles like [[Battle of the Gulf of Tunis|Gulf of Tunis]] and [[Battle of the Dalmatian Coast|Dalmatia]] and multiple raids on the [[Ottoman Tunisia]]. These battles stabilised the situation on the [[eastern Mediterranean]] front, while in the Spanish Netherlands the allied privateers and local armada under [[Francisco de Ribera y Medina|Francisco de Ribera]] would successfully disrupt Dutch maritime trade. However, in 1639, an attempt to change their strategy to direct action led to a Dutch fleet under [[Maarten Tromp]] decisively defeating a large Spanish fleet in the [[Battle of the Downs]], putting an end to Spanish operations in northern waters.

By the middle of the 17th century, Spain had been drained by the vast strains of the [[Thirty Years' War|Thirty Years']] and related wars and began to slip into a slow decline. During the middle to late decades of the century, the Dutch, English and French were able to take advantage of Spain's shrinking, run-down and increasingly underequipped fleets. Military priorities in continental Europe meant that naval affairs were increasingly neglected. The Dutch took control of the [[Lesser Antilles|smaller islands of the Caribbean]], while England conquered [[Jamaica]] and France the western part of [[Santo Domingo]]. These territories became bases for raids on Spanish New World ports and shipping by pirates and privateers. The Spanish concentrated their efforts in keeping the most important islands, such as Cuba, [[Puerto Rico]] and the majority of Santo Domingo, while the system of [[Spanish treasure fleets|treasure fleets]], despite being greatly diminished, was rarely defeated in safely conveying its freight of silver and Asian luxuries across the Atlantic to Europe. Only two such convoys were ever lost to enemy action with their cargo, one to a [[Battle in the Bay of Matanzas|Dutch fleet in 1628]] and another to an [[Battle of Cádiz (1656)|English fleet in 1656]]. A third convoy was destroyed at anchor by another [[Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1657)|English attack in 1657]], but it had already unloaded its treasure.

By the time of the wars of the [[War of the Grand Alliance|Grand Alliance (1688–97)]] and the [[War of the Spanish Succession|Spanish Succession (1702–14)]], the Habsburg regime had decided that it was more cost effective to rely on allied fleets, Anglo-Dutch and French respectively, than to invest in its own fleets. Around this time, a service of defensive privateering based on America named ''[[guarda costa]]'' was established.