Editing Spanish Navy (section)

===The 19th century===
[[File:Peral1888.jpg|thumb|The experimental submarine {{ship|Spanish submarine|Peral||2}}, 1888]]
The 1820s saw the loss of most of the [[Spanish Empire]] in the Americas. With the empire greatly reduced in size and Spain divided and unstable after its own war of independence, the navy lost its importance and shrank greatly.

The first new steam-driven vessel (''Isabel II'') was purchased from the United Kingdom in 1834.

However, in the 1850s and 1860s, particularly under the prime-ministership of [[Leopold O'Donnell|General O'Donnell]], significant investments were made in the Spanish naval squadrons of the Pacific. A new steam-powered naval squadron sailed around the Pacific escorting a Spanish scientific expedition and unfortunately became entangled in what has been billed the [[Chincha Islands War|First War of the Pacific]] from 1864 to 1871. During the conflict, the Spanish massed a fleet of 15 vessels to combat the combined navies of Peru, Chile, and Ecuador.

[[File:Spanish Fleet, Suez Canal 1898.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Spanish fleet of Admiral [[Manuel de la Cámara|Cámara]] anchored in the Suez Canal in 1898, formed among others by the battleship {{ship|Spanish battleship|Pelayo||2}} or the cruiser {{ship|Spanish cruiser|Emperador Carlos V||2}} and that ultimately did not intervene in the [[Spanish–American War]].]]

The 1890s saw the Spanish Navy gain several [[armored cruiser]]s—important for maintaining connection with the Spanish Empire's remaining colonies—including the {{ship|Spanish cruiser|Emperador Carlos V||2}}. As of 1896, according to the plans of Admiral [[José María Beránger]], there were three naval divisions based at [[Cádiz, Spain|Cádiz]], [[Ferrol, Spain|Ferrol]], and [[Cartagena, Spain|Cartagena]]. Each division was composed of [[Ironclad warship|ironclads]], in addition to auxiliary squadrons for defense of the Spanish coastline. That year the Armada consisted of one [[battleship]], eight cruisers of the first class, six of the second class, and nine of the third class, as well as 38 torpedo craft. There were an additional ten vessels under construction. As of 1896 there were 1,002 officers in the navy, along with 725 mechanics, 14,000 sailors, and 9,000 marines. Their numbers were maintained by conscription of the seafaring population.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

During the [[Spanish–American War]] in 1898, a badly supported and equipped Spanish fleet of four armored cruisers and two [[destroyer]]s was overwhelmed by numerically and technically superior forces (three new battleships, one new second-class battleship, and one large armored cruiser) as it tried to break out of an American blockade in the [[Battle of Santiago de Cuba]]. [[Admiral Cervera]]'s squadron was overrun in an attempt to break a powerful American blockade off Cuba. In the Philippines, a squadron, made up of aging ships, including some obsolete cruisers, had already been sacrificed in a token gesture in [[Manila Bay]]. The [[Battle of Manila Bay]] took place on 1 May 1898. The American Asiatic Squadron under Commodore [[George Dewey]] engaged and destroyed the Spanish Pacific Squadron under Admiral [[Patricio Montojo y Pasarón]]. The engagement took place in Manila Bay in the Philippines, and was the first major engagement of the Spanish–American War. This war marked the end for the Spanish Navy as a global maritime force.

At the end of the 19th century, the Spanish Navy adopted the ''[[Salve Marinera]]'', a hymn to the [[Virgin Mary]] as [[Our Lady, Star of the Sea|Stella Maris]], as its official [[anthem]].